Life Insurance
Options to protect your family.
Group Benefit Broker, Stevenson Insurance Agency
What is Insurance?
Insurance is protection against the unexpected events in your life. It is a contract between you and the insurance provider by which you pay a small premium for a guarantee of compensation for a specified loss, damage, illness, or death. You can sleep better at night knowing your children, your spouse, your business, or your employees are taken care of.
I am here for Local Businesses:
I provide a one-stop solution for setting up new employee group benefits plans or easily assign me as your account manager on your existing group benefit plan with any of the major insurance providers.
Why you need Group Benefits:
- Offering your employees, a more tax-effective form of compensation
- Give employees and their families protection and security
- Attract and retain skilled talent
Disability Insurance
Disability insurance is financial protection for one of your most valuable assets — the ability to work and earn an income. You can protect yourself against the risk of losing your paycheck due to injury or illness.
Having disability insurance provides financial security for you and any loved ones who may depend on your ability to earn an income. The disability insurance benefits you receive from your policy can be used however you want from monthly bills, out-of-pocket medical expenses, childcare, groceries, loan repayments and even rent. Disability insurance typically covers 66% up to a maximum of 80% of your current income. People that should seriously consider getting disability insurance are the self-employed or those who do not have any through their employer.
You can use the EDGE Express Quote tool to create an online quote for your insurance costs.
Critical Illness
Critical illness insurance is an agreement with a life insurance company to pay a lump-sum tax-free benefit amount following the diagnosis of a covered condition. Unlike life insurance, critical illness insurance is not meant to provide long-term financial support to your family after you pass away but rather grants financial support while you are recovering from a critical illness.
A big draw of critical illness insurance is that the money can be spent on a variety of things, such as:
- To pay for treatments not covered by OHIP
- To pay for travel to seek medical treatment
- To pay for daily living expenses, allowing the critically ill to focus their energy on getting well instead of worrying about paying the bills
- Retrofitting vehicles to carry scooters or wheelchairs, and installing lifts in homes for critically ill patients who can no longer navigate staircases
- Terminally ill patients may want to use the funds to take a vacation with friends or family
You can also add it to your current life insurance plan as a rider, which may be a more affordable option with the same benefit.
The good news is you’re more likely than ever to recover from a critical illness. Your savings, on the other hand, may take years to rebound. That’s where critical illness insurance comes in.
Term Life Insurance
As the name suggests, Term Insurance means you can choose life insurance for a fixed period of time, such as a term of 10, 20, or 30 years etc. or until you reach a set age, such as 65 years. Your premiums are fixed for the duration of your term and your beneficiaries will receive a payment if you pass away during your term, providing your policy is in good standing.
This type of coverage is most beneficial for individuals who are looking to obtain coverage for temporary needs —such as a mortgage, loans and dependent children or if you’re looking to cover debt with a timeline—for example, ensuring the mortgage on your family home can be paid off if you pass away.
You can choose to renew or convert at the end of each term (so long as you are still under the accepted age, which is usually 65), or you can opt to let your policy lapse. Coverage at the previous rate of premiums is no longer guaranteed and the client must either forgo coverage or potentially obtain further coverage with different payments or conditions.
Term insurance is not generally used for estate planning needs or charitable giving strategies but is used for pure income replacement needs for an individual.
Whole Life Insurance. Final Expense Insurance With No Medical Exam.
Whole life insurance provides permanent death benefit coverage for the life of the insured. That means that you’ll never have to worry about re-qualifying as you age or if new medical conditions arise.
In addition to paying a death benefit, whole life insurance also contains a savings component in which cash value may accumulate. Interest accrues at a fixed rate and on a tax-deferred basis. That means that if you decide to terminate the policy at any time, you won’t lose all of your money.
Your policy’s cash value grows with interest over time and acts as a financial net to fall back on during uncertain times. You can pay your premium with the policy’s cash value, you can borrow against this cash value or, in some cases, withdraw cash from the policy to pay for expenses. You can even surrender the policy in later years to live off its value.
While permanent life insurance tends to be more expensive than term life insurance in the early years, it’s an ideal option for individuals who have permanent financial obligations; have accumulated significant wealth and assets that will result in the need to pay estate taxes; or desire a tax-efficient transfer of wealth to loved ones or charity upon death.
Mortgage Insurance vs Term Insurance
Homeowners have two options when it comes to protecting their mortgage: mortgage life, insurance from a bank and mortgage protection through a term life insurance policy. Both types of coverage are designed to help pay off your mortgage with a few key differences.
- With mortgage insurance the coverage value decreases as your mortgage decreases but this is not reflected in your rates vs with term insurance you choose the amount of coverage up front and the value remains the same, even as your mortgage decreases.
- With mortgage insurance the money can only be used to pay off your remaining mortgage vs with term insurance the money can be used in anyway the beneficiaries see fit such as paying off the mortgage, debt repayment or helping to maintain a standard of living for surviving relatives.
- With mortgage insurance typically approval is quickly done with no medical exam, however underwriting is not done until a claim is made. At such time your claim could be denied whereas with term insurance underwriting is done before approval so you can rest easy that your claim will not be denied for medical reasons after your passing.
- With mortgage insurance the coverage ends once your mortgage has been paid off vs term insurance you decide when you want the coverage to end, it is unaffected by your mortgage ending.
- If you happen to change financial institutions during the life of your mortgage you will need to take out a new mortgage insurance policy whereas term insurance coverage follows you, making it easier for you to take advantage of things like lower mortgage interest rates.
As with any important choice in life, it’s a good idea to take the time to weigh the pros and cons. While mortgage insurance from your bank or lender can be quick to obtain, convenience isn’t necessarily the most important factor when it comes to dealing with the unexpected. Term life insurance provides flexibility and guarantees your family’s financial security beyond mortgage protection, for the unexpected.