Can You Use This Method in Quebec? What Changes and What Does Not

"Is this available in Quebec?" It is a question Google now shows on its own, beside what people call "infinite banking", and it is a fair one. Much of what is written on the subject comes from the United States, where the insurance rules are different. A good part of the rest comes from other provinces. So a reader in Quebec reads an article, feels drawn to the idea, and then wonders whether any of it applies at home.

Why does the question matter? Because the answer decides who you should talk to, which rules protect you, and which documents you should expect to read. A household that starts without knowing what is the same and what is different can end up trusting the wrong person, or missing a protection the Quebec Civil Code offers for free. A good start depends less on enthusiasm than on knowing the ground you stand on.

So this page does three things. It answers the question in a sentence. It separates what is the same everywhere in Canada from what Quebec law changes. And it gives you the questions to ask before you begin. Nothing here asks you to decide anything today.

Let me give you the short answer first.

Is the method available in Quebec?

Yes. The method rests on a specially designed, high-cash-value, participating whole life insurance policy and on the policy loan its insurer offers, and both are available to Quebec residents. What Quebec changes is who may advise you, the Civil Code rules on the beneficiary, and your right to be served in French.

That is the whole answer. The rest of this page explains each part, because each part carries weight.

The method is not a product sold under its own name. No insurer issues a contract called by the name people search. What exists is an ordinary category of life insurance, used in a particular way, with a particular discipline. That category is available in Quebec, as it is across the country.

It helps to say plainly what the method is not. It is not a deposit account. It is not a lender you own. It is not an investment with a promised return. It is life insurance, first and always, and the rest follows from that.

What does the method actually use?

It uses one contract and one feature of that contract. The contract is a participating whole life insurance policy designed for higher early cash value. The feature is the policy loan: money the insurer lends you, from its own funds, with your cash value as security. You pay interest to the insurer.

Each part of that sentence matters, so take them one at a time.

The contract is permanent life insurance. It pays a death benefit whenever death occurs, as long as the premiums are paid. Over the years it also builds cash value, which is the amount the contract is worth if it ends before death. Participating life insurance explains how such a contract works.

The design matters. A contract designed for higher early cash value splits each premium between the base coverage and an optional amount that buys paid-up additions, which are small blocks of extra coverage with their own cash value. Paid-up additions shows how they add to the contract. High cash value life insurance explains the choices a licensed insurance professional makes in the design.

The word "participating" means the contract may receive dividends from the insurer's participating account. Dividends are not guaranteed; a lower dividend slows future growth but does not reduce cash value already credited.

Then comes the policy loan. When you need money, you can ask the insurer for a loan. The money comes from the insurer's own funds, and your cash value is the security. Your cash value stays in the contract. You pay interest to the insurer, at the rate the insurer sets. You repay on the schedule you choose, within the terms of the contract. Policy loans covers the details.

Last, the method takes time. Cash value builds slowly in the early years, and in those years it is usually lower than the premiums paid. A household that starts needs years of steady premiums before the contract can carry a loan of any size.

None of these parts is unique to any province. That is why the method can be applied in Quebec.

Where does the name come from?

The name comes from a book. Nelson Nash, an American author, described this way of using a participating policy in a book published in 2000, and named the idea The Infinite Banking Concept®. The name describes an idea about using a contract, not a product, a firm or a service.

That matters in Quebec for a simple reason. The name uses a word that, in Canada, describes regulated institutions that take deposits. A participating policy is not one of those institutions, and nobody who owns one becomes one. When an article or a seminar suggests otherwise, it is using the name loosely.

So this site uses the name only to say what people search for, and then describes the method in plain words: a policy, an insurer that lends, interest paid to the insurer, and years of premiums. You will find the same approach on the strategy's main page, which sets out how the method works in Canada, its costs and its risks.

Neither this site nor its owner is affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Infinite Banking Concepts, LLC or the Nelson Nash Institute.

What is the same in Quebec as in the rest of Canada?

Four things are the same. The federal tax rules on life insurance apply in every province. Insurers authorized to sell in Canada must belong to Assuris. The policy loan works the same way. And the contract's guaranteed values are set by the insurer, not by the province.

Start with tax. The Income Tax Act is federal law. Its rules on life insurance apply to a Quebec resident exactly as they apply to a resident of Ontario or Alberta.

Under subsection 148(9) of the Act, a policy loan is an amount advanced by an insurer to a policyholder under the terms of the policy, and it counts as a disposition. In practice, a policy loan is generally not taxable up to the contract's adjusted cost basis. A loan above that basis can create taxable income. Are policy loans taxable in Canada? explains the rule.

The exempt test is also federal. It limits how much cash value a contract may hold compared with its coverage. A contract that fails it loses its tax-sheltered growth. The test applies in Quebec without change.

Next, protection if an insurer fails. Every life and health insurance company authorized to sell insurance in Canada must belong to Assuris. For cash value, Assuris guarantees that the policyholder keeps up to $100,000 or 90% of the benefit amount, whichever is higher. The rule is national, so a Quebec policyholder is covered on the same terms.

Then the loan itself. In Quebec as in every other province, a policy loan is money advanced to you by the insurer. The interest goes to the insurer. If the loan and its interest grow larger than the cash value, the contract can end, and that can create a tax bill.

Last, the guarantees. The guaranteed cash value and the guaranteed death benefit are printed in your contract by the insurer. They depend on the insurer's ability to pay, not on any government. They do not change because you live in Quebec.

What does Quebec law change?

Quebec changes three things a household will notice. Only a person certified by the Autorité des marchés financiers may advise you on the policy. The contract follows the Civil Code, which has its own rules on the beneficiary and on seizure. And you have the right to be informed and served in French.

Each of these is a protection for you. Each one is worth knowing before you meet anyone.

Who may advise you in Quebec?

In Quebec, the Act respecting the distribution of financial products and services sets the rule. Section 3 defines an insurance of persons representative as the natural person who offers individual insurance of persons products or individual annuities of one or more insurers directly to the public.

Section 12 adds the condition that matters most. No one may act as a representative, or hold themselves out as one, without a certificate issued for that purpose by the Autorité des marchés financiers, the AMF.

In Quebec, that certified person carries the title Financial Security Advisor (conseiller en sécurité financière). That title belongs to Quebec. In other provinces, the licence has other names.

This is why a reader in Quebec should not rely on a seminar, a video or a book alone. Those may teach the idea. The contract itself must be recommended and placed by someone the AMF has certified.

What does the Civil Code change?

In Quebec, a life insurance contract is governed by the Civil Code of Quebec. Three of its articles are worth knowing before you choose a beneficiary.

Article 2457 says that when the designated beneficiary is the married or civil union spouse, a descendant or an ascendant of the policyholder, the rights under the contract are exempt from seizure until the beneficiary receives the sum insured.

Article 2458 says that an irrevocable designation binds the policyholder, even if the beneficiary does not know of it, and that while it lasts, the rights under the contract are exempt from seizure.

Article 2459 says that divorce, or the dissolution of a civil union, makes the designation of the spouse as beneficiary lapse.

These rules can matter a great deal to a family, and they are not the same as the rules in the other provinces. Creditor protection across the two legal traditions compares them. The designation and what a creditor can reach goes further. Each rule has limits and exceptions, so how they apply to you is a question for a notary or a lawyer.

The Civil Code also affects couples. A de facto spouse is not a married spouse under article 2457. A de facto spouse in Quebec and what changed covers that question for unmarried couples.

What about language?

Section 5 of the Charter of the French language says that consumers of goods and services have the right to be informed and served in French. For a household in Quebec, that means you can ask for the illustration, the contract and the policy loan documents in French, and you can ask your representative to explain them in French.

Read what you sign in the language you read most easily. A contract this long-lived deserves that.

What about income tax in Quebec?

Quebec administers its own income tax. A Quebec resident therefore deals with two tax authorities, the Canada Revenue Agency and Revenu Québec. The federal life insurance rules described above apply on the federal return. How Quebec treats the same contract on the provincial return is a question for your accountant, before you sign and before any loan.

Is the method legal in Quebec?

Yes, as a use of an insurance contract. Owning a participating policy and requesting a policy loan from the insurer are ordinary features of life insurance in Quebec. What is not lawful is describing the arrangement as something it is not: a deposit, a lender you own, or an investment with a promised return.

The legal question usually comes from one of two worries. The first is that the method sounds too good to be lawful. The second is that its name suggests an activity that only regulated institutions may carry on.

The first worry is answered by the contract. A participating policy, its cash value and its policy loan are described in the contract and governed by Quebec and federal law. Nothing in using them is hidden or unusual.

The second worry is answered by the words. The method is lawful. Describing it as a deposit, or describing a policyholder as a lender of their own, is not accurate, and this site does not do it. Is this method legal in Canada? gives the longer answer for the whole country.

Why do some Quebec articles call it a mirage?

Because the method is often sold badly. A Quebec column published in 2025 called it a financial mirage. Several of its points are right: early cash value is low, dividends are not guaranteed, and the sales vocabulary is often misleading. Other points need context about loan rates, missed premiums and who the method suits.

It is healthy that a critic in Quebec looked at the method closely. Readers deserve both sides. A Quebec column calls it a mirage: each point checked takes each of its points in turn and says where it holds and where it needs context.

The short version is this. The method does not create money. It does not beat the market. It is a way of holding a long-term insurance contract and using its cash value as security for loans from the insurer, with discipline. For some households that fits. For many it does not.

Where do people in Quebec get confused?

Most confusion comes from five places: the name, the source of the loan, the word "guaranteed", the early years, and who is allowed to advise. Each one is easy to clear up before you start, and each one is cheaper to clear up before than after.

The name is the first. As explained above, it describes an idea, not an institution. Nobody who owns a policy becomes a lender in the regulated sense.

The source of the loan is the second. A policy loan does not come out of your cash value. It comes from the insurer's own funds, and your cash value secures it. That is why you pay interest to the insurer.

The word "guaranteed" is the third. The guaranteed cash value and death benefit are guarantees of the insurer, printed in the contract. Dividends are not guaranteed. An illustration shows both, side by side, and reading an illustration shows how to tell them apart.

The early years are the fourth. In the first years of the contract, cash value is usually lower than the premiums paid. A household that may need to end the contract early can lose money.

Who may advise is the fifth. A title such as "coach" or "educator" is not a certificate. In Quebec, only a representative certified by the Autorité des marchés financiers may advise you on the contract and place it.

How do you check who may advise you?

Use the AMF's public register. The Registre des entreprises et des individus autorisés à exercer lets you check whether the firm or the person you deal with is entitled to advise on, or sell, the financial product offered to you. It takes a few minutes and costs nothing.

Check before the first meeting, well before any application is signed. Look for three things. First, that the person holds a certificate in insurance of persons. Second, that the firm they work with is registered. Third, that nothing in the register raises a question you would want answered.

The AMF also publishes a register of insurers authorized in Quebec. If you are shown an illustration, you can check that the insurer behind it is listed.

This practice is based in Laval, Quebec, and places business in six provinces, Quebec among them. Its representatives carry the Quebec title of Financial Security Advisor. You can check them in the same register, which is exactly what you should do with anyone.

What should you ask before you start in Quebec?

Ask questions that test the person and the contract. Who certifies you, and in which discipline? Which insurer issues the contract? What are the guaranteed values each year? What does the loan cost? Who will be my beneficiary under the Civil Code, and what does that change?

Here are eight questions to bring to your first meeting.

1. Are you certified by the Autorité des marchés financiers in insurance of persons, and with which firm?
2. Which insurer would issue the contract, and does it belong to Assuris?
3. What are the guaranteed cash values, year by year, and when does cash value pass the premiums paid on the guaranteed scale alone?
4. How is my premium split between the base coverage and the optional amount for paid-up additions?
5. What interest rate does the insurer charge on a policy loan today, and how often can it change?
6. What happens if I cannot pay a premium for a year?
7. Whom should I name as beneficiary, and how do articles 2457 and 2458 of the Civil Code apply to that choice?
8. Can I receive the illustration and the contract in French?

A representative who answers each of these calmly and in writing is one you can work with. One who hurries past them is telling you something too.

Bring your accountant into the conversation early. Bring a notary or lawyer in when the beneficiary question touches your estate or your business.

How does this fit with the first steps?

Checking that the method is available where you live is part of the first step: learning what it is and what it is not. The next steps are checking your foundations, setting a premium you can keep paying, and choosing who will advise you. Each step has its own page.

How do you start? The first steps, in order sets out the whole sequence. How much money do you need to start? explains what sets the first premium and what must come before it. If you want to learn more before meeting anyone, where to learn the concept in Canada lists the honest ways to do it.

The family finance section gathers the other pages on budgets, reserves and protection for a household.

What this page will not tell you

It will not tell you whether the method suits your household. That depends on your income, your expenses, your age, your health, your family and your goals, and it is decided with a licensed insurance professional and your accountant once your foundations are in place. It gives no figure for cash value, premiums or loan rates, because each is specific to one contract and printed in its illustration. It does not give tax or legal advice. The Civil Code and tax points above are general rules, and how they apply to you is a question for your accountant and your notary or lawyer.

Who this does not suit

This approach does not suit someone with no stable income, or someone who would need to stretch to pay the premium. It does not suit someone with a short horizon, because early cash value is lower than the premiums paid. It does not suit someone carrying high-interest consumer debt, which should be cleared first, or someone looking for market returns, because this is insurance and does not behave like an investment. And it does not suit anyone who wants to start without meeting a certified representative, because in Quebec the contract cannot be placed any other way.

If one of those describes you today, the answer to "is it available in Quebec?" is still yes. The better question is whether it is available to you yet. Often the honest answer is: not yet, and that is fine.