New Canadian Guaranteed Investment Funds

RBC Insurance announced the introduction of RBC Insurance Guaranteed Investment Funds on Monday, available for sale beginning immediately.

RBC Insurance has selected 12 leading underlying mutual funds from the RBC Asset Management Inc. fund line-up for its segregated funds. Four portfolios have also been created, using these funds, to provide an innovative investment choice for consumers seeking the growth potential of mutual funds, with the security of a principal guarantee.

As segregated funds, the RBC Insurance GIFs offer additional unique features including maturity and death benefit guarantees, the ability to bypass probate, potential creditor protection, as well as the ability to reset the guarantee amount annually when the market value is in excess of the book value.

Four Canadian Insurance Buyers Guides online now – FREE

We have posted four special custom guides for buyers of Whole Life Insurance in Canada, Universal Life Insurance in Canada, Disability insurance in Canada and Long Term Care Insurance in Canada. For the moment for your convenience, each insurance guide is linked in the left hand column.

Disability Insurance in Canada:5 Essential Buyers Tips

Disability insurance provides you with a monthly tax free income in the event that you are unable to work due to an injury and/or illness. There are several variables to examine when purchasing a disability insurance policy; the following 5 tips will help you choose the plan that is right for you:

1. Determine if the coverage is injury only or injury and sickness disability protection. Injury and sickness disability coverage provides much more complete coverage and pays out your monthly tax free benefit in the event you are disabled to do an injury and/or sickness. Injury only coverage is often chosen when an individual has health problems and/or is unable to obtain more traditional coverage due to their occupation.

2. Determine if you want a cancellable or non-cancellable policy. Non-cancellable coverage is higher in cost, but the insurance company has to honour its premium and coverage. With a cancellable policy the insurance company has the option of increasing your premium or cancelling your policy on a class wide basis.

3. See if you qualify for an association and/or occupational discounts. Certain occupations qualify for a preferred premium classification. Some companies also offer multi life discounts.

4. Determine the elimination period and benefit period which best suits your budget. The elimination period refers to how long until you begin to receive your monthly benefit. The benefit period refers to how long you will receive your monthly benefit for. These two variables combined with your monthly benefit help determine the plan's monthly premium.

5. Work with an independent broker who can provide you unbiased independent advice and select a disability plan which best suits your financial situation.

Apply now for Disability Insurance in Canada

Universal Life Insurance in Canada:Five Essential Tips for Buyers

Universal Life Insurance provides with you an extremely flexible form of life insurance. You can vary your monthly deposit, choose a level or increasing death benefit options, as well as tailor your investment choices within a tax sheltered account. When purchasing a universal life policy, there are many variables to examine. The following five tips can assist in the process:

1. Determine whether you want a level cost of insurance (COI) or increasing cost of insurance. A level COI guarantees that your cost of insurance remains level for life and you will not be surprised by future increases. Whereas an increasing COI provides you with lower initial cost of insurance escalating on an annual basis. The advantage of increasing COI is that it can result in a higher cash accumulation in the early years of the policy. The disadvantage is that if the investment component does not perform as expected, the insured can be left with drastically escalating premiums or a policy which is about to lapsed.

2. Determine which death benefit option best fits your needs. Generally speaking, universally life policy allows you to choose between an increasing death benefit which is the basic face amount plus any accumulation, and a level death benefit which is limited to the basic face amount. When choosing a level death benefit option, the risk charge can reduce as your cash value builds up, thus resulting in lower risk charges and higher cash accumulation.

3. Choose the investment option which best fits your risk profile. Most universal life policies let you choose a savings account, GIC, or index based investments. Be careful to examine the Management Expense Ratio (MER) associated with the index based investments.

4. Verify if you have accessibility to your cash value in the early or later policy years. Many universal life policies have high surrender costs should you terminate your coverage in the early years. It's essential that this is clearly explained by your broker.

5. Work with an independent broker. Universal life policies can vary dramatically from one company to another and it's crucial you work with a trusted independent broker who can give you unbiased advice.

Also check out what our insurance partners have to offer:

AIG Life, for example, offers joint life coverage with a twist. One of the best plans around is Canada Life's universal life plan. Co-operators’ universal life plan has multiple investment options, flexible premiums and level or increasing death benefits. Empire Life’s universal life plan, branded “Trilogy”, is one of the most flexible universal life plans in the industry.

Apply now for Universal Life Insurance

Whole life insurance in Canada:5 Essential Tips for Buyers

Whole life insurance provides peace of mind by delivering permanent coverage at a guaranteed rate. However, there are many variables to examine before purchasing a whole life insurance policy. The following 5 tips can assist in the process.

1. Whole life policies are generally much more expensive in nature and you want to make sure that you want coverage for life and that you're able to afford the premium. If you cancel the policy in the early years, you'll be losing the bulk of your contribution.

2. Determine if you want a participating or non-participating policy. Participating whole life policies are generally higher in cost but provide an annual dividend which can translate into an increasing cash value and death benefit. This allows your policy to stay in line with inflation.

3. Determine if the policy has a quick-pay option. Many whole life policies allow you the option of paying up the policy in 10, 15 or 20 years. You generally pay a higher premium for this option, since your premium period is condensed to a shorter time frame.

4. Determine what riders or benefits are available as add-ons to the policy. Many whole life policies allow you to add a disability waiver, accidental benefit or a variety of other riders and/or benefits which can enhance the policy's overall value. But be careful of the cost of these riders.

5. Work with an independent broker who can provide you with unbiased independent advice and select the best whole life plan for your situation.

Apply now for whole life insurance. 

Long Term Care Insurance – 5 Essential Tips

Long term care insurance provide individuals with a weekly tax free benefit in the event that they would require assistance with 2 of the 6 activities of daily living. Those activities include bathing, dressing, eating, maintaining continence, toileting, and transferring (Check the appropriate policies for more details). The proceeds received from a long term care policy can help prevent individuals from having to deplete their saving and/or forcing their family into debt due to unforeseen or unplanned for medical expenses. There are several factors to investigate when determining which long term care policy is right for you.

1. Does the policy have limitations on when and how you receive your benefits? Many LTC policies will payout only if you require facility care assistance.

2. Determine the elimination period and/or benefit period which best suit your needs and budget. The elimination period refers to the amount of time which must pass before you begin to receive your weekly benefit, and the benefit period refers to how long you'll receive that coverage for. Those 2 variables combined with your daily benefit will help determine your monthly premium.

3. Determine if there's a premium cap on the policy. Most long term care policies in Canada offer guaranteed premiums for only the first 5 policy years.

4. Determine if you need any riders such as cost of living adjustment and/or return a premium rider. The former allows your benefit to increase in line with inflation, whereas the return of premium benefit returns the premium to your beneficiary in the event you pass away.

5. Be sure to work with a trusted independent broker who can provide you with unbiased independent advice when purchasing a long term care policy.

For more information read our Critical Illness and Disability Insurance Tips

Apply now for long term insurance

New Equitable Life Universal Life Program – Equation Generation IV

Equitable Life recently enhanced its universal life program, which is called Equation Generation IV. The plan is available with reduced and more competitive premiums for level costs of insurance, annual increasing or yearly renewable term costs of insurance, and year renewable term to 85 cost of insurance. It also features lower and more competitive Management Expense Ratios (MER) on their performance funds and portfolio interest options.

New weblog just for insurance news

We have created a new weblog to cover the Canadian insurance scene, with insurance news we feel is important for Canada. We will be particularly covering "Life Insurance" and "Health Insurance" in Canada, as those are the principal policies we provide to our clients.

New RBC Insurance Product

"RBC Insurance recently launched a new Critical Illness product which was designed by the Newmarket Ontario based Edge Benefits Inc. The plan will be automatically issued if the insured passes the nine qualifying questions. The questions pertain to the nine conditions covered under the plan: cancer, heart attack, stroke, coronary artery by-pass surgery, major organ donor transplant, occupational HIV, kidney failure, aortic surgery and heart valve replacement.

The plan is available in amounts of $25,000, $50,000 and $75,000 - premiums are priced based on 5 year bands. A couple of limitations with the plan is that it is not only available to applicants 55 or older and that base coverage on coronary bypass surgery precludes balloon angioplasty and stent placement; two procedures, which are used instead of bypass grafts."