In this exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Marty Shaw, Founder and CEO of Perigon Life, shares his vision for revolutionizing the Canadian benefits landscape. With a deep understanding of the challenges employees face when transitioning jobs and accessing insurance coverage, Shaw founded Perigon Life to address the gaps in traditional insurance models. As the first digital platform in Canada focused on voluntary benefits, Perigon Life is transforming how employers provide flexibility and support to their workforce. In this interview, Shaw discusses the importance of portability, accessibility, and the value of adding innovative services like Perigon+ to enhance employee well-being and financial security. With a focus on modernizing benefits strategies, Shaw offers valuable advice to small and medium-sized businesses looking to stay competitive and provide meaningful benefits to their teams.
Marty Shaw is a Canadian insurance industry leader and expert in developing insurance strategies tailored to the unique needs of organizations and individuals. As the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Perigon Life, Marty launched Canada’s leading voluntary benefits platform to address a significant gap in the market. He recognized the need for a solution that simplifies the sourcing, purchasing, and management of voluntary benefits while enhancing the financial wellness of employees and their families.
You’ve spoken passionately about how traditional insurance models in Canada leave many people underserved, especially when it comes to maintaining coverage through job changes. Can you share the personal experiences or industry insights that inspired you to launch Perigon Life, and how your mission shapes the company’s approach today?
Throughout my career in the Canadian insurance industry, I saw a consistent and troubling trend that people were losing critical insurance coverage simply because they changed jobs. It became even more apparent when I compared our system to what was happening in the U.S., where voluntary benefits were not only more widely offered but also more flexible and portable.
Too often in Canada, the benefits offered are rigid, difficult to access, and tied too closely to employment status. That doesn’t reflect how people work or live today. Perigon Life was built to solve that. Our mission is to ensure Canadians don’t lose vital coverage when changing jobs or face barriers accessing the benefits they deserve. It shouldn’t be dependent on whether or not they stay with the same employer. That commitment to portability, ease, and inclusivity drives every part of our platform.
Perigon Life is Canada’s first digital platform of its kind focused on voluntary benefits, streamlining everything from enrolment to portability. What makes your platform different from traditional benefits models, and how does this digital approach improve accessibility and flexibility for both employers and employees?
Traditional group benefits are often designed with a one-size-fits-all mindset. They don’t account for the wide range of personal circumstances employees face, and they usually rely on paper-based or manual processes that create friction at every step.
Perigon Life takes a different approach. Our platform is entirely digital and built to support a wide array of voluntary benefits like critical illness, life insurance, legal protection, pet insurance, and more. It allows employers to offer these options in a flexible, à-la-carte way. Employees can enroll quickly during an open period, often with no medical questions, and keep their coverage even if they change jobs. That portability is a game-changer in the Canadian market.
For employers, our platform requires very little administrative lift. For employees, it’s easy to navigate, understand, and use. And because everything is housed in one place, people can make informed choices based on their lifestyle, budget, and priorities.
Recent research shows that 93% of employees say benefits influence their happiness at work and retention, yet only a small fraction proactively ask for more options. How does Perigon Life help employers bridge this gap, and what role do voluntary benefits play in supporting workforce retention and satisfaction, especially for small and medium-sized businesses?
Our study found that while employees care deeply about their benefits, very few feel comfortable asking for more. It’s a quiet but clear disconnect. That’s where we come in.
Perigon Life gives employers a low-cost way to offer additional value through increasing the variety of benefits offered. Voluntary benefits are optional and employee-paid, so there’s no impact on company budgets—but the perceived value among staff is high. We work closely with employers to roll out the platform in a way that’s seamless, supported, and easy to communicate.
For small and medium-sized businesses in particular, this kind of offering helps level the playing field. It gives them a way to compete with larger companies when it comes to talent attraction and retention, without taking on the cost or complexity of a full-scale benefits overhaul.
Perigon Life offers value-added services like Perigon+, including virtual pharmacy, 24/7 vet access, and retail financing. How do these services complement your insurance offerings, and what impact have you seen on employee well-being and financial security as a result?
Perigon+ is designed to meet employees where they are, beyond traditional insurance needs. Whether it’s managing a chronic condition through our virtual pharmacy option, avoiding an expensive emergency vet visit with virtual vet, or spreading out a major purchase with 0% retail financing, these services support everyday decisions that affect financial and mental well-being.
What we’ve seen is that when people feel like their employer is offering tools that make life easier, especially in high-stress areas like health and money, it builds trust and loyalty. These services also help alleviate financial strain, which ultimately leads to a more productive, engaged workforce.
As you roll out Perigon Life across Canada, what advice would you give to small and medium-sized business leaders looking to modernize their benefits strategy? Are there any recent milestones or upcoming initiatives you’d like to highlight for our readers?
Start by listening to what your team really needs. Benefits don’t have to be expensive to be meaningful, but they do need to be relevant. Flexibility, choice, and ease of access are what today’s employees are asking for, even if they’re not saying it out loud.
We’re proud to be launching Perigon Life across Canada and Perigon Care, which deepens our focus on mental health and holistic support. We’re also continuing to grow the services included in Perigon+, and we’ve received great feedback from both employers and employees so far.
This is just the beginning. Our goal is to create a new standard for how Canadians think about and access workplace benefits—and we’re excited to help businesses of all sizes lead that change.
