How often should I review a policy I already own?
Once a year against the statement, and sooner when something structural moves: a marriage or a separation, a birth, a new corporation, a move to another province, a lasting change in income, or the end of a payment period. A review is a reading and a list of questions. It is not an occasion to buy anything, and most of them end with nothing changed.
What kind of answer this is
- Claim type: Professional judgment
- Jurisdiction: Canada wide
The cadence is professional judgment rather than a rule, and no regulator prescribes it. What triggers a reading sooner depends on the household rather than on the contract.
How it works
The annual reading is short: compare this year's four figures against last year's, confirm the people named are the people you intend, and note anything you cannot explain. The event driven reading is longer, because the events above change who should own the contract and who should receive it.
The cost or the catch
The yearly reading costs an hour. Skipping it lets small drifts compound quietly: an address that stopped being current, a deposit that stopped in year four, a designation that outlived a relationship. Each is cheap to fix early and expensive to find at a claim.
Where this answer may not apply
- A contract that is fully paid and simply held may need less attention than this, and a contract carrying an outstanding balance needs more.
- A corporately owned contract is reviewed on the corporation's calendar as well as the household's.
- Reviewing more often does not improve a contract, and it does create more occasions to be sold something.
- Nothing here is a schedule for meetings with anyone. Most of the reading is done alone.
What to verify in your own contract
- That the statement arrived at all, since a changed address is the commonest reason it did not.
- The four figures on it, compared against the same four a year earlier.
- Whether any optional deposit was missed in the year, and what the design assumed.
- Whether the people named on the contract are still the people you intend.
- Whether anything in the year changed the tax picture, which is a question for an accountant rather than a statement.
Continue to the full explanation
Prepare for an existing policy review.
Sources
- Annual statement and policy contract, insurer specific, verified 2026-08-30
- CCIR and CISRO, Guidance on Conduct of Insurance Business and Fair Treatment of Customers, 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.