Life Insurance Toronto: Tips from Chantal Marr

 Buying life insurance can be a confusing and often intimidating process.

Our president, Chantal Marr,
has tips for all life insurance buyers.

Our own Chantal Marr, president of LSM Insurance, is here to share her expertise as an insurance broker and teacher to help simplify the process. As a member of the Independent Financial Brokers of Canada, she's worked with every major insurance company in this country, so there's no question she knows her stuff.

The following are her five tips to consider when buying life insurance:

1. Find the Right Amount of Coverage — The first step in the life insurance process is determining the right coverage. The LSM Insurance Needs Analysis Calculator considers variables such as current liabilities, the percentage of income that needs to be replaced, and other assets, including other life insurance coverage.

2. Get a Good Understanding of the Different Types of Plans Available — Life insurance can generally be broken down into two categories: Term Insurance and Permanent insurance. However, within those two types of plans, there are many subcategories. Permanent plans can take the form of Term 100, Whole Life, or Universal Life Insurance.

3. If You Are in Very Good Health, Look For a Company that Offers Preferred Rates — Preferred rates are given to individuals who have very good health and an equally good family health history, and those rates can provide savings of up to 35 per cent.

Chantal's Insider's Tip: Only a handful of companies offer Preferred rates on Permanent plans.

4. If You are Looking for Term Insurance, Make Sure It is Renewable and Convertible — This means you can renew the plan or convert the coverage to a Permanent plan without a medical exam.

You have a truly excellent website. I used it to compare personal tax rates at different pay scales, and I used it to estimate term insurance needs for a business buy-out. (1 of 81)

John GibeauRead more

Chantal's Insider Tip: Look at the type of permanent products you can convert the plan to. With historically low interest rates, which negatively impact permanent policies, many insurance companies are trimming their overall permanent insurance product offering.

5. Work with an Independent Broker — Life insurance can be purchased directly from certain insurance companies via their call centre, website, or captive agent. In each of these scenarios, you will only see a limited number of options, but an independent broker can shop the market to make sure you get the best deal.

Chantal's Insider Tip: Make sure your independent broker workers with numerous companies and not just one or two.

Chantal's Bonus Tip:

If you are in poor health, make sure you work with a broker who is experienced in the hard-to-insure market. They can direct you towards no-medical life insurance scenarios. These are plans where there are no medical tests and either no health questions or a short series of health questions. If you do go with a traditional life insurance application and are declined, this could limit your options. Your broker can always make an informal preliminary inquiry, which will give you an idea where you stand. Please note that the response is not binding and would be subject to a fully underwritten application.

For more details on life insurance in the City of Toronto, please contact us at 1-866-899-4849 or visit our Term Life Insurance Quote Page.