Life insurance in Pickering
CWCC works with families, energy sector workers, commuters and business owners in Pickering 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 Pickering different
Pickering combines a long-established residential core with recent growth, which gives it a population moving at two speeds.
A substantial energy sector. Specialised jobs, long careers and group plans among the most complete in the region.
Households settled for decades. Many hold contracts bought twenty or thirty years ago that they no longer remember well.
A commuting population. Trips west and long days.
New neighbourhoods still growing. Young families buying their first protection at the same time as their first house.
Reading the statement that arrives once a year
This is the central question here, and it concerns a document almost everybody files without opening.
That statement is nonetheless the only regular report you will receive on a contract that may run forty years. It is worth a quarter of an hour once a year, and it can be read without any particular training.
What the figures mean
- The death benefit. The amount that would be paid today. Check whether it has changed since the previous statement, up or down, and find out why if it has.
- The surrender value. What you would receive by ending the contract now. It is not the same thing as the death benefit and it can differ from the accumulated value shown elsewhere on the page.
- The dividend credited this year, in a participating contract, and how it was applied according to the option you chose.
- Any outstanding policy loan, with the interest it has accrued.
- The premium status. What is owed, when, and whether a payment has been missed.
The two traps worth knowing
The first is an outstanding loan. An amount borrowed against the policy and not repaid, together with the interest it has produced, reduces what will actually be paid at death. The statement shows it, and many families learn of it only at the claim.
The second is the surrender value in the early years. In most permanent contracts it stays below the total of premiums paid for a number of years. That is not a fault: it is how these contracts are built. But somebody who comes across the figure without that explanation believes they have been cheated, and nobody had told them.
What the statement will not tell you
A statement describes the contract. It does not describe your life, and that is where its limit is.
It will never tell you whether your beneficiary designation still matches your intentions, nor whether the amount still matches your need. Those two checks are the more important of the lot, and no document arriving in the post can do them for you.
What a real review consists of
Candour is owed about a widespread habit in this business: an annual call whose conclusion is always that something should be added is not a review, it is a sales call under another name.
A review that deserves the name covers four things and often ends with “nothing to change”: the beneficiary designation and the contingent beneficiary, the amount measured against the current need, the state of premiums and of any loan, and what has happened since last time.
A review can perfectly well conclude that protection which has become too large should be reduced. If that has never once been put to you across several years, that is information about the nature of the meetings you have been having.
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.
For a long career with one employer, one check is overdue: the designation recorded on the group plan and the pension plan sometimes dates from the day of hiring, and it overrides the will.
The cornerstone guide
Start here: the whole strategy in one page
What it is, how it works in Canada, what it costs, what it risks, how long it takes and who it does not suit.
Jose Salloum Canadian Wealth Creation Centre Inc.
Read the guideWhat we do for families here
Bring your statements from the last two years and we will read them with you, line by line, until you can read them yourself next year. That is the point of the exercise.
We check the four elements of a review, including where the conclusion is that there is nothing to change.
We send you to your accountant for any tax question tied to a loan or a surrender, because those transactions can carry tax consequences.
The first meeting
Half an hour, by video, at no cost and with nothing to sign. The most recent statement is enough to start, and you do not have to be a client to have it explained. At the end you will be able to read your own, which is useful even if we never speak again.
Frequently asked questions
What should I check on my annual statement?
Five things: the death benefit and whether it has changed, the surrender value, the dividend credited this year where applicable, any outstanding loan with its interest, and the premium status. It takes a quarter of an hour once a year.
Does a loan against my policy reduce the death benefit?
An amount borrowed and not repaid, together with accrued interest, reduces what will actually be paid at death. The statement shows it, and many families only learn of it at the claim.
Why is my surrender value lower than the premiums I have paid?
In most permanent contracts it stays lower for a number of years. That is not a fault but how these contracts are built. The problem is that nobody explains it before the owner comes across the figure.
What does a real review consist of?
Four things: the beneficiary designation and the contingent, the amount measured against the current need, the state of premiums and any loan, and what has happened since. It often ends with nothing to change, and it can conclude that protection should be reduced.
Do you meet people in Pickering?
All meetings are held online, which suits a commuting schedule. The office is in Laval and the firm is registered with the AMF under number 602293.
Are dividends guaranteed?
No. The scale is set each year by the insurer’s board according to how the participating account performed. What the contract records as guaranteed stays guaranteed; the scale varies.
A thirty-minute discovery meeting
A first conversation establishes whether this fits. No illustration is prepared and nothing is arranged.
Often the answer is no, and you will hear it during the call rather than in a proposal afterwards.
Listen to this page
Read aloud by your own browser. Nothing is sent anywhere.
About the author
Jose Salloum is a Financial Security Advisor (Conseiller en sécurité financière) licensed by the Autorité des marchés financiers in Quebec, by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, and by the Insurance Council of British Columbia. Licensed since 2001, he works with Canadian families, business owners and incorporated professionals.
He is the founder of Canadian Wealth Creation Centre Inc. (CWCC), registered with the AMF, and of its educational branch IBCFinancial.com. He holds the Infinite Banking Concepts® Authorized Practitioner certification from the Nelson Nash Institute, a private certification rather than a regulatory licence.
CWCC is not registered with CIRO and does not provide securities advice. This page is general education and not advice on any individual file.
Important disclosures
This page is education, not advice. The content is general information prepared by Canadian Wealth Creation Centre Inc. It does not take your circumstances into account and is not a recommendation to buy, hold or cancel any contract. CWCC is not registered with CIRO and does not provide securities advice. The firm places insurance in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and New Brunswick; clients elsewhere are served by advisors licensed in their province.
Nothing here was written with your file in front of us. Read it to understand the subject, then judge it against your own situation, ideally with someone who is licensed where you live and who has seen your numbers.
Tax treatment depends on your own circumstances. The tax treatment described depends on the contract remaining exempt under the Income Tax Regulations and on the reader’s individual circumstances. A withdrawal, a surrender or a policy loan may be a disposition under the Income Tax Act, and amounts above the adjusted cost basis may be taxable in the year they occur. Tax rules change.
The tax result is not automatic and it is not unconditional. It rests on the contract staying within the Canadian rules and on your own situation. Before you rely on any of it, talk to an accountant who has actually worked with these contracts.
Guarantees come from the insurer, not from the government. Guaranteed values in a life insurance contract are contractual promises of the issuing insurer and depend on that insurer’s financial strength and claims paying ability. Dividends on a participating contract are not guaranteed, are declared at the insurer’s discretion and can change. Policyholder protection in Canada is provided by Assuris within its published limits; deposit insurance does not apply to insurance contracts.
The guarantees written into a contract are real, and they are the insurer’s. The dividend is not a guarantee at all; it is what the insurer decides to declare each year. Know which numbers are which before you make a plan around them.
Borrowing against a contract carries its own risks. A policy loan or a loan secured by a contract accrues interest. If the balance and interest are not managed, the death benefit is reduced, and a contract that lapses with a loan outstanding can produce a taxable gain in that year. Third party lenders set their own terms and can change them.
A loan is a loan. Interest builds whether or not you pay it, and a contract that runs out of room while it is owed can cost you both the coverage and a tax bill. This is the part of the strategy that needs the most discipline.