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286 pages in 16 sections
Start Here 4
The Strategy 5
Whole Life Insurance 8
How a Policy Works 22
- An Advance of the Death Benefit While Living
- Cash Surrender Value
- Contingent Beneficiary
- Dividend-Paying Life Insurance
- Family History on an Application
- Financial Underwriting and Insurable Interest
- How a Participating Policy Works, Year by Year
- How Many Life Insurance Policies Can You Have?
- Insurance Premium
- Is Life Insurance Taxable in Canada?
- Life Insurance Underwriting
- Misrepresentation on an Application
- Paid-Up Additions
- Policy Loans in Canada
- Smoker Status and the Premium
- Tax-Deferred Growth
- The Civil Code and the Life Insurance Contract
- The Medical and What It Measures
- Travel, Residency and Occupation
- Waiver of Premium Rider
- What Is a Policyholder?
- When an Application Is Rated, Postponed or Declined
Retirement 5
Estate 8
- A Death Benefit and a Testamentary Trust
- An Estate With Assets and No Cash
- Asset Protection
- Estate Planning in Canada: What It Is, How It Works, Importance, Costs
- Family Patrimony and the Beneficiary Designation
- Generation Wealth Building
- Taxes on Death Benefits
- Will Verification in Quebec and the Death Benefit
Business Owners 19
- Buying Into a Partnership at the Point of Highest Debt
- Corporate-Owned Life Insurance (COLI)
- Cost Per Mile, and the Cost of Capital Nobody Costed
- Dentists and the Equipment Cycle: Who Is Paid Every Time
- Farm Families and the Land That Cannot Be Divided
- Insurance and Capital for Canadian Business Owners
- Manufacturers and the Machine That Outlives Its Financing
- Pharmacy Owners, Salaried Pharmacists, and the Capital on the Shelf
- Six Months of Income Against Twelve Months of Cost
- Somebody Else's Calendar: The Refit, the Lease and the Guarantee
- The Accountant Asked to Approve This, and What to Check
- The Contractor With One Client and a Contract That Ends
- The Design Practice and the Obligation That Outlives the Work
- The Holdback, the Crew and the Money Already Earned
- The Incorporated Physician's Corporation, and What Sits Inside It
- The Real Estate Agent's Year: Lumpy Income, Monthly Bills
- The Small Firm, the Draw, and Money That Is Not the Firm's
- Veterinarians and What the Practice Is Worth to Anybody Else
- What Is the Succession Planning Process?
Family Finance 9
- A Large Sum Arrives, and Nothing Has to Be Decided This Month
- Family Finance
- Insuring a Child, and What the Contract Is Actually For
- Requalifying Mid-Career, and the Timeline That Got Shorter
- The First Contract at Twenty-Five
- The Guaranteed Insurability Option
- Two Incomes in the Forties, and Where the Money Goes
- University Fees: A Known Cost on a Known Date
- Who Owns a Child's Policy
Money Principles 11
Objections and Risks 6
Answers 123
Business and corporate ownership 14
- Can a holding company own the policy?
- Criss cross, promissory note or share redemption: which structure?
- Does a corporately owned contract affect the small business share test?
- How does key person coverage differ from shareholder coverage?
- Should the corporation or the shareholder own the policy?
- What does a buy and sell agreement have to say about the coverage?
- What does a lender look at when a corporate contract is pledged as security?
- What does moving a contract from the corporation to the shareholder cost in tax?
- What does my accountant need from me before the year end?
- What happens to the contract if the corporation is sold or wound up?
- What is a shareholder benefit, and how does a contract trigger one?
- What is the adjusted cost basis of a corporate contract, and why does it matter?
- What is the capital dividend account, and how does a corporate claim reach it?
- What should the corporate minute book record about the contract?
Does this change where I live? 15
- Can an irrevocable designation be changed at all?
- Do family patrimony and my matrimonial regime touch my life insurance?
- Does my will override the beneficiary named on the contract?
- Does where I live change the tax on an advance or a policy gain?
- How do I raise a problem with an insurance company?
- If I move to another province, does my contract change?
- Is a policy protected from creditors everywhere in Canada?
- Notarial, holograph or before witnesses: does the form of will matter?
- What does probate cost, and does naming a beneficiary avoid it?
- What does the Civil Code change for a life insurance contract?
- What is a liquidator, and how is that different from an executor?
- What language must my contract and my documents be in, in Quebec?
- Who regulates insurance where I live?
- Why does Quebec have different rules from the rest of Canada?
- Why is naming my married or civil union spouse irrevocable in Quebec?
How a policy ends 9
- Can a surrender create taxable income?
- Can ownership pass to another generation?
- How is the money actually paid out?
- How much do I get back if I surrender?
- What documents will a beneficiary be asked for?
- What happens if I cancel my policy?
- What happens to a corporately owned contract?
- What happens to an amount still owed?
- What happens when the insured dies?
How do I review a policy I already own? 15
- Can I change the ownership or the beneficiary on a contract I already own?
- Can I stop paying and keep the contract, and what are reduced paid up and extended term?
- How do I read my annual policy statement?
- How do I request an in force illustration from the insurer?
- How often should I review a policy I already own?
- I cannot find my policy documents. What now?
- My policy is not performing the way it was illustrated. What happened?
- Should I get a second opinion on a policy I already own?
- What are the warning signs that a second opinion is really a sales pitch?
- What documents should I gather before any review of my policy?
- What does an in force illustration tell me?
- What is a policy replacement, and why is replacement regulated in Canada?
- What is my contract's adjusted cost basis, and where do I find it?
- What should a second opinion establish before anyone suggests changing anything?
- Who services my contract now, and how do I have somebody else appointed?
How will it be funded? 10
- Can I add a paid-up additions rider to a policy I already own?
- Can I increase my premium after the policy is issued?
- Can I use the policy's own value to pay the premium?
- Does paying annually cost less than monthly?
- How much can I pay into a whole life policy?
- Once dividends cover the premium, is the insurance free?
- What does overfunding a policy mean?
- What happens if I miss a premium payment?
- What happens if my policy fails the exempt test?
- Why is my cash value lower than the premiums I paid?
Should this be in my life? 11
- Do I need permanent life insurance?
- How long do I need to keep the policy?
- How stable does my income need to be?
- Is this method a scam?
- Is this method legal in Canada?
- Is this method worth it in Canada?
- Should I pay off debt first?
- Should I use my TFSA or RRSP first?
- What can actually go wrong?
- What is Assuris, and what does it protect?
- Who should not use this method?
Using policy value 10
- Advance, withdrawal or assignment: what differs?
- Am I borrowing my own money?
- Are policy loans taxable in Canada?
- Can I borrow against my whole life policy?
- Do policy loans affect my credit?
- Do you pay policy loan interest to yourself?
- Does cash value keep growing with a loan?
- How long does an advance take, and is there a minimum?
- What happens to the death benefit?
- Where does policy loan money come from?
What am I being shown? 11
- Are life insurance illustrations forecasts?
- Are participating policy dividends guaranteed?
- Does a higher dividend scale mean a better contract?
- How is the dividend scale actually decided?
- How should I compare two illustrations from different insurers?
- What does a life insurance illustration leave out?
- What happens if the dividend scale goes down?
- What is the difference between a dividend scale and an interest rate?
- What is the difference between the guaranteed column and the illustrated column?
- What should I ask about an illustration before I sign?
- Which document wins if the illustration and the policy disagree?
What happens when life changes? 10
- Can creditors reach my policy if my business fails?
- I can no longer afford the premium. What are my options?
- What happens if I do not repay?
- What happens if my advisor retires or leaves the business?
- What happens if the policy lapses?
- What happens to a policy in a separation or divorce?
- What happens to an irrevocable designation if we separate?
- What happens to my policy if I lose my job?
- What happens to my policy if I move out of Canada?
- Who pays the premium if I become disabled?
Glossary 5
Where We Serve 46
- Brandon: The Land That Cannot Be Split
- Burlington: The Second Death, Not the First
- Calgary: The Income That Arrives in Lumps
- Dieppe: The Language the Paperwork Is In
- Edmonton: The Pension Is Real, the Capital Is Not
- Fredericton: One Household, Two Different Risks
- Hamilton: When the Body Is the Income
- Kitchener and Waterloo: When the Job and the Savings Are One Company
- Laval: The House Is the Balance Sheet, and It Cannot Be Divided
- Lethbridge: The Water Travels With the Land
- Life Insurance by Province and City in Canada
- Life Insurance in Abbotsford: The Working Farm Inside a City
- Life Insurance in Alberta: Rules, Probate and Who May Advise You
- Life Insurance in Brampton: The Obligations Nobody Wrote Down
- Life Insurance in Burnaby: A Home You Own With Other People
- Life Insurance in Coquitlam: The Money the Parents Put In
- Life Insurance in Kelowna: Arriving With the Sale Behind You
- Life Insurance in Langley: The Business That Ends With You
- Life Insurance in London, Ontario: Money Left Over and No Decision Made
- Life Insurance in Longueuil: One Industry, and a Pension That Is a Promise
- Life Insurance in Manitoba: The Province That Abolished Probate Fees
- Life Insurance in New Brunswick: Title Protection and Two Official Languages
- Life Insurance in Quebec: A Different Legal System Entirely
- Life Insurance in Richmond: The Name You Put on the Title
- Life Insurance in Sherbrooke: Smaller Numbers, and Why the Order Matters More
- Life Insurance in Surrey: The Household Three Generations Deep
- Life Insurance in Vancouver: What Is Different in British Columbia
- Life Insurance in Victoria: The Household That Has Already Stopped Building
- Lévis: The Career, the Crossing, and No Sum to Direct
- Markham: The Money That Never Leaves the Company
- Mississauga: Capital an Owner Controls
- Moncton: Income Without Capital Behind It
- Montreal: Where a Renting City's Money Actually Goes
- Oakville: Pay You Have Not Been Given Yet
- Ottawa and Gatineau: Living in One Province, Working in Another
- Provinces Where This Practice Is Not Licensed
- Quebec City: Beyond an Indexed Pension
- Red Deer: When Every Customer Slows at Once
- Saguenay: Distance Changes What Capital Is For
- Saint John: One Employer Holds All Three
- Terrebonne: The Decade the Mortgage Is Largest and the Savings Smallest
- Toronto: How to Stop Financing Your Life Through Someone Else
- Trois-Rivières: A Pension That Is Owed Rather Than Held
- Vaughan: The Year the Work Stops
- Windsor: A Household on Two Sides of a Border
- Winnipeg: The House Is Paid For and the Estate Is Thin
The Practice 6
Resources 3
Legal and Privacy 6
Last reviewed 2026-09-09.
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