Life insurance in Saanich

CWCC works with retirees, provincial public servants, families and business owners in Saanich and Greater Victoria 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 Saanich different

Saanich is the most populous municipality on Vancouver Island, and its composition is that of a long-established community rather than an expanding suburb.

A population older than the provincial average. Many couples married thirty, forty or fifty years, in houses they have owned just as long.

A strong public service presence. Provincial administration, health, education, the university. Solid pension plans and whole careers with one employer.

Adult children who left for the mainland. Many live in Vancouver, in Alberta or further away, which complicates the handling of any estate.

Estates that look simple. A house, a pension, a few accounts and policies bought a long time ago. It is precisely that kind of file that holds surprises.

When one person handles everything

This is the central question here, and it is the one nobody talks about, because it does not relate to any product.

The pattern

In a great many long-standing couples, only one of the two handles the money. That is neither a criticism nor a problem in itself: it is a division of labour that worked perfectly well for decades, and the other person handled something else.

The problem appears at one moment only: if the person who handles everything dies first. The other is then left to understand, in a few weeks and in grief, a system they never had to know.

The fact few people know

Here is the central point, and it surprises almost everybody: an insurer does not learn of your death.

There is no mechanism that automatically tells an insurance company that an insured person has died. A benefit is paid on a claim, made by somebody who knows the contract exists.

If nobody knows the policy is there, nobody claims. The contract stays in force while the premiums are paid, then lapses for non-payment, and the family never learns of it. This happens more often than people think, and not only to the disorganised.

The page that solves nearly all of it

The answer costs nothing and fits on a single sheet. It earns nobody a commission, which partly explains why you hear so little about it.

That sheet lists, for each contract and each account: the name of the institution or insurer, the contract number, the person to contact, and where the original document is kept. It does not need to hold passwords or amounts.

It is useless if nobody knows it exists. Your spouse has to know where it is, and so does the executor named in the will. It is a ten-minute conversation, and it is probably the best return in the whole of your planning.

What if a policy has already been lost track of?

Sometimes a family suspects a contract exists without being able to prove it: a parent who died and used to mention insurance, an old letter from an insurer found among papers.

Canada has a policy search service offered at no charge by the life and health insurance ombudservice, which queries participating insurers on behalf of an authorised relative. The conditions, the documents required and the scope of the search belong to that body: approach it directly.

Look as well in the places these things hide: account statements year by year, where a regular withdrawal betrays a premium, tax returns, and paperwork from a former employer.

What British Columbia adds

The province charges probate fees calculated on the value of assets passing through the estate, and the process takes months before anyone receives anything. A death benefit paid to a named beneficiary does not take that route, which matters a great deal to a surviving spouse who has to keep paying the household bills.

Two documents are worth reviewing together while both spouses are here: the will, and the power of attorney for personal care. The first deals with what follows death; the second deals with what sometimes comes before it.

What we do for families here

We ask that both spouses attend the meeting, and we hold to it. That is not a courtesy: planning that only one of the two understands is not planning.

We then take an inventory of what exists, contract by contract, with the insurer’s name, the number and the beneficiary recorded on each. It is often the first time that list has been written down anywhere.

We also check that the designations still match your intentions, because many of them date from when the policy was bought and they override the will.

The first meeting

Half an hour, by video, at no cost and with nothing to sign. Come as two if you are two, and bring whatever you have to hand, even if it is incomplete. At the end you will know whether this belongs in your situation; and even if the answer is no, you will leave with the list.

Frequently asked questions