Of course it is!  Often quoted pension actuary, Malcolm Hamilton, finds in the Nov 27, 2009 Retirement Savings Research Program that for a 65 year old opposite-sex couple: at least one will live to approximately age 90; approximately 10% of couples will have one partner that lives 8 years beyond the normal life expectancy; approximately 1% of couples will have one survivor who lives 14 years beyond the normal life expectancy.  That's impressive! What does this mean to you? Couples entering retirement at age 65 can expect to have at least one partner still receiving income at age 90.  That's 25 years of income that needs to be provided by all sources.  This could be from the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, RRSP/RRIF income, private pensions and other investment assets. In partnership with Investor ...

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by Joe Gilinsky, FCIS, TEP, RHU When people ask me what I do for a living, my usual answer is: “I assist people to protect their families, their incomes, their businesses and their estates with the effective use of life insurance should they die too soon, live too long or become disabled and critically ill along the way.” As a result of hardships experienced by certain of my clients in recent years, I have realized that this act of “Protection” in our business has a far greater meaning than merely placing the insurance in force. I have always felt that we insurance advisors are the only people who deliver cheques to the bereaved whereas many others deliver only bills! I have a young, married client of 40 who cannot practice as a veterinarian because of a debilitating illness. However, the cheque that he receives each month as a result of his disability income policy ...

There are changes with permanent life insurance pricing coming in the next few months. One Major carrier has given us advance notice that there is to be approximately a 10% average increase in rates for all permanent life insurance; This 10% average means that some age groups will see no changes, but others will see very significant increases in pricing (20%-40%)! The same carrier will be implementing a 0.5% reduction to the contractual guaranteed interest rates offered within tax sheltered policies. (The guarantee is contractual for life); In the past few years, there has been an expectation that insurance rates would be increasing, as a large assumption in pricing these policies is the interest rate environment; Background can be found in a recent report by the Conference for Advanced Life Underwriting (CALU):  CALU InfoExchange - Buyers Market For Level Cost With historically low interest rates, the insurance industry has been waiting for some ...