We recently reached out to Barry Rubin, Director of Business Development at SSQ Financial Group to answer some questions and give us a breakdown of SSQ’s unique offerings. Here is what he had to share with us:
After completing a program in hospitality and tourism management, I never really had an interest in pursuing a career in the field. Having family in the business, I was always interested in Life Insurance and decided it was the field that really appealed to me where I can always interact with people while being able to help find solutions for their needs.
I really like the team/family oriented culture which starts with the CEO/senior management and is shared throughout all levels of the company.
I enjoy working for SSQ because they are committed to ensuring that the clients best interest are being met through our products and levels of service.
1) SSQ is a mutualistic company and has been in existence for almost 75 years.
2) They are the fastest growing life insurance company in Canada currently at #6 in market share
3) SSQ purchased the Canadian AXA life insurance operations from Intact Financial Corp in 2011
Terms are available from 10 to 35 years and are renewable on a 5 year basis rather than the length of the original term. There is an Insurability Benefit feature built in which the insurance amount can be increased without evidence of insurability upon certain life events or when obtaining a new loan or increasing an existing one.
The insurance amount may be increased up to 25% of the initial insurance amount to a maximum of $100,000.00. There is also a Disability Insurance (DI) rider can be added which covers clients loans of 1.5% of the face amount up to $3500/month indemnity and proof of the loans are not required until time of claim.
A Critical Illness (CI) rider can also be added which covers cancer, heart attack and stroke and offers $20,000 in benefit. The unique feature of the CI rider is that if the client is standard on the Life policy, they can get the CI rider as long as it was indicated at the time of application.
Lastly included in all of SSQ’s life policies is the Extreme Disablitiy Benefit at no charge to the client. If the insured is in a state of extreme disability for a continued period of 6 months, 50% of the initial insurance amount may be payable in advance up to a maximum of $250,000.00.
The basic covers 3 illnesses Cancer (life threatening), Heart attack and Stroke.
The enhanced covers 25 illnesses and also includes a supplementary benefit of 10% of the insurance up to $50,000 on Coronary angioplasty, ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast, Stage A (T1a or T1b) prostate cancer and Stage 1A malignant melanoma.
The benefit is payable once per insured and is not deducted from the insurance amount and the policy remains in force.
