Insurance

Life insurance

Life insurance does one job: it makes sure the people who depend on your income are not left dealing with money on the worst week of their lives. Which kind you need depends on whether the need has an end date — a mortgage and children at home do, an estate does not. The three below cover between them almost everyone who asks us.

What We Arrange

Three kinds of life insurance

Term insurance

Whether you are getting married, starting a family, starting a business or buying a home, term insurance protects what matters while it matters. You choose the length — ten, twenty, thirty years — and the cover runs for that term.

It is the most affordable kind of life insurance by a distance, because it is covering a temporary need rather than a certainty. If the worst happens inside the term, the beneficiary receives a tax-free payout. More on term insurance.

Whole life and par plans

Permanent cover for a risk that does not expire. Premiums on a whole life policy typically stay level for the lifetime of the person insured, so the cost is known from the start rather than rising as you age.

Participating plans also build cash value over time and may pay dividends, which is why they come up in estate planning and in business arrangements as often as they do in family protection. More on par and non-par plans.

Universal insurance

Universal life suits people whose income moves, whose family situation is still changing, or who are planning around something further out — an estate, a business succession, a tax-advantaged legacy.

It separates the insurance from the investment component, which is where the flexibility comes from: coverage and contributions can be adjusted over time rather than fixed on the day you sign. More on universal insurance.

Choosing

How to tell which one you need

Start with the need rather than the product. Two questions settle most of it.

Does the need have an end date?

A mortgage gets paid off. Children finish their education and start earning. If what you are protecting will one day stop needing protection, term is almost always the honest answer — you are buying cover for exactly as long as the risk lasts, and paying accordingly.

Final expenses, an estate tax bill, a payment owed to a business partner: those do not go away. That is what permanent insurance is for.

Is this only about protection?

If yes, term does it for the least money and there is little reason to pay more. If the policy is also meant to build value, sit inside an estate plan, or provide a tax-advantaged place for money that has nowhere else to go, then whole life or universal is the conversation — and it is genuinely a conversation, because the structure matters more than the premium.

Nobody should buy permanent insurance because a term policy felt like money wasted. It is not wasted; it is what covering a temporary risk costs.

Buy the convertibility, not just the premium. A convertible term policy can become permanent cover later without fresh medical evidence. It usually costs little or nothing extra at the outset, and it is the one thing you cannot add once your health has changed — which is precisely when you will wish you had it.

No obligation

Talk it through before you decide.

Life insurance is not a form you should fill in alone. Tell a licensed advisor what you are protecting and for how long, and you will get a straight recommendation — including when the cheapest term policy is the right answer and nothing more is needed.

Talk to an advisor

Life insurance questions

The usual starting point is what would still have to be paid if your income stopped: the mortgage, any debts, the cost of raising children to independence, and enough to keep the household running while the family finds its feet. An advisor will work it through with you rather than quoting a multiple of salary at you.

Term covers a defined need for a defined time and costs the least. Permanent covers a need that never expires and builds value. Most families end up with term while the mortgage and the children are the priority, and look at permanent later. They are not mutually exclusive.

Most terms are renewable, at a higher premium reflecting your age, and many are convertible to a permanent policy without new medical evidence. Convertibility is worth checking before you buy — it is the option you cannot add later once your health has changed.

Often, though not always. Some policies are issued on answers to health questions alone, particularly at lower coverage amounts. Where a medical is required it is usually a nurse visit at home, arranged and paid for by the insurer.

A life insurance death benefit paid to a named beneficiary in Canada is generally received tax-free. How the policy interacts with an estate or a business is a different question, and one worth advice before you structure it.

Frequently, yes — sometimes at a standard rate, sometimes rated, occasionally with an exclusion. Insurers assess the same condition differently, which is the practical argument for going through a broker rather than applying to one company and taking the first answer.

Not sure which cover fits?

Call 437-428-2828 and talk it through with a licensed advisor. Mon–Sat, 9am–8pm ET. No obligation, and nobody will push you to buy on the call.

Call 437-428-2828