Life insurance in Guelph

CWCC works with single people, university and research staff, donors and business owners in Guelph 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 Guelph different

Guelph combines a major university, a large agri-food research sector and a solid manufacturing base, in a city where community life occupies an unusual place.

A university and research population. Teaching, sciences, public and private laboratories. Specialised careers, often with solid group plans.

A great many one-person households. Graduate students who stayed, single professionals, people divorced or widowed. The proportion is higher than people assume.

An active community sector. Foundations, charities, co-operatives. Many people here give regularly and think about it for later as well.

A manufacturing and agri-food base. Processing, machinery, distribution. Family businesses and self-employed people with no plan.

If nobody depends on you

This is the conversation we have most often here, and it is also the one that most often ends without a sale. So we begin it with the conclusion.

The default answer

If nobody depends on you financially, you probably do not need life insurance. Life insurance replaces an income or settles an obligation. With no dependants and no debt that would survive you, there is nothing to replace and nothing to settle.

An advisor who proposes a policy before asking who depends on you is not doing the job. The question always comes first, and the answer determines everything else.

The real exceptions

They exist, there are few of them, and here they are in full:

• A co-signed or guaranteed debt. A student loan a parent endorsed, a co-signed mortgage, a business loan you guaranteed personally. The debt does not disappear with you: it moves to the person who signed beside you.
• A dependent parent or sibling. You can have neither spouse nor children and still support someone. That counts just as much.
• Final and estate costs. A funeral, the tax on the final return, winding up a property. Somebody advances those sums, and that somebody is usually a relative.
• An intention to give. If you want to leave something to an organisation, a policy is a way of turning a modest premium into a substantial gift.
• Fixing your insurability. If you expect to start a family and your health is good today, buying now costs less and removes the risk of no longer being able to.

If none of those five applies to you, we will say so, and the meeting will end there.

Giving through a policy: two structures, two results

For anyone wanting to leave something to an organisation, life insurance allows a larger gift than ordinary savings would permit. There are two ways to do it, and they do not produce the same tax result.

Naming the organisation as beneficiary. You remain the owner of the policy and you can change your mind. Premiums paid generally do not produce a receipt during your lifetime. At death, the gift is treated under the rules applying to gifts made through an estate.

Transferring ownership of the policy to the organisation. You give up control of the contract and you cannot reverse it. In exchange, the transfer and the premiums you continue to pay may produce receipts during your lifetime, under the applicable rules.

Choosing between the two depends entirely on your tax situation, your need to keep control, and what the organisation is able to administer. The calculation belongs to your accountant, and the organisation should be consulted before anything is done: not all of them will accept ownership of a policy.

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, including an organisation, does not pass through it.

A single person should pay particular attention to two things: appointing an executor with the time and the competence for it, and putting a power of attorney for personal care in place. Without a spouse, those roles do not fill themselves.

What we do for people here

We start with one question, and we wait for the answer: who would suffer a financial consequence if you died tomorrow? If there is nobody, we move to the five exceptions, and if none applies, the conversation ends.

Where there is an intention to give, we look at both structures with you and send you to your accountant before any proposal.

We coordinate with your accountant and your legal advisor where the situation warrants it.

The first meeting

Half an hour, by video, at no cost and with nothing to sign. It is a meeting it is perfectly normal to leave having bought nothing, and that happens often. At the end you will know whether you need anything, including if the answer is no.

Frequently asked questions