Life Insurance

At its core, life insurance offers a tax-free benefit at the time of the insured’s death.  This benefit can be used to

the list of possible uses goes on.  Most importantly, life insurance is a foundational component to your financial well-being.  We’ve outlined a handful of traditional life insurance products below.

Within each of these categories, there is a myriad of specific products sold by various insurers.  Paradigm Insurance Inc. acts as a broker for all products offered by 

• BMO Insurance
• Canada Life
• Empire Life
• Great West Life
• Industrial Alliance
• Ivari
• The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company (Manulife)
• Olympia Benefits
• Sun Life.

Generally, all life insurance products under a particular heading bear the same fundamental components but differ in the minutia.  For example, some term life insurance products may require biometric analysis for all face amounts over $500,000 while other insurers may set the biometrics-threshold for their products at $1,000,000.  Moreover, insurers often offer unique auxiliary benefits and features to clients when a product is selected from their shelf.  For example, services such as Best Doctors where the client obtains exclusive access to a network of medical experts, or compassionate benefits where advances on life insurance death benefits are provided to the terminally ill, are often added onto insurance particular policies as additional benefits at no extra charge. 

As the broker, Paradigm Insurance Inc. stays up-to-date with the multitude of different offerings from the various insurance companies to ensure that each client receives the perfect piece for their unique financial picture.

Life insurance is a fundamental building block of your financial pyramid.  Ensuring that your assets and future earnings are protected must be done prior to engaging more complex financial matters like securing a mortgage, investing in real estate, etc.  The first step in placing this block is to understand your needs.  This is commonly done by use of a needs analysis tool like this one.  These tools define key variables such as 

then perform a basic calculation to determine the recommended amount of life insurance.  Other factors unique to the client will be taken into account by the supervising broker and be used to finetune the result.  

Once this figure is in-hand, it is essential to gain an understanding of your short and long-term goals.  Some individuals may only require life insurance for a defined period of time, say, to protect a mortgage.  In cases such as these, Term Life insurance may be the best choice. Others may have sizeable tax-liabilities which will come payable at death; this client may require a permanent insurance solution.  Once the amount of coverage and the type of coverage is determined, an exploration of available insurance policy riders is to be done.

A life insurance policy rider is an add-on benefit which comes at an extra cost.  Term insurance policies such as term critical illness policies or term life insurance policies, can be added onto existing policies as a rider.  Oftentimes, this strategy is economically optimal when compared to maintaining two separate policies as only one policy fee is charged to the owner.  Beyond adding new coverage, the following policy additions are often available as riders:

Once the optimal strategy is designed, the next step is to apply for the coverage.  Often, the insurance company will offer interim life insurance coverage to the applicant if certain conditions are met.  This means that if the applicant were to die prior to the insurance being approved, the death benefit would still pay out if their application was to be approved.  

Paradigm Insurance Inc. often utilizes non-face-to-face application methods to maximize efficiency.  This means that an application can be completed and the policy can be issued solely through telephone and email communication.  Alternatively, if preferred, you can attend our Winnipeg office to complete the application in person.  On average, applications take less than 15 minutes to complete. 

Paradigm Insurance Inc. works with a wide array of insurers to guarantee the delivery of the best product, at the most competitive price, in the most client-friendly manner.  Currently, we can offer clients under the age of 50 $1,000,000 of life insurance without medical underwriting being required up-front.  By use of artificial intelligence, most applications that fall within those parameters will be issued within days of completion.

Once approved, the applicant can decide whether or not to accept the policy as offered.  If they elect to decline the coverage, there are absolutely no fees payable.  If the applicant accepts the policy, they begin paying the premium as described in the contract.

Primarily, life insurance exists to ensure that your survivors are not unnecessarily burdened in the event of your passing.  The resulting tax-free benefit that life insurance delivers offers great liquidity and flexibility to the beneficiary of the policy or the insured’s estate.  These funds can be used to cover capital gains which come payable at death, act as income for your family, eliminate outstanding debts, or be used in numerous other manners. Furthermore, if you has an affinity for a particular charitable cause, you may decide to leave the proceeds of their life insurance policy to a registered charitable organization.  Paradigm Insurance Inc. specializes in strategies of this sort.  More can be learned this subject here.

By representing a plethora of insurers, Paradigm Insurance Inc. is able to market any individual case to numerous insurance companies assuring the delivery of the optimal product at the lowest price. Our extensive industry experience has resulted in the development of key professional relationships which support our firm’s ability to find fitting solutions for even the most challenging of cases.

Generally, anyone up to age 71 can apply for some form of life insurance. It is sometimes believed that only objectively healthy individuals can apply for life insurance. Though it is true that the better your health the cheaper your premium, it is not the case that those in poor health are automatically disqualified from coverage. As a matter of fact, certain products brokered by Paradigm Insurance Inc. are specifically designed for cases where the insured is in poor health. These policies often place a cap on the insurance amount and may carry a higher premium, however, they are issued with ease and can act as an excellent solution when other options are exhausted.