Jackelyn Ford
Life insurance specialist, Kelowna Financial Advisor
1. What type of life insurance do you own?
I own a 20-pay whole life insurance policy. For anyone who’s younger and can afford the extra premiums, I recommend quick-pay whole life insurance.
2. What factors did you consider when determining the coverage amount?
The biggest factor is covering off any debts — the main one being your mortgage. Beyond that, I wanted to leave something for my family, my final expenses and a little extra.
3. Do you believe in life insurance for children?
Yes, I do! No one wants to think about the death of their child. It’s the worst thing that can happen. But life insurance for children is such a fantastic investment and it’s also great to protect the child’s future insurability. I focus on the financial future benefits for the child — not the worst case scenario.
4. What is the biggest life insurance mistake people make?
Not to sound biased, but probably not using a life insurance broker. There are so many different types of life insurance products and strategies and there’s no way for someone not working in the industry to know all the options. It’s great to read up on it online and learn about some of the options, but the best thing you can do is discuss with an agent what you want the insurance for, and your budget, so they can put together the best fit policy for you.
5. Outside of life insurance, what other types of individual insurance products are often overlooked?
That’s easy: critical illness insurance. Disability insurance is important too, but most people have some coverage through their work benefits and with EI. Critical illness insurance is only 5% of the insurance sales in Canada. Most people have never heard of it, but you’ve likely heard of someone who had a health crisis that lead to a financial crisis as well — critical illness insurance can alleviate that financial emergency and provide you with additional healthcare options.
Jackelyn Ford is a B.C. licensed life, accident, and sickness insurance broker based in Kelowna, with a Bachelor of Business Administration from Simon Fraser University. She is also a graduate of the Beedie School of Business and has been working in the financial industry for over a decade. She brings a wealth of personal and business solutions to her financial advisory clients. A life insurance specialist, she also enjoys working with the self-employed to protect their income and organize their finances. She is also an ongoing contributor of insurance financial planning articles in Life Cents Magazine.
Jackelyn is backed by a team of insurance and investment experts at WealthLink Financial Services. Her goal is to make financial planning simple and straightforward to help her clients make sense of their money. Though her financial advising practice is based in sunny Kelowna, she has clients all over the beautiful province of B.C.
