Marsh Advantage Insurance (MAI) will be raising the profile of its life insurance advice business as part of the broker’s push into the small to medium-sized business segment.

The company has been running a small team of life advisers for the past 13 years and will be doubling the number of advisers to grow this business

“This will see an expansion of our authorised representatives in life insurance,” MAI National Manager Retail Colin Stocks told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“We are expecting to double the numbers of authorised representatives and we have been looking at hot spots around the country where these new advisers could be based.”

Mr Stocks says Melbourne has been identified as one of the hot spots and the aim is to deliver a one-stop-shop advising on both life and general insurance to the SME market.

Currently Marsh has 16 authorised life representatives and he says the group has had a very stable workforce with advisers staying for about 10 years.

Some advisers have been with the group since it started about 13 years ago, Mr Stocks says.

“We have a mixture of youth and experienced advisers  and this has given us a good core to build up the network,” he said.

The new MAI business will incorporate Marsh Australia’s existing commercial, schemes and affinity, private client services as well as the retail life business.

Mr Stocks says advisers will be aiming at the top end of the SME market with the new combined insurance offering.