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The Mortgage Calculator

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Home ownership allows your client to build wealth and add to their financial security. Use this Mortgage Calculator or share it with your client to help them figure out payments and keep their budget on track – it’s so easy to use!

The Mortgage Calculator lets your client enter the payments that they would like to make, calculate the best home price or enter the cost of the home they want in order to determine their future payments. It can even compare two different mortgages with different interest rates, payment schedules and amortization periods.

Being armed with the right knowledge can give you and your clients peace of mind when making decisions about home ownership. Try the Mortgage Calculator today! Continue reading “The Mortgage Calculator” →

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The Mortgage Calculator

Looking Good: Prostate Cancer’s Sharper Image

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Prostate cancer continues to be a scourge on the Canadian health landscape as the most commonly diagnosed and third leading cause of cancer-related death among men (1). It currently accounts for about 20% of all new cancers in men and approximately 4,500 deaths annually (2). Underwriters increasingly are presented with prostate cancer in the medical history and we will see even more cases as our population continues to age.

But the landscape also points to a good news horizon. Thanks to improved screening and treatment, prostate cancer mortality continues to fall, dropping from its’ high of 45.1 deaths per 100,000 men in 1995 to 22.7 per 100,000 in 2021 (1). One of the more remarkable advances in the screening and diagnosis of this malignancy is the use of imaging studies, such as the prostate MRI. From the earliest images 40 years ago using magnetic resonance imaging technology, the current prostate MRI uses state-of-the-art image modalities such as dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) and spectroscopic views to get a better look in order to detect clinically significant prostate cancer (3). The impact on detection, accuracy and diagnosis is a major contributor to improved prostate cancer mortality. Prostate MRIs are also increasingly utilized to monitor for prostate cancer recurrence after treatment, no doubt also contributing to improved mortality. Continue reading “Looking Good: Prostate Cancer’s Sharper Image” →

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Looking Good: Prostate Cancer’s Sharper Image

Improve High Net-Worth Client Sales Outcome

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Working on high net-worth life insurance cases creates added complexity while demanding increasingly advanced planning. So how can you access advanced estate and tax planning expertise coupled with a deep understanding of life insurance and its custom application – all to help you reduce the overall complexity of large case sales?

Watch this video to find out. Continue reading “Improve High Net-Worth Client Sales Outcome” →

A Murky Path: Continuing Concern Over Beneficiary Designation Legislation

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In our previous The Beneficiary Challenge article, we discussed the 2020 Ontario Superior Court case regarding Calmusky v Calmusky. One of the key issues in this case involved the designation of Gary Calmusky as the beneficiary under his deceased father’s Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF). This caused quite a stir when Randy, the other adult son, argued that these funds should not have been administered to Gary directly. Randy then took the case to court, maintaining that the RRIF was held in trust for the estate of the father. He also argued that a bank account, previously held jointly by Gary and the father, was also held in trust for the estate.

At that time, the Court decided that a joint bank account should be held in trust for the estate when it resulted from a gratuitous transfer of an asset to an adult child, unless the child can prove that it was the deceased’s intention to gift the asset to them directly. This was consistent with established case law.  However, the court then went on to apply this very same principle to the RRIF beneficiary designation, regardless of legislation already in place honouring such designations! In doing so, the court created doubt as to whether routine designations, whether they be in registered plans or insurance, would now be subject to increased legal scrutiny and litigation.

The Calmusky case was heavily criticized in legal and financial circles. Subsequently, in the 2021 case of Mak Estate v. Mak, a different judge of the same court came to the opposite conclusion from the judge in the Calmusky case. In the Mak case, in considering a RRIF designation of an adult child, the court stated that there was “good reason to doubt the conclusion that the doctrine of resulting trust applies to a beneficiary designation”. The judge’s comments suggest that there is no requirement to determine the intent of an individual who designates a beneficiary supported by legislation, such as that governing registered plans and insurance. Continue reading “A Murky Path: Continuing Concern Over Beneficiary Designation Legislation” →

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Beneficiary Designations and the Importance of Transparency

Planning Opportunities in the Women’s Market

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As you plan your business development strategies for the coming year and beyond, it may be a good time to consider truly untapped opportunities in the marketplace. For example, understanding how women relate to money and being sensitive to the unique challenges women face can set you apart from your peers.

Watch this video to learn more about this key market segment and how you can make a difference. Continue reading “Planning Opportunities in the Women’s Market” →

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Planning for Your Financial Future

The Death Claims Process – Meeting with Your Client

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As an Advisor, you continually strive to help your clients plan for their estate planning needs and the needs of their family. Your clients have placed the ultimate confidence in you, entrusting you with the incredible responsibility of representing them after they pass, in order to ensure that their estate wishes are fulfilled. The death of a family member is always traumatic and you have an important role in helping your clients’ beneficiaries through this process with care and understanding.

In her 2018 article Coach Clients on Death Claims, author Suzanne Yar Kahn highlights insights from several Canadian insurance advisors about the life insurance claims process. One advisor recommends meeting with your clients and their named beneficiaries today to ensure that there is no confusion when it comes to your client’s wishes and that everyone, including family and beneficiaries, are aware of what to expect when that time comes (1). These meetings are a great way to build client/advisor trust and offer your client the peace of mind that they are looking for at that time. Additionally, these meetings allow you to meet and get to know the named beneficiaries – so you can better support them in the future. Continue reading “The Death Claims Process – Meeting with Your Client” →

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The Settlement Process – What Your Beneficiary Can Expect

Shining a Light on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and Underwriting

Nearly 10 per cent of Canadians ages 12 and older have a mood disorder (1). One definition of mood disorder is a general emotional state or mood that interferes with one’s ability to function. Major depression disorder (MDD), anxiety and bipolar disorder (BP) are the commonly thought of mood disorders. However, are you aware that seasonal affective disorder, a form of depression, is also a mood disorder? Continue reading “Shining a Light on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and Underwriting” →

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Shining a Light on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Love and Money

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Ah love… such a wonderful thing, but sometimes financial strains and worries can get in the way. In fact, 84% of respondents in a Money Magazine survey said that money was the source of marital tensions with disagreements about financial priorities topping the list of problems (1). So, how should your client handle their money in order to avoid these wicked pangs of love?

Here are few insights to share with your clients to help them keep their pocketbooks full and those love lights burning strong (without all those headaches!). Continue reading “Love and Money” →

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Love and Money

Life vs. Living Benefits Underwriting: Consider the Differences

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A look back in time helps demystify insurance underwriting

Life insurance underwriting has been around a long time. Since the first life insurance policy issued in 16th century England, the practices supporting fair and competitive life insurance risk selection have evolved often apace with emerging technologies, but the principles that undergird underwriting remain remarkably unchanged.

Living benefits, via disability and critical illness insurance, are considered relative newcomers to the marketplace. Still, the earliest forms of these coverages have been available for a long time. The second American president, John Adams, signed the Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen in 1798 (1). The law required seafarers to put aside twenty cents per month from their wages in order to fund medical care for other sailors who fell sick or became disabled. This group of seamen were so vital to trade and commerce, that the law created a provision for the building of hospitals for sick seamen. This is perhaps one of the earliest examples of what we now consider accident and sickness and disability insurance.

Critical illness is the youngest member of the life and living benefits insurance family. It was the brainchild of South African Dr. Marius Barnard who launched the first version in 1983 under the ominously titled Dread Disease Insurance. The premise was groundbreakingly simple: get diagnosed with a covered illness, survive 30 days and collect the claim payment. Critical illness made its way to our shores a few years later and remains a powerful protection tool that continues to benefit Canadian insurance buyers, often in ways that have been described as life changing and life saving. Continue reading “Life vs. Living Benefits Underwriting: Consider the Differences” →

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Life vs. Living Benefits: Consider the Differences