In an age when you can purchase a pair of jeans, a flat-screen TV and a rib-eye steak at the same store, it’s no surprise that insurance advisors are being called upon to sell more than just insurance.

But although many of those surveyed for Investment Executive‘s Insurance Advisors’ Report Card are now offering full-service wealth management — at the encouragement of their firms — not all firms are returning the favour by providing adequate support to back them up.

For one firm, this lack of support could prove costly. “We don’t have a lot of support for high net-worth business, so I stay away from it,” says a State Farm Insurance Cos. advisor in the West. “We get calls, but I just send them elsewhere.”

That’s not the case at PPI Financial Group Inc. , whose advisors have access to more than 200 support providers — including actuaries, tax lawyers and accountants — to serve their HNW clients. “Our intention is to provide advisors with the support team they need to do the complete job at the client level,” says Jim Burton, chairman and CEO of the Toronto-based MGA. “We are a very full-service operation.”

PPI advisors voiced their appreciation with first-place scores in all four support categories. “[PPI] is a leader in the market when it comes to support for high net-worth clients,” says one PPI advi-sor in Quebec.

“It’s like having 12 people behind you in the office every day,” a colleague in British Columbia adds.

Even though the three MGAs in our survey as a whole outshone their dedicated sales force counterparts in support services, the scores indicate they’re not created equally. Neither Toronto-based World Financial Group Inc. nor Hub Financial Inc. fared especially well in IE‘s support categories.

World Financial, which relies on product providers for all support services, earned scores of 7.8 for support for HNW clients, 6.8 for wills and estates, 7.6 for tax planning and — a bright spot — 8.9 for insurance planning, which tied for first in the category with both PPI and Freedom 55 Financial.

“Our insurance planning is absolutely fantastic,” says a World Financial rep in Toronto.

Hub Financial advisors aren’t as enthusiastic about the support that’s available. Despite having specialists in each of its major offices who provide support services — at no commission split — advi-sors gave the MGA lukewarm scores across the board. Terri DiFlorio, president of the Woodbridge, Ont.-based MGA, maintains that Hub Financial provides as little or as much support as its advisors need. “Our tax and estate planning experts will often go in and work with the advisor to come up with the carriers that work best with the product,” she says. “They work as a team.”

But it was an insurer with a dedicated sales force — Sun Life Financial (Canada) Inc. — that took second place for support in this year’s Report Card with scores of 8.0 for support for HNW clients, 8.2 for estate planning and wills, 7.8 for tax planning and 8.3 for insurance planning.

Jack Garramone, vice president, career sales force, of the Waterloo, Ont.-based firm, calls strong in-house assistance an important part of Sun Life’s value proposition: “It makes a very attractive package.”

A Sun Life advisor in B.C. attests to that. “The support I receive for insurance planning is part of the reason I’m here,” he says. “It’s top-notch.”

Freedom 55 also received solid scores for its support services. “Our value proposition is quite significant in comparison to the marketplace,” says Nick Pszeniczny, senior vice president of wealth and estate planning for the London, Ont.-based firm. “We have tax and estate planning support for our more sophisticated clients, and private wealth consulting for our top investment planners.”

Aside from those of Sun Life and Freedom 55, support scores at the other captive agencies surveyed for this year’s Report Card were a mixed bag.

Winnipeg-based Great-West Life Assurance Co. received scores of 7.9 for support for HNW clients, 6.8 for estate planning and wills, 6.6 for tax planning and 7.8 for insurance planning — along with mixed comments on the firm’s network of 29 resource centres, which provide product and marketing support.

“There is no one to handle any specific high net-worth questions,” complains a Great-West Life advisor in Manitoba. But a colleague in Ontario speaks of a different experience: “It has brought in new high net-worth specialists — and they’re good ones, too.”

@page_break@Advisors at the Co-operators Group Ltd. , based in Guelph, Ont., also expressed opposing views of their firm’s support, which includes in-house support for wealth and investment planning as well as insurance. “There is no real support; we are pretty much on our own,” says a Co-operators advisor on the Prairies. But a colleague in Ontario calls the firm’s support system “incredible.”

Average grades in all categories of support were mediocre: 7.8 for support for HNW clients, 7.0 for wills and estate planning, 7.1 for tax planning and 8.4 for insurance planning.

State Farm received the lowest grades for support. Peter Karageorgos, public affairs supervisor for the Aurora, Ont.-based firm, says his firm doesn’t offer a lot in the way of support, nor is there any plan to beef up its offering any time soon. Nevertheless, State Farm encourages its agents to sell mutual funds. IE