Everyone loves a story with a happy ending, even if it’s rife with tragedy and family drama. But happy ending or not, if somewhere in the story, a loved one is lost, we see the toll the loss can take on the relationships of family survivors. True in fiction. True in life.

You play a pivotal role in encouraging your clients to plan ahead wisely and intentionally so they can ease rather than contribute to the toll their passing will take on the relationships of those they love. And you can never overemphasize the importance of proper estate planning.

Share Bett’s story with your clients to help them understand and remember the importance of documenting and communicating their final intentions.  Continue reading “Learning From Experience: Bett’s Story” →

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Learning From Experience: Bett’s Story

You know how important insurance is for your clients – it offers them a sense of security knowing their financial obligations are met in the event of a disability, illness or even death. But are your clients aware about the many benefits of term insurance for today and their tomorrows? Continue reading “INFOclip: Understanding Term Insurance” →

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INFOclip: Understanding Term Insurance

Our life’s memories deserve consideration just as much as our financial legacies do.  Have you taken the opportunity to talk to your clients about how to protect their social media accounts and their digital assets?

Most social media platforms have terms and conditions making these accounts private for security purposes and making it difficult, if not all out impossible, for family members to retrieve these accounts after their loved ones have passed on. The good news is that social media providers have put tools in place so that your clients can decide in advance how they would like their loved ones to access these accounts when they are gone.

STEP (the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) has made the process even easier for your client to safeguard and share their memories with future generations by providing useful guides to help update their account settings and how to open conversations with their family and friends about the importance of preserving these digital memories. Be sure to share these guides with your clients: Continue reading “Preserving Your Client’s Memories with the help of STEP” →

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Resources to help preserve your memories!

Does your client own their own home? Do they have mortgage protection in place and can they continue to make loan payments in the case of a significant decrease in their income?

For many Canadians, purchasing a home is an important life milestone that can evoke both great joy and financial responsibility. Unfortunately, unexpected life events such as the disability, illness and even death of an income earner can make paying a mortgage that much more difficult, especially if they don’t have the proper protection in place to safeguard their family’s income.

Share this video with your client to show them how purchasing personal insurance, via a trusted advisor (that’s you!), can offer them and their families peace of mind with the protection and flexibility they need during difficult times to keep them on track with their mortgage payments. Continue reading “INFOclip: Mortgage Protection” →

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INFOclip: Mortgage Protection

Many of your business-owner clients have corporate owned life insurance – an excellent and tax efficient way for your client to achieve their estate and succession planning goals. However, to avoid unintended tax consequences, it is critical that the beneficiary designations of the corporate owned policies be reviewed. Where the corporation is the owner and payor of the life insurance, the corporation (or a subsidiary of the corporation) needs to be the beneficiary of the life insurance – not the shareholder’s estate or members of the shareholder’s family! Why? Well, when corporate funds are used to provide personal benefits to shareholders and their family members, a taxable shareholder benefit will result, and the corporation does not get a deduction for the benefit. This results in double tax for your client! Continue reading “Corporate Owned Life Insurance and Beneficiary Designations” →

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Corporate Owned Life Insurance - Watch Those Beneficiary Designations!

You know this industry inside and out – you’re a pro! In fact, nobody else is as suited to provide sound, up-to-date and in-depth financial planning advice to your clients as you are. However, many prospects continue to seek answers to their financial queries online or even worse, simply forgo financial matters altogether because it is just too daunting to even contemplate.

We’re here to help with this short video outlining the many benefits of working with a professional advisor such as yourself. Be sure to share it with your prospects today to highlight how your advice is not only valuable but can help them achieve their financial goals for today and the future. Continue reading “INFOclip: The Value of Advice” →

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INFOclip: The Value of Advice

Before we dive into this interesting topic, let’s start with the definition of an estate freeze. An estate freeze is a common planning strategy for business owners to pass the growth of their company onto the next generation and cap the value that will be subject to income tax on the sale of their shares in the company or on their death.

The question of whether to freeze and when, is something your business owner clients should consider.  Many things come into play when deciding when to freeze, including the value of the company, age of the parents who are considering a freeze, as well as the ages of the children to whom the growth is to be passed. Additionally, in today’s market, there are many other reasons to contemplate freezing the value of the company now – has the pandemic caused the value of the company to decline? Speculation that the capital gains rate might increase from 50% to 75%, which would increase the tax liability on death for the shares, is another reason to look at implementation of an estate freeze sooner rather than later. Continue reading “To Freeze or Not to Freeze, That Is the Question” →

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Is an Estate Freeze Something I Should Consider for my business?

As an advisor, you know the many categories and variations that exist within insurance – all of it can be quite perplexing for anyone who is not familiar with the insurance world.

This video describes the difference between term and permanent insurance, as well as living benefits like critical illness, long term disability and long-term care in a way that is easy for clients to understand. Share the client-friendly link below with your clients to help them decide which insurance is right for them. Continue reading “SMART TALK… about choosing the right insurance” →

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SMART TALK… about choosing the right insurance

When it comes to life insurance, the process can be a little daunting, especially for those clients that don’t know what to expect. Needs analysis, the application and underwriting process, payment options… it’s a lot.

Watch this video, then share it with your clients to help them understand the process of purchasing life insurance. Continue reading “SMART TALK… about your insurance options” →

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SMART TALK… about your insurance options