Life insurance in Ajax

CWCC works with families, multigenerational households, commuters and business owners in Ajax and Durham Region on life insurance, living benefits, succession planning and capital strategy: entirely online. The firm is registered with Quebec’s AMF under number 602293 and is licensed to place insurance in Ontario, where Jose Salloum is a licensed life insurance agent with FSRA.

A point about titles

In Ontario the titles “Financial Planner” and “Financial Advisor” are protected under the Financial Professionals Title Protection Act. We do not use them. Jose Salloum is a licensed life insurance agent here: that is what his FSRA licence permits.

What makes Ajax different

Ajax grew quickly and its population is among the most diverse in Durham Region, which shows in how households are put together.

Many multigenerational households. Elderly parents, adult children and grandchildren under one roof or a few streets away.

A commuting population. Long drives west, and budgets calculated on two incomes.

A neighbouring energy sector. With specialised jobs and solid group plans.

Families who arrived in Canada recently. Several bring a parent into the country, which raises particular questions.

You cannot insure someone simply because you want to

This is the central question here, and it is the one families ask most often, almost always in the same situation: an adult child who would like to take out protection on an ageing parent.

Two requirements, not one

For a policy to exist on another person’s life, two separate conditions have to be met, and people often run them together.

The first is insurable interest. Whoever takes out the policy must have a genuine interest in the insured person continuing to live. A close family tie, financial dependence or a business relationship generally creates one. The requirement is not a formality: it exists precisely to prevent a wager being placed on another person’s life.

The second is the insured person’s consent. They have to sign, answer the medical questions themselves, and take part in the underwriting.

From that follows a consequence many people had not considered: it cannot be done discreetly. A child cannot insure a parent without their knowledge, however good the intentions and even when paying the premiums personally.

When the interest has to exist

One useful clarification: insurable interest is generally assessed at the time the policy is taken out, not at the time of the claim.

A validly issued policy therefore does not become void merely because the relationship changes afterwards. That matters for business partners who separate and for couples who separate, but it is a legal question and your lawyer should settle it in your case rather than us.

The conversation to have with the parent

In practice the obstacle is almost never legal. It is human: somebody has to ask a parent to answer medical questions and to agree to protection being taken out on their life.

What helps, from what we see, is putting the question the right way round. It is not about anticipating a death: it is about making sure the person who ends up organising everything does not have to borrow in order to do it. Framed that way, the request generally lands better.

What remains if the answer is no

It is worth naming honestly what remains where the parent refuses, or where their health puts ordinary protection out of reach.

• A policy the parent owns and consents to owning, whose premiums you pay. That is the simplest route where the hesitation is about cost rather than principle.
• Setting the money aside yourself. Without insurable interest or consent, it is sometimes the only honest answer, and it beats a shaky arrangement.
• Guaranteed issue products, which exist but whose benefit is generally graded during the early years. They still require the insured person’s consent.

We will tell you which of the three applies to your situation, including where the answer is the second one and it does not go through us.

A note for business partners

Between partners, insurable interest generally exists without difficulty. What causes trouble is the structure: who owns the policy, who pays the premiums, and what the shareholders’ agreement actually provides on the death of one of them.

Those three have to agree with one another. A policy held one way and an agreement drafted another way produce a result nobody intended. Setting the structure belongs to your lawyer and your accountant; we execute afterwards.

What Ontario adds

Estate Administration Tax is calculated on the value of assets passing through the estate. A death benefit paid to a named beneficiary does not pass through it.

In a multigenerational household one check is worth making: where several adults contributed to buying a property without all appearing on title, that should be documented by a lawyer while everybody still agrees.

What we do for families here

When we are asked to insure another person, we check the two requirements before discussing an amount or a product. That avoids building a plan on a base that will not hold.

We then prepare the conversation with the person concerned, and we are glad to have them attend the meeting to ask their own questions.

We send you to your lawyer for any structure between partners and for the agreement that goes with it.

The first meeting

Half an hour, by video, at no cost and with nothing to sign. If the meeting is about a parent, invite them: the conversation is shorter and fairer when the person concerned is there. At the end you will know whether what you have in mind is possible, and if it is not, you will know why.

Frequently asked questions