What is Assuris, and what does it protect?
An industry funded compensation association, and not a government programme. Every life and health insurer authorised to sell in Canada must be a member, and the members pay for it. If a member fails, Assuris protects policyholder benefits up to published limits, stated separately for the amount payable on death and for accumulated value. Money at a deposit-taking institution sits under a different system.
What kind of answer this is
- Claim type: Tax or regulatory position
- Claim type: Contract fact
- Jurisdiction: Canada wide
Every figure and every description on this page was read on Assuris's own published material on the review date below. Limits change, so the figures are confirmed with Assuris rather than taken from any presentation, including this one.
How it works
Assuris is paid for by assessments on its member companies, and its own material calls the arrangement privately funded, without reliance on public funding. On a failure, a court appointed liquidator ordinarily transfers policies to a solvent company. For a whole life contract the published protection is $1,000,000 or 90 percent of the death benefit, whichever is higher, and $100,000 or 90 percent of the cash value, whichever is higher.
The cost or the catch
The protection is real and it is not deposit protection: different source, scope and amounts, and no government behind it. It sits behind the insurer's strength, which is what the guarantees rest on first. Confirm the limits with Assuris.
Where this answer may not apply
- Accumulated value inside an insurance contract is not a deposit and carries no federal deposit protection. The two systems have different sources, different scopes and different amounts, and neither substitutes for the other.
- Assuris protection reaches policyholders of its member companies. A contract issued by a company that is not a member is outside it, and the member list is published by Assuris.
- How the limits apply where one household holds several contracts with the same failed member is not settled by the published material read for this page, and Assuris should be asked directly.
- Nothing here describes what any particular failure would produce. Insurance failures in Canada are rare and each one is resolved on its own facts, through a court appointed liquidator.
- Protection within a limit is not the same as a promise that no benefit is reduced. Above the published limit, part of a benefit can be lost.
What to verify in your own contract
- The current protection limits, taken from assuris.ca on the day you read them rather than from any presentation.
- That the issuing insurer appears on the member company list Assuris publishes.
- The amount payable on death and the accumulated value in your own contract, set beside the published limits.
- How Assuris says the limits apply where more than one contract is held with the same company, asked of Assuris directly.
- The insurer's own capital and financial strength reporting, which is what the contractual guarantees actually depend on.
Continue to the full explanation
Prepare the questions for a CPA, a lawyer and an insurance professional.
Sources
- Assuris, Who Is Assuris, assuris.ca, verified 2026-08-31
- Assuris, Resolution Funding, assuris.ca, verified 2026-08-31
- Assuris, Whole Life protection limits, assuris.ca, verified 2026-08-31
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
- 2026-08-31
- 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 2026-08-31. By Jose Salloum, Financial Security Advisor.