LIFE INSURANCE
Participating whole life insurance
Listen to this page
Read aloud by your own browser. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Permanent coverage with two moving parts. A cash value guaranteed by the contract and following a table inside it, and a share of the surplus of the insurer, declared once a year and never guaranteed.
What decides a participating contract
- Two parts, and only one of them is fixedThe guaranteed cash value follows a table printed in the contract. The dividend is declared each year by the insurer and is never guaranteed.
- A dividend is not interest and not a returnIt reflects the experience of the insurer in mortality, expenses and investment results. It is a distribution of surplus, decided one year at a time.
- What the dividend does is chosen when the contract is issuedIt can purchase additional paid up insurance, reduce a premium, be left on deposit, or be paid out. The available options are listed in the contract.
Send this to a licensed advisor
No price appears on this page, and none is sent by email. What a contract costs depends on the person and the design, and no honest figure can be produced from three answers.
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.
Read the guideOther products
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.
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.
Investment discussion is general and comparative. References to investment products, accounts or returns are for comparison and education. CWCC does not sell securities and is not registered with CIRO. Segregated funds are insurance contracts; their guarantees are the insurer’s and apply only at the dates and on the terms written in the contract. Returns are not guaranteed and capital can be lost.
When this site compares a contract with an investment, it is describing how each works, not telling you which to buy. Questions about securities belong with someone registered to answer them.