iAtoday

Dear group plan advisors,

During the past few weeks, our lives, both personal and professional, have changed dramatically. On behalf of iA Financial Group, I want to take this opportunity to assure you that we are always here to help — supporting and serving our mutual clients during these unprecedented times.

By way of introduction, I am the leader of the Group Benefits and Retirement Solutions division with overall responsibility for all aspects of our business. With 30 years in our industry, the most recent 20 years in leadership roles at iA Financial Group, I am privileged to represent our team within our senior executive committee. 

That executive committee meets daily to ensure that we are responding decisively to developments in the market, to the expectations of advisor organizations such as yours, and to the needs of plan sponsors and members. We are also working diligently to analyze emerging social and economic trends to anticipate the next developments that will help all Canadians. For instance, we have already committed financial support to advancing medical research across the country in the pursuit of a vaccine for COVID-19.

Although I have not yet had the opportunity to meet all advisors across Canada, many of you know iA Financial Group through Rick Holinshead, who leads our distribution and service teams, through one of his Regional Directors, or through an Account Executive serving you locally. They are always ready to support you, especially during such a challenging period, with the social and market landscape evolving so quickly. I urge you to reach out to them at any time to explore how we may help. Also part of Rick’s team are the local Client Relationship Managers who are constantly in contact with our mutual clients, the plan sponsors and members. Every indication is that our proactive and increased outreach activity during the past few weeks has been appreciated.

Supporting those team members with whom you have direct interaction, we are fortunate to have many seasoned employees who, throughout their careers, have contributed to our success in multiple operational roles. As a result, during a crisis such as we are experiencing today, we are able to quickly redeploy resources from areas that now have reduced activity, to those departments that are experiencing an upswing in activity. Additionally, under Gary Coles’ operational leadership, we are taking this opportunity to actively cross-train or retrain some of our team members to prepare for the time when the impact of this crisis subsides, and the pent-up backlog of activity is released and must be immediately addressed.

In closing, let me reiterate that we are here to support you and serve our clients during this unprecedented time — you have my personal commitment. As well, if a circumstance warrants my involvement, please do not hesitate to contact me directly; my contact information is provided below.

I look forward to meeting you in person when we are again able. In the meantime, I wish you and your loved ones good health.

Best regards,

Eric Jobin
Senior Vice President
Group Benefits and Retirement Solutions
418 684-5000, extension 104138
eric.jobin@ia.ca