Fees for unlimited access to payout annuity survey are capped at 15% of VirtGate Monthly Fee
TORONTO, March 22 – CoVirt Inc. (Canada) announced today a fee agreement and increased integration with CANNEX Financial Exchanges Limited for payout annuity surveys. Payout annuity surveys are normally available directly from CANNEX at a cost of $5 per survey. Under the terms of this agreement VirtGate users will have their monthly CANNEX survey charges capped at 15% of their monthly CoVirt fees.
Access to CANNEX annuity surveys is completely seamless and transparent to a user logged in to the VirtGate site of a participating MGA or National Account brokerage. Tim Fitzpatrick, President of CoVirt said “I suspect it will be all or nothing and so the effective result will be unlimited access and unlimited surveys by all advisors and staff. There are four aspects to the business case for the VirtGate brokerage. First, there is the internal staff savings resulting from providing 24/7 access to advisors. If the advisor can self-serve, the staff does not have to run the quotes. Secondly, there is a tremendous value added, resulting in greater attraction and retention of advisors to both the brokerage and the web site. Third, this tool gives advisors and staff the ability to perform what-if analysis for their clients by varying the survey parameters. Finally, this increased awareness of annuities by advisors results in more sales and commissions for the brokerage which will more than offset the cost.”
The key to the accuracy and timeliness of the annuity surveys provided by CANNEX is that CANNEX “crunches” the participating companies’ actual calculation algorithms simultaneously to generate marketplace surveys. Most companies fully guarantee the accuracy of annuity quotes provided by CANNEX on their behalf. Users enter specific data about the annuitant(s) (e.g. date of birth, gender and province of residence) and detail the type of annuity required (e.g. indexing rate, guarantee period). CANNEX then calculates an apples-to-apples comparative survey – instantly. Quotes are available in both English and French.
Annuities are unique products sold by life insurance companies where, in exchange for a single payment, the company provides the annuitant(s) with regular income payments – generally for the rest of the annuitant’s life. Tim Fitzpatrick said “I recently advised my own mother to use a life annuity instead of a RRIF. The annuity paid more income for most years and was guaranteed for life, whereas all projections for RRIFs had the funds drying when she turned 90. One tradeoff may be a lower death benefit but for many people the lifetime income is more important. To ensure that she was getting the best deal, my mother’s advisor had provided her with CANNEX surveys.”
About CANNEX:
Since 1984 CANNEX has been providing agents and brokers with comparative surveys of the Canadian payout annuity marketplace. In addition, CANNEX gathers, compiles and distributes comparative information about a variety of financial products and services (GICs, RRIFs, Mortgages, Mutual Funds, Stocks) available in Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
About CoVirt:
CoVirt designed and supplies VirtGate, a total integrated solution for advisor and policy management to a rapidly growing list of MGA�s. VirtGate provides superior advantages that turn the agency web site into a sales and service pipeline, allowing VirtGate MGA�s to focus on the fundamental core expertise that drives their success. VirtGate is much faster than typical internal LAN-based software and MGA�s 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 MGA have to maintain a server. VirtGate increases efficiency immediately and allows MGA�s organizations to better serve their advisors and customers. For more information, to www.CoVirt.com.
