Critical Illness Insurance – Financial Protection for Your Client

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Critical illness insurance (CI) is still one of the most compelling protection products on the market today. In addition to providing lump-sum payments in the event of 20+ major illnesses, it also gives your client flexible options to return their premiums (in full!) should they live a long and healthy life.

The fact is that 1 in 3 women and 2 in 5 men have a chance of developing a critical illness in their lifetime – an illness that could derail your client’s financial security, retirement planning or even their way of life altogether (1). The risk is real and all of us have witnessed how an illness can affect a family and its finances.

Yet, unlike life insurance, your client will be able to actually see the benefit of this product, beyond providing for a beneficiary, during their lifetime. CI allows your client to protect themselves financially, allowing them to focus on treatments, a speedy recovery, as well as the purchase of additional medical care if needed. Continue reading “Critical Illness Insurance – Financial Protection for Your Client” →

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Critical Illness Insurance – Financial Protection or your Money Back!

Term Insurance – What Your Client Should Consider For Renewal

You already know the benefits of term insurance, one of them being its lower cost when it comes to covering a larger temporary need. Term insurance helps your client to maintain their same standard of living by providing income replacement, and even paying off existing debt. So far, pretty impressive.

However, if you have a client with term insurance, it is important to reach out and review their needs on a regular basis. In fact, you will want to contact your client long before the term insurance is available for renewal – giving you and your client adequate time to evaluate their needs and review all of their insurance options.

Below, are a few of the things that you will want to consider when your client’s term insurance comes up for renewal. Continue reading “Term Insurance – What Your Client Should Consider For Renewal” →

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Things to Consider When Renewing Your Term Insurance Plan

Gene Therapy – The Fix Is (Almost) In

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Since its completion in 2003, the Human Genome Project has garnered a great deal of attention for genetic testing. All of this focus has resulted in the identification and mapping of the three-billion pairs of human gene structure, known as the genome. Today, geneticists can perform many different types of analyses that have never been seen before, including deep sequencing, RNA sequencing and epigenomics, the overall study of the complete set of epigenetic modifications on the genetic material of a cell – all of these allow scientists to study the expression of genetic patterns from person-to-person and more.

Genetic therapy is a developing area of our unprecedented understanding of the human genome. Imagine being able to add a normal, healthy gene where a person has inherited a defective gene variant? In some cases, this may improve outcomes from a disease and in the best cases, cure or prevent it altogether. Continue reading “Gene Therapy – The Fix Is (Almost) In” →

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Gene Therapy – The Fix Is (Almost) In

The Beneficiary Challenge

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Designating a beneficiary for a life insurance policy just got more complicated with the recent Calmusky v. Calmusky Ontario Superior Court case, overruling a beneficiary designation and ruling a RRIF as part of a deceased’s estate. As a result of this decision, there is a concern that beneficiary designations in favour of adult children in life insurance policies can now be challenged. This could be applicable in all common-law provinces, which excludes Quebec.

Now more than ever, it is crucial to have a detailed conversation with your client about their designations and ensure their intentions are documented both clearly and thoroughly in order to avoid their assets falling into litigation and/or estate. Continue reading “The Beneficiary Challenge” →

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Beneficiary Designations – Making Sure Your Money Goes Where You Want

Accumulation and Decumulation – Preparing your Clients for Retirement

Your client has been diligently putting some money away for their retirement, contributing to their RRSP or their TFSA. Perhaps they even have a defined contribution pension or, if they are lucky, the defined benefit version. In either case, there are two very distinct stages within the retirement planning rubric that your client should be aware of.

As you are aware, the accumulation phase is typically the easier of the two and occurs during your client’s working years – this is where they try to allocate as much as possible to an RRSP, TFSA, pension plan or some combination thereof. The main objective here is to accumulate assets for retirement and can be as simple as making regular deposits to an efficiently diversified portfolio and keeping fees in check. Straightforward, right?

The decumulation phase is a little more challenging and refers to the stage in your client’s life when they are no longer earning income from work. During this stage, the main objective is to use the funds that were saved or accumulated to set up income sources for the remainder of their lifetime. The challenge arises through a host of different issues, some predictable and others not so much. Continue reading “Accumulation and Decumulation – Preparing your Clients for Retirement” →

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Changing Gears – From Accumulation to Decumulation

SMART TALK… about will planning and drafting

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Will and estate planning can be a complicated, but important process for your client. They have the vision, but as an Advisor, you can recommend the solutions that will transform your clients’ dreams into a reality.

Share this video to illustrate how will and estate planning can benefit your client, their family and their business. Continue reading “SMART TALK… about will planning and drafting” →

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SMART TALK…about will planning and drafting

Estate Protection for your Client

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Your client has worked hard all of their life. They’ve accumulated some assets, perhaps even more than they will need for a secure and comfortable retirement. However, the ownership of some of these assets will result in a tax liability upon your client’s or their spouse’s death. As an Advisor, you have both the knowhow and the tools to not only assess your client’s assets, but also guide them in protecting their estate and ensuring that their hard-earned dollars go directly to their loved ones. Continue reading “Estate Protection for your Client” →

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Protecting Your Estate

A Convo with your Client about the Death Benefit Guarantee in Seg Funds

Segregated funds have several uses as a financial planning tool, primarily in the area of estate planning. As you may know, segregated funds (or seg funds for short) combine the features of a mutual fund with elements of an insurance contract. One of those insurance elements is the death benefit guarantee, which ensures that a specific percentage of the value of your client’s investment pays directly to their beneficiaries at the time of death. This death benefit payment may even bypass probate, which streamlines the process of estate settlement and makes it easier for your client to pass investment assets on to those they love. Seg funds must provide at least a 75% death benefit guarantee, but the guarantee can be up to 100%.

The death benefit guarantee also adds a level of security that is not available in a mutual fund. This can be increasingly powerful for clients who are in retirement or approaching retirement – it allows them to participate in funds with potentially higher returns than guaranteed options such as GICs. The death benefit guarantee forms a “safety net” that provides an element of protection against market risk in these funds. Continue reading “A Convo with your Client about the Death Benefit Guarantee in Seg Funds” →

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Segregated Funds and the Death Benefit Guarantee

When Health Conditions Make Insurance Hard to Come By

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Clients with one or more of the following conditions will face challenges when applying for traditional insurance. Their coverage may be rated, postponed or declined altogether:

  • Change in prescription medication
  • Depression and/or anxiety
  • Diabetes
  • Heart condition
  • Family history of illness
  • Pending tests
  • Heavy marijuana use or recreational drug use
  • DUIs, including subpar driving history
  • Previous cancer diagnosis
  • Previously declined/postponed for insurance

There are simple steps you can take to help your client. First, you can check out PPI’s online resource Know the Risk, or KTR (login required) to understand how these conditions may be underwritten. The KTR Ratings Guide has dozens of conditions, which launch tables showing related insurability for life and critical illness insurance including DI guides for select impairments. Your client may have more options that you think! Continue reading “When Health Conditions Make Insurance Hard to Come By” →

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You Have More Insurance Options Than You Think

Protecting Your Client’s Digital Assets

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As an Advisor, you not only need to know what a digital asset is, you also need to ensure that your client has all the information they need to make the right decisions about their digital assets. So, what exactly is a digital asset? Well, these types of assets can range from travel rewards, digital photos, web domains to crypto assets. And while some may have financial value and a possible tax liability on death, many just have personal and sentimental value for your client. Clients often have an inventory of the physical assets they own and have given some thought as to what happens to these assets on their death. For those physical assets that might not be in the “inventory”, the executor of the estate can locate them by looking in the deceased’s house and in paper files. Sounds pretty simple. But how would the executor know where to find the digital assets of the deceased? Not as easy! And in a world full of passwords and Terms of Service Agreements, even if the executor knew where to look, they may not be able to access them – yup, passwords!

Continue reading “Protecting Your Client’s Digital Assets” →

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Protecting Your Digital Assets