Life insurance is designed to help you provide for those you love most long after you are no longer with them. It is designed to provide a lump sum of tax free cash that can be used how you best need it. It can create a steady stream of income to replace your lost earnings as well as clear your family’s debts. It can bring fairness into the passing on of your estate or it can be used to reduce the tax burden of your estate. Lastly, it is a means whereby families can more efficiently increase the wealth of each succeeding generation.
Critical illness insurance protects your finances from the big three illnesses: cancer, heart attack and stroke. It provides a lump sum of tax free money that you can use for whatever purpose you deem fit. It may be used to increase your treatment options, it may be used to replace income during treatment, it may be used to prevent you from withdrawing your retirement savings (which, if registered, are taxable), or it may be used to allow your spouse to take time off from their job in order to be by your side. Ultimately the point of this insurance, like any insurance, is to provide you with a level of financial security. When the worst happens it is worth more than just the dollar figure to know you don’t have to worry about where the money is going to come from; getting well can be your whole focus.
Disability insurance and Group health and disability insurance, at its core, provide you some measure of wage protection in the event that you are not able to work. For a large part of your life, excluding childhood and retirement, your single biggest asset is your job. Without income everything starts to fall apart; you must sell off assets, not always for a fair price, you have to curtail your lifestyle and often you must give up some of your dreams. Disability insurance provides a way of cushioning your fall and allowing you the income to realize a portion of your former wages, thus protecting both you and your family from the terrible scenario of having no income which leads to forced sales and liquidating assets in a dizzying downward spiral to penury.
Insurance should be an integral part of your financial security planning and we have the resources and expertise to advice on all sorts of insurance needs, from family protection to corporate protection, and mortgage insurance to estate planning.
The following link provides an interactive life insurance needs analysis (figure out how much and what type you need). It is useful as a place to start but the best place to get insurance advice is from an insurance professional. http://www.aegoncanada.com/Video/Life/en/Transamerica_LifeScripter.swf
