Life insurance in North Vancouver

CWCC works with families, professionals, outdoor enthusiasts and business owners in North Vancouver 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 British Columbia, where Jose Salloum is a licensed life insurance agent with the Insurance Council of British Columbia.

What makes North Vancouver different

North Vancouver presents a combination found almost nowhere else in the country: high incomes, considerable property values, and a population a great many of whom spend their weekends in the mountains.

Professionals and executives. Many cross into downtown, with solid group plans and wealth built largely through real estate.

A pronounced outdoor culture. Backcountry skiing, climbing, mountain biking, diving, sailing. These are not occasional pursuits here: they are part of ordinary life.

A marine and port sector. With specialised trades and irregular hours.

High-value properties. Which makes for heavier estates than elsewhere, even for families who do not think of themselves as wealthy.

What you have to tell the insurer

This is the central question here, and it bears on whether a claim gets paid far more directly than the choice of product does.

How an insurer actually works

An insurer does not verify everything at the moment you complete an application. It asks questions, it orders a few tests, and for the most part it takes you at your word. That is what allows contracts to be issued in weeks rather than years.

The serious verification happens somewhere else: at the moment of a claim. That is when the insurer examines the medical file, the history and the circumstances of death. A material omission discovered then can allow it to contest the contract, within the limits set by law and by the incontestability period.

The cheapest way to have a claim refused is to leave something off an application. That is not a threat on our part: it is how the contract works, and it is better heard from an advisor than from an adjuster.

The category most often forgotten

People generally declare their health properly. What they forget are their activities, and that is particularly common in a city like this one.

Backcountry or avalanche-terrain skiing, climbing, diving, private aviation, motorcycling, motor racing, offshore sailing: all of these interest the insurer, and they appear among the application questions. So do planned stays in certain countries.

The omission is rarely dishonest. It comes from the fact that the person does not see themselves as someone who “practises” a sport: they simply ski, like everybody else here.

What disclosure actually produces

Here is the part few people anticipate, and it ought to be reassuring: declaring an activity rarely leads to a decline. The usual outcomes are a rating proportionate to the risk, or an exclusion aimed precisely at that activity, with the rest of the contract remaining fully in force.

An exclusion is infinitely better than an omission: in the first case you know exactly what is not covered and can plan around it. In the second, you believe you are covered for everything, and your family will find out otherwise.

What if something was already left off?

It happens, often without any bad intent, and sometimes years ago. The question is worth raising rather than setting aside.

Speak to an advisor or directly to the insurer. Depending on the nature of the omission, the time elapsed and the contract, there is sometimes a way to regularise the situation. One thing is certain: the problem does not improve on its own, and it cannot be fixed at all after death.

Note as well that if you take up a new activity after a life policy has been issued, most contracts do not require you to report it, the underwriting having been done once and for all. Check your contract rather than assuming, and be aware that living benefits can carry different rules.

What British Columbia adds

The province charges probate fees calculated on the value of assets passing through the estate. In a city where the family home is often worth several times what it cost, that calculation is not trivial, and the delay is measured in months.

Provincial law also allows a spouse or a child to apply to vary a will they consider inadequate, even a valid one: one more reason to have the will drafted by a lawyer in this province.

What we do for families here

We read the application questions out loud, slowly, including the ones about hobbies and travel. It is tedious and it adds ten minutes. It is also the only part of the process that determines whether your family gets paid.

When an activity is in the picture, we tell you in advance what to expect: which insurers rate it more heavily, which tend to offer an exclusion instead, and what that does to the price.

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

The first meeting

Half an hour, by video, at no cost and with nothing to sign. If you have an activity you suspect might be a problem, say so at the outset: it lets us look in the right place rather than waste your time. At the end you will know whether this belongs in your situation, and if the answer is no, you will hear it during the meeting.

Frequently asked questions