Are you motivated to found a brokerage? Here are a few pointers

Creative control. It’s important for a broker-founder who has a background in marketing and content creation — including photography and videography.

“I wanted to use my talents, my background and implement that into the business I was building,” Maverick Insurance Brokers founder Bram Bains tells CU in a recent interview.

“I felt it would be most valuable for me to have my own brand. I wanted everything I do and build to funnel directly to my brand, as opposed to the organization as a whole. From a deal structure perspective, and purely a business decision, I found the right partner [who] was willing to take the chance. And that’s where I’m at today.”

His brokerage targets the unique property and casualty insurance challenges of high-net-worth Canadians.

Offering advice to peers considering striking off on their own, he says there are many different deal structures and paths to consider. And, aspirants must also ask themselves the right questions.

“It comes down to honesty and self-awareness about what you want to do. For me, at this stage in my life, do I want to start from zero and have to go out and source contracts? A lot of thought leaders right now [are saying it’s] getting more and more difficult [to secure carrier contracts]. It seems to be getting more and more difficult,” he says.

“Other options are to become an independent broker or independent producer, tap into a large system, build your own book. But for me, it was unique: my brokerage operates like a branch model, but we’ve branded it differently. That allows me to do the marketing, get creative, and do it in a way that’s more aligned with my personality. It comes down to what you want.”

What’s essential for any broker, Bains says, are customer service skills, the ability to be trusted and relationship-building.

“That’s the baseline. But I think it comes down to what makes you different. Why are you unique? What is it that you’re good at? What value do you bring, aside from technical knowledge and experience and being a likeable person? Because you really have to get ingrained in [a] community,” he says.

“And how do you get ingrained in [a] community? You genuinely have to do something that you’re passionate about, and these are skills outside of just the insurance piece.”

And you have to simultaneously manage those connections while operating your own branch.

“I’ll get invites to an event someone’s hosting, or is a part of, or is passionate about, and I’ll make the time to go out there and connect and network,” Bains says.  

“Over time, organic relationships will form and that’s how opportunities happen. That’s how business is done at the highest level — with people you know, like and trust. And it’s a long game; you can’t do this kind of stuff alone, nor should you try to do this stuff alone.

“You become friends with people, and then whenever insurance comes up for their own personal needs, or their family, or someone in their client base or community, you’re the person they think of.”

This article was excerpted from one that appeared in the October-November, 2025 print edition of Canadian Underwriter.