Every product and service, in plain English.

Life insurance

Term life insurance covers you for a set period, usually 10, 20, or 30 years, at the lowest cost per dollar of coverage. The workhorse for young families, mortgages, and income replacement. Term vs permanent, compared honestly.

Whole life insurance covers you for life with level premiums and cash value that grows inside the policy. The classic tool for estate planning, legacy gifts, and lifelong needs. How whole life fits.

Universal life insurance (UL) is permanent coverage with flexible premiums and an investment component. Powerful for business owners and estate plans, and it needs periodic reviews to stay on track. UL explained.

Joint first-to-die is one policy on two lives, usually spouses, that pays when the first person dies. Often cheaper than two separate policies when the surviving partner would need immediate support. Joint policies explained.

Joint last-to-die (survivorship) pays only after both people have died, which makes it cheaper than two individual permanent policies. The classic estate-planning tool: the payout arrives exactly when the estate faces its tax bill. Survivorship explained.

No-medical and simplified issue life insurance skips the full medical exam, using a short health questionnaire instead. Costs more than fully underwritten coverage, but it gets protection in place fast for people who cannot or will not do the full process. What no-medical really means. Or read the full no-medical explainer.

Guaranteed issue life insurance asks no health questions at all. Everyone who applies in the eligible age range is accepted. The trade-off is higher cost and lower coverage amounts, but for some health situations it is the only door in. Guaranteed issue, honestly.

Key person insurance is life or disability coverage on someone the business cannot easily replace: a founder, a rainmaker, a technical lead. If that person dies or cannot work, the business gets breathing room instead of a crisis. The business owner playbook. And the companion piece: key person and buy-sell, explained.

Mortgage life protection pays off the mortgage if you die. Here is the honest version: bank-sold mortgage insurance is usually more expensive and less flexible than a personal term policy you own yourself, and the bank is the beneficiary, not your family. Term vs bank mortgage insurance. See also mortgage protection vs term insurance, compared.

Health, living benefits, and income protection

Individual disability insurance replaces part of your income if illness or injury stops you from working. The key detail is the definition: own occupation covers you if you cannot do your job, any occupation only if you cannot do any job you are suited for. The disability insurance guide.

Critical illness insurance pays a tax-free lump sum on diagnosis of a covered condition like cancer, heart attack, or stroke. You use it however you need: mortgage payments, time off, treatment costs. What critical illness covers.

Long-term care insurance helps pay for care if you can no longer live independently: home care, assisted living, or a long-term care facility. It is the conversation families avoid and the expense that blindsides them. Planning for it early is dramatically cheaper than reacting later. The long-term care conversation, in full.

Health and dental plans for individuals and families fill the gaps government coverage leaves: dental work, prescriptions, vision, physio and massage. Essential for the self-employed and anyone without a group plan.

Personal accident and sickness insurance pays benefits for injuries and illnesses that keep you off work, a simpler and more affordable layer of protection that sits underneath full disability coverage. Especially popular with tradespeople and contractors.

Overhead expense insurance is for the self-employed: if a disability stops you working, your personal disability policy replaces your income, but the business bills keep coming. This covers rent, salaries, and loan payments so there is still a business to come back to.

Travel medical insurance covers health emergencies outside Canada, where your provincial plan pays only a small fraction of the real cost. Snowbirds, family vacations, and anyone crossing a border. The travel insurance guide.

Visitors to Canada and super visa insurance covers parents and grandparents visiting for extended stays. For super visa applicants it is mandatory: at least $100,000 in coverage for at least one year. Visitors and super visa details.

Wealth and insurance-based investing

Segregated funds are insurance-company investment funds that can offer guarantees regular mutual funds cannot: maturity and death benefit guarantees, potential creditor protection, and they can bypass probate. Worth understanding before you dismiss them as just expensive mutual funds. Segregated funds, explained properly.

Guaranteed interest accounts (GIAs) and insurer-issued GICs are the conservative corner: your principal is protected and the rate is set. Useful for the safe portion of a portfolio and for money with a deadline.

Immediate annuities turn a lump sum into guaranteed payments for life, starting right away. Deferred annuities start the payments later. Term-certain annuities pay for a fixed number of years. Prescribed annuity contracts level out the taxable portion of each payment for non-registered money. Different tools, one job: income you cannot outlive. Annuities explained simply.

Insured retirement plans (IRPs) use permanent life insurance as a wealth accumulation vehicle, often with corporate dollars. A specialized strategy for business owners with retained earnings and a long horizon. Corporate strategies.

Registered accounts

TFSA: tax-free growth and withdrawals, the most flexible account in Canada. RRSP: tax-deductible contributions, taxed on withdrawal, the retirement workhorse. Spousal RRSP: the higher earner contributes to an account owned by the lower-earning spouse, so retirement income can be split more evenly and taxed less as a household. How we build investment plans. See spousal RRSPs: one plan, two futures.

FHSA: the first home savings account combines the RRSP deduction with TFSA-style tax-free withdrawals for a first home. If you are renting and dreaming, this is the account to know. First home planning.

RESP: the registered education savings plan, where the federal government adds the Canada Education Savings Grant: 20 percent on the first $2,500 contributed per year per child, up to a $7,200 lifetime grant, with a $50,000 lifetime contribution limit. Lower-income families may also qualify for the Canada Learning Bond with no contribution required. Education planning. Start with RESP 101: the 20 percent the government adds.

RDSP: the registered disability savings plan, the flagship specialty here: up to $90,000 in government grants and bonds for eligible Canadians. The Disability Finance hub.

RRIF, LIF, and LIRA: the decumulation accounts. A LIRA holds locked-in pension money, a LIF turns it into retirement income with annual minimum and maximum withdrawals, and a RRIF is what your RRSP becomes by the end of the year you turn 71, with mandatory minimum withdrawals after that. RRIF, LIF, and LIRA, explained in plain English.

Group and corporate solutions

Group term life, group critical illness, and group short-term and long-term disability give your team a foundation of protection at group rates no individual could match. STD bridges the first weeks or months; LTD can run for years. Group benefits for businesses.

Group health and dental is the core of most plans: prescriptions, paramedical, vision, and dental at levels you choose. How group plans work.

Group RRSPs and DPSPs (deferred profit sharing plans) help your team save for retirement with employer support, a retention tool that costs less than the turnover it prevents. Retirement for your team.

Health spending accounts (HSAs) and wellness accounts (WSAs) give employees a set dollar amount to spend on eligible health and wellness expenses, maximum flexibility with minimal administration. Popular with small businesses that want benefits without a traditional insured plan.

Buy-sell agreement funding uses life insurance so that when a partner dies, the surviving partner can buy the shares without draining the business. The agreement decides what happens; the insurance makes it affordable. Protecting partnerships.

Executive life and health retention plans are enhanced coverage packages for the people you cannot afford to lose, structured to reward loyalty and make competing offers less tempting.

Planning services

Financial needs analysis and protection gap analysis: a structured look at your income, debts, dependents, existing coverage, and goals, producing a plain-English map of what is covered and what is not. One conversation, no cost, you keep the map.

Human life value calculations put a number on what your future earning power is worth to your family, which turns the vague question of how much insurance into an actual figure.

Wealth transfer and estate liquidity planning makes sure the money gets where you intend without forced sales or surprise tax bills. Estate preservation and beneficiary optimization is the detail work: designations, joint ownership, and structures that keep more in the family.

Retirement income structuring is the shift from accumulating to decumulating: turning RRSPs, TFSAs, pensions, and non-registered assets into a paycheque that lasts. The order you draw from accounts matters enormously for tax.

Debt reduction planning sequences your debts so you pay the least interest in the shortest time, freeing cash flow for everything above.

Policy audits and term-to-permanent conversions: an honest review of coverage you already own, what it actually does, what it costs, and whether it still fits. Many term policies include a conversion option to switch to permanent coverage without new medical underwriting. If you bought insurance years ago, it deserves a checkup. The annual policy checkup: what to review.

Common questions