INSURANCE: MONEY TO BE MADE, SAYS RBC

Travel agencies should treat insurance as a separate profit centre, says RBC Insurance. Only then can they maximize what should be a very lucrative business. RBC’s Simon Gilmartin (pictured) says travel insurance can be huge money-maker for agencies that treat it seriously, not simply as an add-on. He says travel retailers are responsible for selling approximately 25% of the $600 million in annual sales in Canada – and that means an opportunity to grab more of the 75% that is being bought elsewhere, not to mention that huge numbers of clients who don’t buy insurance all. And for an industry that “owns the point of sale,”that should be easy to accomplish. To that end, Gilmartin says RBC is ready, willing and able to help agents make more of there insurance business, which RBC believes should be the second highest revenue generator in an agency, “and certainly no lower than third.”(http://www.rbc.com)