Canada Life to take on 100 new advisers in bid to boost sales Thursday July 02 2009 CANADA Life is recruiting 100 new financial advisers in a move that will boost its Irish direct sales force by more than 60pc. The drives comes as Canada Life looks to boost its 5pc share of the free-falling life and pensions market. Canada Life has also switched to paying suppliers in 15 days rather than 30, responding to an initiative from the Government and ideascampaign.ie. The Blackrock-based insurer already employs about 650 people in Ireland and has another 150 financial advisers who act as "tied agents". "We're actively looking for another 100 financial advisers," the insurer's Irish managing director told the Irish Independent. "One of the benefits of the downturn is quite a few financially literate people have come onto the market. We'd like to hear from those people." New business sales of life and pensions fell by 46pc in the first quarter of the year and are expected to be down about 40pc for the half year. Mr Barry insisted it made sense to continue to invest in new financial advisers despite the difficult market conditions. "When you're at 5pc there's lots of potential to grow," he said. Canada Life has, however, cut back on the number of broker advisers on its books, shedding about 30 last year. The insurer has also recently hired another 15 people for its Dublin-based European data centre. - Laura Noonan |