The death of wholesalers (and the rise of super underwriters)

When I started in this business, wholesalers were kings.

If you didn’t know the product specs, you called your wholesaler.

If you didn’t know the underwriting rules, you called your wholesaler.

If you didn’t know what form to use, you called your wholesaler.

They were the gatekeepers of knowledge.

And I would know, I was one.

I spent 14 years wholesaling at Canada Life.

Back then, we were the lifeline. Advisors couldn’t move a file without us. We knew which disability contract worked better for a surgeon versus an plumber. We knew which carrier quietly changed a rider last quarter. We knew which form got swapped out with no notice.

We were the bridge between product and production. And for a long time, it worked. But here’s what nobody wanted to admit, that world is dying.

Carriers across the country are quietly cutting wholesaling staff. Not because they don’t value relationships. Not because the role isn’t important. But because the monopoly on information is gone.

For decades, wholesalers held the keys. They had the manuals, the rate sheets, the underwriting grids, the secret memos. If you wanted clarity, you had to go through them.

But now?

That information isn’t locked away anymore.

AI reads those guides faster than any human. It can recall underwriting details across fifteen carriers instantly. It doesn’t forget. It doesn’t take lunch breaks. It doesn’t “get back to you next week.”

And that means the old model, the gatekeeper model, is collapsing.

Let’s be real: 99% of what advisors ask wholesalers isn’t advanced estate planning. It’s tactical. Which form do I use for a term conversion? Will this carrier look at a diabetic, age 54, A1C 7.2? Does RBC still give that DI discount for certain occupations?

These aren’t “strategic” questions. They’re workflow questions. And they’ve been holding advisors hostage for years.

Every time you say, “Let me check with my wholesaler,” you’re pausing momentum. You’re losing authority in the room. You’re bleeding trust.

Clients don’t care if the answer comes from you or from underwriting, they care if you know. And when you don’t, the confidence cracks. That’s the real cost of slow answers.

A few months ago, I got tired of waiting. I built something I call the Super Underwriter.

I uploaded every underwriting guide I could find, life, CI, DI, from about twenty carriers. Thousands of pages. All the height-weight tables, financial justification rules, benefit grids, occupational classes, everything to do with underwriting.

Then I trained ChatGPT to read it. I put it in a specialized project, which allows you to upload maximum of 25 documents in my subscription and then will just read, analyze and reference those documents.

Now, when I ask: “Male, 54, diabetic, A1C 7.2 — insurable? Which carrier?” It answers:

Carrier A likely Table 4 (200%)

Carrier B possible standard depending on control

Carrier C decline due to A1C + build combination

When I ask: “Dentist, 45, wants $10K of DI, occupational class?” It fires back instantly: “3A with most carriers, possibly 4A if a specialist.”

Seconds.

Not hours.

Not buried in a PDF.

Not “let me check.”

Seconds.

And when I tested it against real underwriting results, it was eerily accurate. That’s when it hit me: this is the beginning of a massive shift.

Let’s be clear. This tool doesn’t run CSV comparisons. It can’t generate illustrations. The carriers still control that world. But what it does give is instant positioning.

It tells you whether the case is even worth pursuing. Whether to prep the client for a rating or not. Which carrier might see the file more favourably. Which program to lean on, simplified, etc.

It’s like having an underwriter and a wholesaler sitting beside you, except they don’t make you wait three days. And that changes the game. Because speed isn’t just convenience, speed is authority.

When a client asks a question and you can answer confidently, immediately, you become the expert in the room. No “let me check.” No “I’ll get back to you.” No loss of momentum. Just authority.

Back when I was wholesaling, I used to joke that our real job wasn’t answering questions, it was calming anxiety. Advisors wanted reassurance. They wanted to feel certain. They wanted to hear, “You’re right, that’s the right product.”

And that’s still true today. But now you can get that certainty yourself. You can build it, own it, and access it 24/7.

Because when information becomes democratized, speed and positioning become the new differentiators. The advisor who moves faster wins more. The one who waits for validation falls behind.

That’s what’s happening right now in this industry, whether you’re ready or not.

It’s not just wholesalers. The entire distribution model is being rewritten. Accounting firms are starting to bring insurance in-house. Law firms are likely to follow. Investment advisors who ignored insurance for a decade are suddenly building multi-million-dollar books.

And the advisors who depend on someone else for speed, for answers, for confidence, for movement, are going to get squeezed. Because clients aren’t waiting anymore.

They can Google. They can compare. They can move.

The advisors who win are the ones who show up faster, clearer, and more certain than anyone else. That’s the future.

My Super Underwriter isn’t theoretical. It’s real. I use it every day. And it’s not perfect, but it’s damn close.

It doesn’t replace underwriting,it prepares you for it. It doesn’t eliminate risk, it helps you see it coming. It doesn’t make you smarter, it makes you faster.

And that’s the difference between waiting and winning. Because let’s be honest, it’s not your competition that kills you. It’s your delay.

This is why I’m so excited about where we’re heading at PPI. We’ve always been about empowering advisors, not controlling them. And that means giving them access to the best tools, systems, and technology in the industry.

We already give advisors access to Amplify, our customized version of Life Design Analysis, free. That’s what runs your CSV projections, your side-by-side comparisons, your illustrations.

The Super Underwriter complements it perfectly. Amplify gives you the math. The Super Underwriter gives you the map. Together, they turn advisors into authorities.

And that’s the direction we’re moving in, toward speed, clarity, and control. Because the truth is, carriers are shifting their budgets away from field staff and into tech. The head offices are getting leaner. The middle layers are thinning out.

You need an MGA that’s not just reacting to that, but building for it. That’s what we’re doing.

So, what does this mean for you?

It means you can’t afford to be dependent anymore. Not on wholesalers. Not on guesswork. Not on “I’ll find out and get back to you.”

You need to own the 99% of questions that keep deals moving. That’s what this next phase of the business demands.

Wholesalers will still exist, the great ones always will. But the era of being the only bridge to information is over. AI isn’t taking their place, it’s taking their pace. And the advisors who adapt will own the future.

Here’s my advice: start building your own version of a Super Underwriter. Start mastering the tools that speed you up. Start working with partners who understand where this is heading and are investing to keep you ahead.

Because that’s what we’re doing at PPI. We’re not waiting for the carriers to figure it out. We’re building it now.

The future belongs to the advisors who can answer in seconds, who don’t flinch, who don’t stall, who don’t hand over authority. Those are the ones who will win the next decade. The rest will still be waiting for someone to call them back.

The death of wholesalers isn’t coming. It’s already here.

But the rise of the Super Underwriter, the rise of the fast, confident, autonomous advisor, has just begun.

If you want to be part of that wave, to see how tools like this are changing how we do business, set up a short call with me. I’ll show you how we’re helping advisors move faster, sell smarter, and win more, without waiting for anyone else to give them permission.

See you next week,

Andrew