Transamerica Life Canada

Life insurance

You should have life insurance if you are responsible for the financial well-being or contribute to the standard of living of your family. Life insurance would allow your family to maintain their standard of living if you were no longer there to provide an income.

There are many things to consider when purchasing life insurance, and the most important one is that as your life evolves your need for protection evolves too. In other words, the insurance protection you need today may not be the same protection you will need in, say, 15 years when your mortgage is paid off and your children are grown. Using the Transamerica LifeScripter^® tool, your advisor can work with you to create a customized plan for insurance protection that takes into account your current and future protection needs.

Disability Insurance (DI)

In the event of an accident or illness, disability insurance could mean the difference between having an income and not having an income, if your disability prevents you from working. This form of insurance is particularly important if you are the sole or primary wage earner in the family, or if you are a key person in the operation of your business.

Critical Illness insurance (CI)

If you were diagnosed with a critical illness, such as cancer or heart disease, would you have the funds available to cover medical expenses and lost income? Although specific coverage varies from policy to policy, CI insurance will help cover these costs if you are diagnosed with a critical illness and require funds for your care.

Long-Term Care insurance (LTC)

Similar to critical illness insurance, long-term care insurance is an insurance policy that provides the funding for the care or treatment required for injuries, illnesses and loss of functional abilities. Although age is not a determining factor in needing long-term care, this type of insurance is usually sold to cover these risks at older ages. Because there are often substantial costs associated with long-term care such as nursing homes or private rehabilitation facilities, this type of insurance can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical care costs.

Self-funding for DI, CI and LTC

Do-it-yourself (DIY) funding for CI or DI may make more sense for post-retirement coverage, since the cost of permanent CI or DI may be prohibitive.

Using a key feature that’s offered in a life insurance product may be an alternative solution that proves to be more cost effective.

If you need life insurance and are considering purchasing universal life, one of the key features of a universal life policy is its Living Benefits feature. To help ensure that you have the funding you need to cover the costs associated with an occupational disability or a disability caused by a critical illness, you can regularly deposit funds into the flexible savings amount of your universal life policy.

What are the benefits of DIY CI and DI self-funding?

• Your savings frequency is up to you, as well as the amount that you want to pay, within certain limits.

• Permanent CI and DI plans may be costly and hard to qualify for.

• You don’t pay for any features that you don’t need or want.

• The savings you build may be used for other purposes should you not need to fund CI or DI.

• Tax-free† and surrender charge-free disability benefits are funded through the policy’s flexible savings amount.^††

DIY CI and DI self-funding risks:

DIY CI and DI self-funding, which is referred to in the universal life policy contract as Living Benefits, is not an additional product that is purchased but rather a built-in tax-free† disability benefit funded by your flexible savings amount.* This benefit is available if you were to incur an occupational disability or a disability caused by a comprehensive list of 26 critical illnesses.**

Remember, using universal life insurance will not provide sufficient funding to cover immediate or short-term critical illness or disability needs. You should consider purchasing short-term critical illness protection to cover your needs up until retirement or until such a time that you have self-funded a sufficient amount.