Transparency and Compensation
This page explains how CWCC and its advisors are compensated, the conflicts of interest that compensation creates, the products we do and do not earn on, and how we manage these conflicts in your interest. We publish this information because you deserve to know how the person advising you is paid before you decide whether to act on their advice.
Last reviewed: May 2026.
1. Why We Publish This
Most Canadians never learn how their insurance advisor is compensated. The information is rarely volunteered, and few clients know to ask. We take a different position. We believe that an advisory relationship built on trust requires that the client understand, from the outset, how the advisor earns a living and where the advisor’s financial interests align with the client’s and where they may diverge.
This is not a legal formality buried in fine print. It is a deliberate choice to put the compensation question on the table before any recommendation is made. A client who understands how we are paid is a client who can weigh our advice with appropriate context, ask informed questions, and make decisions with full knowledge of the commercial relationship involved. That is the only kind of advisory relationship worth having.
2. How CWCC Is Compensated
Important Disclosure: Jose Salloum, Michael Salloum, and CWCC are compensated primarily through commissions paid by insurance companies on the insurance products that clients purchase. These commissions are paid by the insurer, not invoiced directly to the client. The commission structure typically consists of a first-year commission, calculated as a percentage of the first-year premium, and smaller ongoing service or renewal commissions paid in subsequent years for as long as the policy remains in force. The amount and structure of commissions vary by insurer, by product type, and by policy size. Because CWCC earns a commission when a client purchases an insurance product, CWCC has a financial interest in recommending the purchase of insurance products.
In plain language: when you purchase a participating whole life policy, a term life policy, a critical illness policy, a disability policy, or a group insurance plan through CWCC, the insurance company pays CWCC a commission. You do not receive a separate bill for this. The commission is built into the economics of the insurance product, in the same way it is for every licensed insurance advisor in Canada. The larger the policy and the premium, the larger the commission. This is the standard compensation model for insurance distribution in Canada, and it is the model under which CWCC operates.
We disclose this plainly because it is the single most important thing for you to understand about our commercial relationship: we earn more when you buy more insurance. That fact does not, by itself, make our advice unreliable — but it is a fact you are entitled to weigh, and we would rather you weigh it with our help than discover it later.
3. The Specific Conflict — What We Earn On, and What We Do Not
Important Disclosure: CWCC earns commissions on insurance products, including participating whole life insurance, term life insurance, universal life insurance, critical illness insurance, disability insurance, and group insurance. CWCC also earns compensation on segregated funds, which are insurance products regulated under provincial insurance legislation. CWCC does NOT earn any commission, trailing fee, or other compensation on securities-based investment products, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs), individual stocks, individual bonds, or mutual funds held outside an insurance contract, because CWCC is not registered with the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) and does not distribute these products. Where a client’s plan involves securities-based products, CWCC coordinates with a separately registered CIRO firm, and CWCC does not receive securities commissions from that arrangement.
This distinction matters, and it is worth stating clearly because it creates a real and specific conflict of interest. When we discuss the choice between an insurance-based solution and a securities-based solution — for example, between a segregated fund and an ETF, or between participating whole life insurance and a portfolio of investments — we earn a commission on one side of that comparison and nothing on the other. We earn on the segregated fund. We earn nothing on the ETF. We earn on the participating whole life policy. We earn nothing on the index portfolio.
We tell you this directly because it is exactly the kind of conflict that, left undisclosed, would undermine the trust this relationship depends on. When CWCC recommends an insurance-based solution over a securities-based alternative, you should know that CWCC has a financial interest in that recommendation. This does not mean the recommendation is wrong — insurance-based solutions are genuinely the right answer for many situations, and segregated funds carry guarantees that ETFs do not. But you are entitled to know where our compensation sits in any comparison we present, and to seek an independent second opinion on the securities side from a CIRO-registered professional who earns nothing from the insurance side.
4. How We Manage This Conflict
Disclosure alone is not management. Telling you about a conflict is the first step; managing it responsibly is the second. CWCC manages the conflict of interest created by its compensation model in the following ways.
Needs-based recommendations. Every recommendation begins with an assessment of the client’s actual needs, circumstances, and objectives — not with a product. We do not start from “which product pays the most” and work backward. We start from the client’s situation and identify what genuinely fits, including, where appropriate, the conclusion that the client does not need the product we would earn a commission on.
Full comparison disclosure. When we present a comparison between an insurance-based and a securities-based solution, we disclose, at the point of comparison, that we earn on the insurance side and not on the securities side. The conflict is named where the decision is made, not buried on a separate page.
No obligation, ever. No client is ever under any obligation to purchase any product or service from CWCC. The Discovery Meeting carries no obligation. The assessment carries no obligation. You are free to take our analysis and implement it elsewhere, to seek other opinions, or to decline entirely.
Encouragement of independent advice. We actively encourage clients to seek independent professional advice — from an accountant on the tax implications, from a lawyer on the legal structures, and, on the securities side of any comparison, from a CIRO-registered professional who has no insurance commission at stake. We would rather you make a fully informed decision than a fast one.
The long-term relationship as a discipline. CWCC’s business is built on multi-decade client relationships, not one-time transactions. An advisor who places an unsuitable policy to earn a commission damages a relationship that was meant to last twenty years. Our economic interest in keeping clients for decades is itself a check on the short-term incentive to over-sell — a relationship that ends in a lapsed policy and a lost client is worth far less than one that endures.
5. Insurer Relationships
Important Disclosure: CWCC distributes insurance products from multiple insurance companies and is not owned by, or exclusively contracted to, any single insurer. Where CWCC operates through a Managing General Agency (MGA), the MGA may receive compensation from insurers in connection with business placed through it. CWCC’s recommendation of a particular insurer’s product is based on the suitability of that product for the client’s needs, not on any difference in compensation between insurers. If CWCC ever has a material relationship with an insurer beyond the standard distribution arrangement — such as an ownership interest or a volume-based incentive that could influence product recommendations — that relationship will be disclosed to the client.
The ability to recommend products from multiple insurers, rather than being tied to a single company’s product line, is a meaningful protection for the client. It means the recommendation can be driven by what fits the client’s situation rather than by what one insurer happens to offer. Where compensation differs between insurers for similar products, that difference does not drive the recommendation.
7. Your Rights
As a current or prospective client of CWCC, you have the right to ask, at any time, how CWCC is compensated in connection with any specific product or recommendation. You have the right to a clear answer. You have the right to seek independent professional advice before making any decision. You have the right to decline any recommendation without consequence to your relationship with CWCC. And you have the right to request, in writing, the specific commission CWCC would earn on a product before you decide whether to purchase it.
If you ever feel that a recommendation was driven by CWCC’s compensation rather than by your needs, we want to know. You may raise the concern directly with us through the Contact page, or, if you prefer, with the applicable regulator — the Autorité des marchés financiers in Quebec, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, or the Insurance Council of British Columbia.