More than 100,000 new Canadian life insurance applications annually are now processed using VirtGate
Toronto, ON – February 14, 2005 — CoVirt Inc. (Canada), the Canadian leader in Internet based life insurance administration services announced today that five more brokerage firms have made the switch to VirtGate and are now in production. The newest members of the rapidly growing VirtGate family are, in alphabetical order:
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Barrington Wealth Partners Inc.
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BOTICA Financial Group Inc.
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Global Pacific Financial Services Ltd.
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McPherson Financial Group Inc.
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Stroud Agencies Ltd.
Tim Fitzpatrick, President of CoVirt, started by saying �Barrington Wealth Partners is a really unique addition to the family because they�re a national producer-owned amalgamation of well-known partners including Zlotnik Lamb & Company, Arca Financial, McHugh Group and Fauth Financial Services.”
Paul Brown, President of Barrington Wealth Partners said, “VirtGate is the perfect solution for our company. VirtGate is an Internet-based agency management solution that will allow all of us to track our new business effectively from anywhere that you can access the Internet. Our partner firms love the functionality and ease of access. Corporately, VirtGate provides a tool for us to manage our enterprise on a national level, which in turn will enable us to maximize value to our partners. I particularly like the fact that VirtGate is recognized by every major life company in the independent distribution business in Canada.”
Tim Fitzpatrick added that BOTICA Financial Group, based in Montreal, is also a unique CoVirt client by saying, “VirtGate is available in French and English and you can easily toggle between languages. Clients still typically choose a default language for the home page and for BOTICA French is the default, which is a first.”
Kathy Magi, Vice-President, Operations & Finance at BOTICA said “We went shopping for a new management system and contacted CoVirt amongst others. After the online demo, we could not wait to switch. VirtGate focuses on centralizing the channels for information flow, which gives us the opportunity to build advisor relationships and enhance current relationships. Once we start bringing information to our advisors and employees through VirtGate, productivity will increase because they will have more information at their fingertips, and spend less time searching for files.”
Tim Fitzpatrick continued by saying �One of our many strengths is our ability to convert data from any system, and to merge databases. Global Pacific Financial Services had agency management software packages from two different vendors. One system was used for life insurance and the other system was for guaranteed investment products. For life insurance, Global Pacific first switched to VirtGate in April 2004. This announcement today is that Global Pacific has now also switched from the second vendor to VirtGate to manage guaranteed investment products.”
Tracey Cambridge, Vice President, Global Pacific explained the reason behind this by adding “Neither package from the other vendors was Internet-based. Today, Internet access to information is as essential as light and power and we have taken the initiative to make our business faster and available anytime, anywhere. The days of paper reports that are out of date the moment they are printed is over, and connectivity and freedom of information is in. Our staff, advisors and partners are more productive as a result of our switch to VirtGate. We have had zero problems and fantastic support from CoVirt, and by being on the same system in-house we can soon merge our databases. By being on the same system as the majority of MGAs in Canada, we can all lower costs.”
Neil E. McPherson, President of McPherson Financial in Calgary, contributed “Our advisors have been urging us to offer online agency management for some time. VirtGate was clearly the best solution out there for advisors and the early reactions from the market confirm our instincts. Advisors who adopt VirtGate as their first source of information in their dealings with us will have a more accurate pulse on their cases and can leverage the data to win even more business from their client base. As far as efficiency goes, it�s a quantum leap from the chaotic, old-fashioned practices they see at many other brokerages.”
Fred Stroud, President of Stroud Agencies wrapped it up for the new clients by saying “We are streamlining our systems so that information travels faster and with less risk of error. Once we decided to change from another system, we wanted a fast conversion and did the usual shopping around. VirtGate is exactly what we wanted and more and we quickly found that CoVirt shares our vision for an online financial services system that aggregates, processes, analyzes, and reports in real time for all users. VirtGate is truly the most advanced and complete platform to meet the specific needs of the Canadian life insurance industry and we find it very helpful that the principals of CoVirt have spent many years in the life insurance and investment industry — financial services knowledge is key. Team playing is what the business is all about, and for this we thank CoVirt for their support.”
Tim Fitzpatrick concluded, �Data feeds will make brokerage firms and their advisors’ lives much easier, but insurance carriers and paramedical providers do not want to support multiple formats. More than 100,000 new Canadian life insurance applications per year are now processed using VirtGate and we confidently expect this to grow to at least 150,000 by the end of 2005. Our critical mass creates an industry standard expedites sales and servicing reducing the cost of doing business for all.”
About CoVirt:
CoVirt supplies VirtGate, a total integrated solution for advisor and policy management, to a rapidly growing list of brokerages. VirtGate provides superior advantages that turn the brokerage web site into a sales and service pipeline, allowing organizations to focus on the fundamental core expertise that drives their success. VirtGate is much faster than typical internal LAN-based software and brokerages can tie as many offices, trading partners and users together as they wish � all with no additional user fees. VirtGate includes integrated online document management where any type of document may be posted to the advisor record, policy record, or to the public library within seconds. VirtGate is fantastically cost-effective, yet worry-free. All that is needed is a standard web browser and access to the Internet — nothing is installed on the user’s machine nor does the brokerage have to maintain a server. VirtGate increases efficiency immediately and allows brokerage�s organizations to better serve their advisors and customers. For more information, see CoVirt.com.
