Life Insurance – Do You Buy, Rent, or Borrow?
Without a doubt, life insurance is valuable protection provided by your employee benefit plan, but should it be the only life insurance coverage you have? Probably not, if you want to ensure you have sufficient long term protection to cover all your family’s financial needs should you die unexpectedly.
In a recent study conducted by the Life Insurance and Market Research Association (LIMRA), it was reported that 61% of Canadians hold some form of life insurance. Surprisingly, it also revealed that only 38% of Canadians own an individual life insurance contract. This means that almost 40% rely solely on the life insurance provided by their employer. This can be problematic. The disadvantages of having your employee benefit plan as your only life insurance protection include the following:
It is probably not enough to pay off your mortgage and/or provide income for your spouse and family.
The amount of life insurance protection provided by group insurance in most cases is equal to only one or two times annual income. If this is not enough to do the job, the addition of individual life insurance should be considered. Read more 
Private Health Spending Plans for the Owner/Operator Business
Individuals who have incorporated their business such as consultants, contractors and professionals often find that providing affordable health and dental care coverage for themselves and their families can be an expensive proposition.
Take Bob for example. Bob had just left his architectural firm to set up on his own. In looking at the options available for him to replace his previous firm’s Extended Health and Dental coverage for he and his family, he discovered that the monthly premium would be between $400 and $500 per month. This was for a plan that didn’t provide coverage for all practitioners and procedures, had an annual limit on the benefits, and a co-insurance factor of 20% (only 80% of eligible costs were covered). There wasn’t even any orthodontia coverage although he could purchase that in limited amounts at an additional cost! He also had to move quickly to replace his lost coverage as he had a pre-existing condition that most likely would not be covered if he waited too long to implement the new plan. Read more
Cardinal Update – September 2018
Canadian Oil & The Trans Mountain Pipeline – On August 30th, the Federal Court of Appeals (FCA) released a negative ruling pertaining to the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX). The FCA found two major deficiencies in the report from the National Energy Board (NEB): The NEB did not include project-related tanker traffic in its review and they failed to consult Indigenous peoples and First Nations as set out by the Supreme Court. The FCA has effectively halted all construction and progress on TMX. In order for the project to proceed, there are a number of different options.
Click here to read more: Cardinal Update – September 2018
DM Monthly Report – September 2018
EMERGING MARKETS: worth the bother? Occasionally, we’re asked why the equity portfolios we build for clients don’t include allocations to emerging markets (EM). To put it plainly, we’ve never felt that the potential reward of investing in these regions compensates for accompanying drawbacks. Some of our reservations with respect to EM investing include: Legal framework, Accounting practices, Forex, Cost…..
Click here to read more: DM-Monthly-Report-Sept-18
