What is life insurance?
Life insurance or life assurance is a contract between the policy owner and the insurer, the insurer agrees to pay a lump-sum of money at the insured's death. In return, the policy owner agrees to pay a stipulated amount called a premium. A benefit is paid to the designated Beneficiaries should the insured pass away.
Life insurance may be divided into two basic classes – temporary (term) and permanent (Whole Life and Universal Life).
Types of Life Insurance
Temporary (Term Insurance)
- Term Life Insurance is primarily for persons seeking coverage for a limited period. (young adults, young couples or young families for example).
- Persons wishing to meet their need for insurance despite budget constraints.
- Owners of small and medium-sized businesses (for example, to obtain coverage in case of the loss of a key employee)
Most term-insurance policies have the following features:
- Your sum insured and premiums are guaranteed for the term of your insurance
- Your premiums are determined on the basis of the amount chosen to be insured, the general condition of your health and lifestyle
- Several options are available o Renewable and convertible term coverage for term such as 10, 20 or 100 years.
- You may insure multiple persons under the same contract
Whole Life Insurance
Whole Life Insurance is suited to the needs of people who are seeking financial stability and security for their loved ones in the event of a premature death.
Who Should Consider Permanent Life Insurance?
- Persons wishing to ensure the financial security of their loved ones in the event of death.
- Persons seeking a simple, flexible and affordable product.
Common features and advantages of whole life Insurance
- Four permanent options are available:
- L10, lifetime coverage with premium payments for 10 years;
- L20, lifetime coverage with premium payments for 20 years;
- L65, lifetime coverage with premium payments up to the age of 65;
- L100, lifetime coverage with premium payments up the age of 100.
- Your sum insurance and premiums are guaranteed for the term of your insurance.
- You enjoy guaranteed cash surrender values
- Your premiums are determined according to the sum insured chosen and the general state of your health
- You may insure multiple persons under the same contract.
Universal Life Insurance
With universal life insurance, you can insure the financial security of you and your loved ones through one and the same contract and at the same time accumulate additional tax-sheltered amount.
Who Should Consider Universal Life Insurance?
- Individuals or families seeking financial security and wishing to accumulate additional funds (for example, to carry out retirement plans)
- Young dual-income professional couples that can pay the insurance premium more quickly.
- Persons with a higher than average income who are looking for a tax-sheltered savings vehicle other than a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP).
- Business people, to finance a shareholders agreement or insure a key employee
Features and Advantages of Universal Life
- You obtain affordable permanent life-insurance protection combined with an attractive tax-sheltered savings account.
- You can choose and modify the amount of insurance, the cost options, the payment frequency, and the premium amount in accordance with your needs.
- You can diversify your savings though a range of investment options.
- You have the opportunity to make partial withdrawals to carry out your projects.
- You may insure multiple persons under the same contract
You have the opportunity to maximize the growth of your tax-sheltered savings through a full range of investment options offering competitive returns.
Life Insurance's most obvious and significant benefit is the lump sum payment it provides when the insured person dies. This lump sum is paid directly to the beneficiary designated in the life insurance policy and it's not taxable.
Need for Life Insurance
The most common use of life insurance is to protect a person's dependents. If that person dies, his or her dependents could have to deal not only with the loss of a loved one, but also the loss of that person's present and future income.
The tax-free, lump sum payment that a life insurance policy provides can replace the deceased person's earnings, pay debts and other liabilities, and cover education costs and daily living expenses.
Another use of life insurance proceeds is to pay debts, tax liabilities and other estate costs so the estate's assets don't have to be eroded or borrowed against to cover these expenses.
Below are some of the financial liabilities that can threaten your estate and how life insurance can help protect the assets you worked so hard to build.
1. Capital Gains Taxes
Life Insurance can provide funding to pay for capital gains tax that you owe.
2. Registered Plans and Tax Liabilities
When you pass away any registered funds you own will create a tax liability of the estate. Life insurance offers an effective way to offset that liability.
3. Estate Taxes
You may be liable for estate taxes in other jurisdictions when your loved ones die.
4. Probate Fee and Other Estate Costs
Life Insurance can provide the funding that is estimated will be needed to cover probate cost as will as other estate costs. Other estate costs could include funeral and burial expenses, estate administration costs such as executor's fees, evaluator or appraiser fees, and legal accounting fees.
5. Building and Preserving an Estate
As we all know, it's not easy to accumulate money and it's even harder to amass significant funds to leave behind.
Because exempt life insurance policy's proceeds are paid tax-free to the beneficiary, life insurance can be an efficient way to create an estate and to transfer wealth to later generations.
Some people are interested in protecting their assets from creditors' claims. Life insurance can offer this protection, depending on provincial laws and how the policy is set up.
Withdrawals, Policy Loans and Leveraging
Once a significant cash value has accumulated within an exempt life insurance policy may be accessed directly through a cash withdrawal or policy loan. These transactions would be considered dispositions of the policy and are potentially subject to taxation.
Leveraging is another option that allows the policy owner to access the value with the policy without triggering the tax consequences that often accompany a disposition. It involves creating an income stream by using the life insurance policy as collateral security for a loan.
Life Insurance can also help you get a loan from a lending institution. Lenders will often require a life insurance policy as collateral security for a loan.
Inter generational Wealth Transfer
A life insurance policy can serve as a vehicle for transferring accumulated wealth to the next or succeeding generations while you are still alive. This is possible because, under specific conditions, ownership of a life insurance policy can be transferred without triggering tax consequences.
Buddy "Cake Boss" Valastro, 2012 Spokesperson for Life Insurance Awareness Month.Watch the Cake Boss's Life Insurance Story