Life insurance in Prince George

CWCC works with families, resource sector workers and business owners in Prince George and northern British Columbia 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 Prince George different

Prince George is the service centre for the whole north of the province, and its economy has been through enough cycles that the soundness of a company is not a theoretical question here.

A resource economy. Forestry, wood processing, mining, energy, rail and road transport. Well-paid work and pronounced cycles.

A regional hub role. A hospital, a university, public services and commerce serving an enormous territory.

A great many site and camp workers. Rotations, travel, and incomes that depend on physical capacity.

A memory of closures. Generations have watched significant employers disappear, which makes people here legitimately wary of long-term promises.

What if the insurer fails?

This is the central question here, and it is one of the most legitimate anyone can put to a person proposing a forty-year commitment. It deserves a complete answer rather than a reassuring sentence.

What a contract guarantee actually is

Start with the part the industry often puts too quickly. The values recorded as guaranteed in a life insurance policy are contractual undertakings of the insurer to you. They are real, they are enforceable, and they rest on that company’s ability to honour them.

They are not government guarantees. No level of government promises to pay your death benefit. The distinction is not theoretical, and any advisor should state it before being asked.

What does exist

Life insurers in Canada are subject to prudential supervision and capital requirements, exercised by the federal or provincial regulator depending on the company. That is the first line, and it is why the question rarely arises.

There is also an organisation called Assuris, funded by the industry, whose role is to protect policyholders of member life insurers if a member fails.

Two clarifications matter: Assuris is not a government programme, and it is not the insurance equivalent of the body that protects deposits. They are two separate systems with separate rules.

Its protection covers a portion of benefits, up to limits it sets itself. We do not publish those limits here because they change and they belong to Assuris: approach them directly, and confirm that the insurer under consideration is a member.

What happens in practice

In Canadian experience, the failure of a life insurer has not meant policies disappearing. The usual outcome is the transfer of the block to a solvent insurer, with the contracts continuing at the acquirer.

That is not a promise about the future, and we do not present it as one. It is simply how the mechanism is designed to work.

The precaution that belongs to you

For a very large amount, concentration with a single insurer is a legitimate question to raise, exactly as it would be for any other long-term commitment. Splitting between two companies carries an administrative cost and sometimes a premium cost; it is a trade-off, and it is yours to make.

We will tell you what the public financial position of the insurer under consideration is and where to check it yourself, rather than asking you to take our word for it.

And dividends in all of this

The distinction carries through naturally. The guaranteed values of a participating contract are contractual undertakings. Dividends are not.

They are declared each year by the insurer’s board of directors according to the performance of the participating account, and they vary. A presentation that treats the two the same way misleads you, even without meaning to.

What British Columbia adds

The province charges probate fees calculated on the value of assets passing through the estate, and the delay is measured in months. A death benefit paid to a named beneficiary does not take that route.

For a family living far from the large centres, one practical precaution is added: make sure a trusted person knows where the contracts are. Distance makes a search for documents markedly longer.

What we do for families here

For each insurer under consideration we tell you whether it is an Assuris member and where to consult the public information on its financial position. That verification belongs to you and we give you the means to do it.

In any presentation we distinguish, as a matter of course, what is guaranteed in the contract from what is not. It is a requirement we impose on ourselves, and you should require it of anybody showing you figures.

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 the soundness of the insurer is among your questions, raise it at the outset: it is a good question and it deserves better than a hurried answer. 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