Certified Financial Planner, Wealth Architects Inc.
Ken is a leader in providing Financial Planning and Insurance Advisory solutions to Albertans. He has over two decades of experience in helping clients protect their assets, secure their lifestyle, insure their income and save for retirement as well as reducing their taxes both now and in the future.
Along with earning his Certified Financial Planning (CFP), Chartered Life Underwriting (CLU) and Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) designations, he holds three degrees from the University of Alberta.
Ken is highly respected by his peers and is often sought out for his expertise by other advisors working on complex and challenging cases. He is also currently the elected Chair of the Life Insurance Council of Alberta, which licences, regulates and enforces the Insurance Act of Alberta to over 29,000 licenced Life Advisors in Alberta.
He is also Chair of the Alberta Insurance Council, which regulates all insurance activity in Alberta. Ken serves as an expert witness in court on life insurance matters and is the presenter of choice for the University of Alberta and Augustana University on Estate Planning and Charitable Giving.
Ken has a passion for people and specializes in assisting clients with unique financial and estate planning solutions that help them build and protect their wealth and he looks forward to the opportunity to meet with you and discuss how he can be of service to you and your financial future.
I own several types of life insurance, each one to cover off a different need. I purchased a whole life policy when I was 18 and it continues to pay dividends and will be there for me my entire life. I also have a Universal Life insurance policy, that allows me tax shelter growth while also providing life long coverage.
This policy not only benefits me while I am alive, but it will also provide funds upon my death to cover my capital gains tax liability and other final expenses. Finally, I own three term insurance policies. Each of these policies has a staggered term that will coincide with my more immediate needs as well as longer term needs into retirement.
The first factor is what are my current needs. I have enough to life insurance to pay off any debts I may have including my mortgage. I then do a projection of my future needs where I consider how I can increase my savings and take advantage of any preferential borrowing or savings rates, all with the goal of maximizing my income and tax savings with the life insurance to cover off the leveraging this strategy entails.
Yes, I believe I life insurance for children. The cost of life insurance is based on your age. The younger you are, the cheaper it is. So, by purchasing life insurance on a child, you get the best rate they will have in their life. The second reason I am in favour of life insurance for kids is that we don’t know what the future holds for a child’s health, especially infants. You need to be healthy to obtain life insurance, so I encourage parents to obtain it for their children as soon as possible so the child has coverage no matter what the future holds for them health wise.
This leads to another reason for life insurance on kids and that is by adding a future insurability rider, they can purchase additional life insurance in the future regardless of if they are healthy or not. This is a great feature and I wouldn’t do a child’s life policy without it. Lastly, should the unspeakable happen and a child was to pass away, it provides money for the parents to deal with their loss and properly grieve without having to worry about money or rushing back to work before they are ready to do so.
The biggest mistake people make when it comes to life insurance is focusing too much on the premium and not enough on the benefit. No doubt it needs to be affordable, but most people are underinsured. They try and get away with as little coverage as possible, however upon passing they leave their family in a financial bind or even hardship because they didn’t purchase enough life insurance for their family’s need. The consequences of not having enough life insurance are heartbreaking to witness.
I look at insurance as insuring your income. While it is important to insure your income for your family upon your death, it is equally or even more important to insure your income against accident, injury or illness. People have a 35% chance of suffering a critical illness, such as cancer, stroke or heart attack, before age 65. This is a significant risk that will have a dramatic impact on one’s income and their ability to earn an income going forward.
Therefore, critical illness insurance is very important for self-employed people, main breadwinners and single people. Finally, and since we have no idea what the future holds for us, we need disability insurance, which is the final safety net to catch us and protect our income no matter what happens to our health or physical ability. People who have disability insurance through their employer have a good benefit, but often do not realize that their employer’s disability coverage has limitations and that they need to top up the employer’s coverage with additional disability insurance coverage of their own.
This particularly applies to executives, those who are paid on commission or have a significant portion of their compensation provided through bonuses. And it goes without saying that if a self-employed person has lost their ability to earn an income through accident, injury or illness, they will not have any income. This needs to be protected. Too many businesses have died because something happened to the owner and they couldn’t work to maintain the business.
Ken is a leader in providing Financial Planning and Insurance Advisory solutions to Albertans. He has over two decades of experience in helping clients protect their assets, secure their lifestyle, insure their income and save for retirement as well as reducing their taxes both now and in the future. Along with earning his Certified Financial Planning (CFP), Chartered Life Underwriting (CLU) and Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) designations, he holds three degrees from the University of Alberta. Ken is highly respected by his peers and is often sought out for his expertise by other advisors working on complex and challenging cases.
He is also currently the elected Chair of the Life Insurance Council of Alberta, which licences, regulates and enforces the Insurance Act of Alberta to over 29,000 licenced Life Advisors in Alberta. He is also Chair of the Alberta Insurance Council, which regulates all insurance activity in Alberta. Ken serves as an expert witness in court on life insurance matters and is the presenter of choice for the University of Alberta and Augustana University on Estate Planning and Charitable Giving. Ken has a passion for people and specializes in assisting clients with unique financial and estate planning solutions that help them build and protect their wealth and he looks forward to the opportunity to meet with you and discuss how he can be of service to you and your financial future.
