How should I compare two illustrations from different insurers?
Compare only what is comparable. Line up the guaranteed values year by year, then the loan provision, the recognition method, the premium schedule and the riders. The projected columns are not comparable, because each company set its own scale using its own pricing assumptions, and the one showing more today is often the one that has assumed more rather than the one that will deliver more.
What kind of answer this is
- Claim type: Contract fact
- Claim type: Professional judgment
- Jurisdiction: Contract dependent
The guaranteed values and the provisions are contract facts open to inspection. The judgment that projected columns should not be ranked against each other is the author's own.
How it works
Two documents from two companies share a format and little else. Guaranteed rows can be set against each other because both are obligations measured the same way. Provisions can, because both are written down. The rest was produced by a company choosing what to assume.
The cost or the catch
Ignoring that means paying more for a document that looked better in a meeting. A company can lift its projected column by assuming a little more and lose nothing today, since nothing attaches to the figure. The shopping test is short. Which contract is better if neither company declares another participation.
Where this answer may not apply
- Two documents run at different ages, different amounts or different premium periods are not two versions of one decision and cannot be laid side by side at all.
- Underwriting can end the comparison, because a class offered by one company and refused by another decides the question before any column is read.
- Where the coverage is corporately owned the comparison also runs through the tax and accounting treatment, and that is work for a CPA.
- An in force document on a contract you already hold is not comparable to a new proposal for anyone.
What to verify in your own contract
- Guaranteed cash value and guaranteed coverage at years five, ten, twenty and at age sixty-five on both documents.
- The loan interest rate, how it is set, and whether each contract credits value in full while an advance is outstanding.
- The premium period on each, and what each document assumes happens after it ends.
- Whether both were run on the same amount, the same age and the same health class.
- The financial strength ratings of both insurers, and the Assuris limits that would apply.
Continue to the full explanation
Use the illustration reading guide.
Sources
- The policy contract wording and illustration assumptions pages of both insurers, verified 2026-08-30
- Assuris, published protection limits, 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
- Contract dependent
- 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.