How do I request an in force illustration from the insurer?
Ask the insurer in writing, and say what you want it to show. The request goes to the service department or through whoever is recorded on the file, quoting the contract number and the owner's name. Name the scenarios: payments continuing, payments stopping in a stated year, and the current scale reduced. Nothing obliges you to go through the person who sold the contract.
What kind of answer this is
- Claim type: Contract fact
- Claim type: Professional judgment
- Jurisdiction: Canada wide
That an owner may deal with the insurer directly is a contract fact. What each insurer charges, how quickly it responds and which scenarios it will run are administrative practice and differ between companies.
How it works
The owner of a contract is entitled to deal with the company that issued it. A written request naming the contract, the owner and the scenarios wanted is usually enough, and most companies deliver in a few working days. A representative can submit the same request for you.
The cost or the catch
A request that names no scenarios comes back as one run at the current scale, which is the least useful version of the document. The scenarios are the point. One run at a reduced scale and one with the optional deposits stopped will tell you more than ten pages at the hoped for figures.
Where this answer may not apply
- Some insurers route every request through a licensed representative and will not produce the document for an owner directly.
- A request made by somebody who is not the recorded owner will be refused, and correctly so.
- Nothing here promises the document is free. Most insurers charge nothing, but that is practice rather than a term of the contract.
- The scenarios available are the ones the insurer's own software will run, and not every question can be answered by one.
What to verify in your own contract
- The insurer's service telephone number and written address, taken from the contract rather than from a search result.
- The exact contract number and the name in which the contract is registered.
- Whether the insurer will accept the request by secure message, by mail or only through a representative.
- What the insurer proposes to charge, asked before the request is submitted.
- That the document you receive is dated within days of the values you were quoted.
Continue to the full explanation
Prepare for an existing policy review.
Sources
- Insurer service department procedures, insurer specific, verified 2026-08-30
- Autorité des marchés financiers, register of representatives, verified 2026-08-30
Accountability and disclosure
- Written by
- José Salloum
- Professional capacity
- Financial security advisor, Canadian Wealth Creation Centre Inc., operating as IBC Financial
- Reviewed by
- Insurance and contract education tier, reviewed under a licensed insurance professional's own authority
- Jurisdiction
- Canada wide
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30
- Version
- 1.0
- Compensation disclosure
- Canadian Wealth Creation Centre Inc., operating as IBC Financial, may receive insurer paid compensation if a policy is purchased. It takes the form of first year compensation followed by renewal compensation, and the amount varies by insurer, product, age, premium, contract design, riders and the arrangement with the managing general agency. No single figure would describe every contract honestly, and none is published here.
- Report a correction
- Info@ibcfinancial.com. Write without a policy number, medical information or account details.
Last reviewed 2026-08-30. By Jose Salloum, Financial Security Advisor.