THE INSURANCE ADVISOR CALGARY CAN TRUST
Insurance is the most effective way to provide your family and business with financial protection while also giving you peace of mind. These are three of the most common types of insurance you need:
Your greatest asset is you and your ability to earn a living. If you’re disabled and can’t work, disability insurance can mean the difference between having enough to pay your bills and financial ruin. Disability insurance is vital for business owners, but anyone responsible for supporting themselves or their family should strongly consider it.
Unfortunately, nearly 50% of all individuals 35 or younger will be disabled for 90 days or longer before age 65.
Approximately 30% of people aged 35 – 65 will suffer a disability for at least 90 days, and about 1 in 7 can expect to become disabled for five years or more.
With critical illness insurance, you’ll get a tax-free lump sum of money if you have a heart attack, stroke or cancer. This can be especially important if you’re self-employed and don’t have employer benefits to help tide you over if you can’t work while recovering or receiving treatment. You can use the lump sum any way you see fit, such as paying off bills so you can take time off to focus on your recovery. You may also want to use the lump sum to pay for treatment that the public health system doesn’t cover.
Life insurance is a must if you have anyone financially dependent on you. Life insurance is generally inexpensive to obtain and provides your family with a tax-free lump sum payment in the event of your death. There are two main types of life insurance – term and permanent life insurance.
With term life insurance, you’re covered for a set period – five, ten, twenty or thirty years. Premiums are lower than they are for permanent life insurance and will rise as you age or if your health deteriorates. Term life insurance is an excellent choice to cover temporary needs such as a mortgage or debt or when your children depend financially on you.
Permanent insurance provides you with lifetime coverage. The premiums will be more expensive than term insurance at the beginning but cost less overall than if you had term insurance for your whole life. In addition, permanent life insurance can be used to cover final expenses and final taxes.
There are also permanent life insurance policies that act as an investment vehicle allowing you to contribute additional funds to the policy, where it grows tax-free. Those funds can be used to supplement your retirement.
We can help you determine what type of life insurance is best for you and how much coverage you need.
It's easy to think about insurance last — after the investments, after the tax planning, after the retirement projections. But every one of those plans assumes you're still healthy and still earning. Insurance is what protects that assumption. Without it, a single illness, injury, or death doesn't just derail your finances — it can undo everything else you've built.
And most people, even those who feel financially responsible, are carrying less protection than they think. Recent industry data shows one in three Canadian households are underinsured for life insurance, with an average coverage shortfall of roughly 14.5% — and the gap is even wider for younger Canadians and business owners with no employer plan to fall back on.
So the real question isn't whether you need insurance — nearly everyone with a family, a business, or debt does. The question is whether your current coverage actually matches what your family or business would need, or whether it's been left unreviewed since the day it was set up.
Off-the-shelf coverage amounts rarely reflect your actual debt, income replacement needs, business obligations, or family situation. We calculate what you and your family or business would actually need — for life, disability, and critical illness insurance — and build a plan around that number, not a rough guess.
When you work with us, here's what that looks like in practice:
One in three Canadians are underinsured. Find out if you're one of them.
Book a free, no-obligation conversation and get a clear picture of what coverage you actually need.
Book Your Free 20-Minute MeetingSee how this plays out in practice
Read an illustrative case study on reviewing coverage after a growing family and a bigger practice.
Read the Scenario →This page provides general educational information and is not personalized financial or insurance advice. Individual circumstances vary — book a meeting to discuss your specific situation.
