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In 2001, Bank of Montreal's Life Insurance division, BMO Life, began offering a unique twist on term life insurance through their BMO Direct Term product.
It's only available directly from a liscensed agent via their call centre, but before you pick up the phone, let's take a closer look at what you're getting with BMO Direct Term:
(A Closer Look: BMO Insurance's Direct Term continued...) | 6 comments
When most people think of Canadian Tire, they’re thinking power tools and patio furniture, not life insurance.
Still, the home hardware company has offered a term life insurance plan, underwritten by Canada Life, since 2005. Two months ago, in March 2009, they tweaked the details of the plan and began rolling out a new marketing campaign, complete with TV commercials.
However, underneath the increased publicity, the plan isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, when compared with an individual term life policy.
But before we evaluate why an individual policy may be better for you, let’s take a closer look at the Canadian Tire Term Life Insurance Plan.
(Canadian Tire Term Life Insurance: Not as Good as it May Sound on TV continued...)
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Empire Life's Optimax III is product is capitalizing on Canadians renewed enthusiasm for simple guaranteed life insurance products. Whole Life sales as reported by Limra International were up by 13% in 2008.
Optimax is a traditional Whole Life plan available on a Single, Multi-Life or Joint Life basis. Face Amounts can be as low as $5,000 and the coverage is available to insured's age 0 to 85.
The plan offers two premium choices:
Limra International recently reported that life insurance sales in Canada are on the rise reaching $1.1 billion in 2008. The following is a breakdown of the 2008 Limra numbers in terms of premium sales:
Don't panic, says life insurance broker Lorne S. Marr. "It's just part of the official transition from AIG Canada to Bank of Montreal."
AIG Canada policy holder Dawn Thompson is not happy - "Do you not think AIG could have had the courtesy to notify me? What if I want to speak to someone at BMO about my policy - there are no contacts, no information. Talk about being blindsided!"
Apparently BMO Life Insurance did send out notices but a lot of people didn't get them or read them.
"It happens all the time. People get so many documents with final legal print that they just don't read. Of course they should, but they don't."
(Unknown withdrawal from your bank account from BMO? Don't panic continued...)
Most Long Term Care insurance policies in Canada will pay a tax free daily benefit once the insured's physician provides certification that the insured requires care in a facility or at home because of his/hers inability to perform two or more specified activities of daily living — bathing, dressing, eating, maintaining continence, toileting, or transferring.
Most plans offer a Facility Care benefit as their base coverage. The benefit is typically payable when the insured requires health or personal care services on a long-term basis from a long-term care facility, as recommended by a physician.
(Long Term Care Insurance - Home Care vs. Facility Care continued...)Parkinson's Disease (PD) belongs to a group of conditions called motor system disorders, which are the result of the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells. The four primary symptoms of PD are tremor, or trembling in hands, arms, legs, jaw, and face; rigidity, or stiffness of the limbs and trunk; bradykinesia, or slowness of movement; and postural instability, or impaired balance and coordination.
Currently there is no cure for PD but there are a variety of treatments which can provide significant relief. PD is an insurable illness especially in the early stages where there are minimal localized tremors (i.e confined to the fingers) and no treatments are required. Full article
One of the reasons life insurance is not purchased by more people is the insurance industry often does a poor job of illustrating it's true value.
Unlike other assets life insurance is not something you can touch. Sure you have a policy with a lot of legal wording but the true value of the life insurance goes well beyond those pages.
Read the full article: Life Insurance - An Intangible Asset with a Tangible Effect
As a business owner I am constantly looking at ways of improving the level of service we provide our clients. This is not only the right thing to do but it is also the "profitable thing" to do.
Research has shown that it costs seven times more to get a new client than it does to keep an existing one.
Don't get me wrong we want new clients but we are also very cognizant of the fact that delivering high valued service will not only help keep our clients coming back for more but will also make us more referable.
I am very proud to say that our company has in large part been built on passive referrals. Passive referrals come from our clients referring their friends, family and co-workers to LSM Insurance without us directly asking for their help.
(LSM Insurance - Exceeding Customer Expectations continued...)Both Term and Permanent insurance policies use the exact same mortality tables for calculating their respective premiums. However the cost of the two types of policies is much different because Term policies increase as the insured ages and Permanent policies generally provide a level costs for life.
The simplest form of Term insurance is Annual Renewable Term insurance. Under this type of policy the premiums would increase on an annual basis.
The Term insurance marketplace has evolved over the last half century. Many insurance carriers now offer term policies of multiple lengths. Industrial Alliance recently introduced a Pick-a-Term policy which allows the insured to choose a Term policy from 10 to 40 years.
(Buy Term and Invest The Difference continued...)
Disability Insurance and Critical Illness share some similarities. Unlike life insurance both policies are payable to the insured rather than the insured's beneficiary.
However, they also have several differences which are often misunderstood by consumers and many brokers. The primary difference is the way in which the proceeds are paid.
(Disability Insurance versus Critical Illness Insurance continued...) | 2 commentsDisability insurance pays a monthly income whereas Critical Illness insurance pays a lump sum payout.
Life Insurance is an ideal way to protect the assets you have sacrificed a lifetime to build.
Many Canadians do not realize that upon the death of the surviving spouse their registered investments and the accumulation of their non-registered investments become taxable.
This situation also magnifies itself as we age because the value of these assets increases over time. Unless appropriate steps are taken the tax man could become one of your primary heirs.
CASE STUDY: FRANK & LINDA
Frank and Linda are in their early 60's and relatively healthy. They have have 2 children and 3 grandchildren. They recently retired and have accumulated a significant estate including a primary residence, a vacation home and various registered and non-registered investments.
(Life Insurance and Estate Planning continued...)
Empire Life's Guaranteed Interest Option (GIO) accounts offer an excellent opportunity for risk adverse Canadians. The accounts pay competitive interest rates and from April 1st to Jun 30th 2009 the company is holding a special promotion.
Account holders who purchased a 1 year GIO (i.e an investment with a fixed rate of return for 1 year) can transfer the money into an Empire Life segregated funds within the year and will not be charged any surrender penalties.
(Empire Life's One Year GIO Promotion continued...) | 2 commentsI started as a captive agent with Metropolitan Life back in the summer of 1993. Over the last 15 plus years I have seen many changes in the industry. A major change that is not often discussed is the way life insurance companies now underwrite insurance applications i.e the steps they take to determine what rate a client will pay.
In years gone by life insurance companies use take on all the risk for an insurance application. In today's environment much of the risk is shared with reinsurance companies.
(Life Insurance and Underwriting - The LSM Difference continued...)
BMO finalized its deal on April 1, 2009 with AIG Life Insurance Company of Canada. The acquisition which was announced January 13, 2009, is an all cash transaction valued at approximately C$329.5 million.
The acquisition will strengthen BMO's Life's competitive position giving us immediate scale and capabilities in the life insurance market and will allow us to meet our clients unmet insurance needs said Gilles Oulette, President and Chief Executive officer of BMO's Private Client Group.
The deal does seem like a very good fit for BMO but how does it impact AIG policyholders? The answer - AIG policyholders will receive a letter later this month advising them of the change in ownership and the change in name. No action is required and there will be no changes to the policy benefits or guarantees.
(BMO and AIG Deal Finalized continued...)Whether disability income benefits are taxable to the insured will depend on what type of policy the insured has and whether the premiums were paid with pretax or after-tax dollars.
With individual disability insurance policy the rules surrounding the taxation of benefits are generally very simple. If the insured pays the premiums with after-tax dollars, the benefits you receive are tax free. If the premium is deducted by the insured than any disability proceeds would be taxable.
Disability insurance purchased through an "association type plan" is called often categorized as a group policy and share certain characteristics of a group plan. However, in terms of taxability of the policy they are treated the same as individual disability policies.
(How are Individual and Group Disability Policies Taxed? continued...)
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