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Any competitive person will say you need a measure of luck to win a first championship and the real skill comes in winning a second time. If this is the case then there is something special happening at Bedford-based Keyes Insurance who, for the second year in row, has been named one of Canada’s fastest growing brokerages in the ultra-competitive insurance industry.

“Winning the award the second time is a really great honour,” says Keyes President Shaun Keyes.”It shows us that we’re on the right track, providing a great experience for what customers are looking for from their insurance provider, both from a price and service point of view.”

The fastest brokerages were identified by Insurance Business Canada after inviting submissions from brokerages across the country to highlight certain milestones they had achieved in the previous year. The winners were then verified and named based on those submissions that had achieved 20% growth. And, lo and behold, after all the analysis and scrutiny, Keyes had done it again.

“I think the growth is a result of two things,” says Keyes. “The first is that our rates are really good right now compared to the rest of the market and, second, we’re providing great service and advice. When you call our office there is no voicemail system, it just takes you to a real agent and you aren’t spending time trying to figure out their voice activated system.”

Keyes was founded in Eastern Ontario almost 100 years ago by J.F. Keyes before Shaun’s father, Terry, brought the business to Halifax in 1980. Shaun took over the business in 2019 and believes it is the family tradition and adherence to the original company philosophy that is paramount to Keyes’ success.

“The philosophy has always been to treat our customers like they’re one of our family,” says Keyes. “That means giving the best advice, combined with the best coverage, and making sure that we’re there for our customers to advocate for them in the event of a claim.”

Important to this is the independence Keyes maintains. Being an independent brokerage means Keyes is not beholden to any one insurance provider when providing clients with insurance solutions. This means – whether it’s car, home, commercial insurance or even boat, RV, and motorcycle insurance –  Keyes is able to work in their client’s best interests when giving them a quote or working with them to resolve an insurance issue. 

“The brokerage value proposition is that we represent the customer first, not the insurance company,” says Keyes. “Over the last 10 years we have seen the majority of independent brokerages purchased by insurance companies. To us there is a clear conflict of interest when the insurance company owns the brokerage that is supposed to be representing the customer first.”

So after all this, there is only one question that remains for Keyes: what’s next?

“Our next steps are to continue to expand across Canada providing that same great family-based service to Ontario and, next up, Alberta,” says Keyes.

If you have an immediate insurance need or are interested in learning more about what Keyes can do for you, visit www.keyesinsurance.com or call (902) 453-2273 in HRM or toll free at 1 (888) 433-6771.