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What is Disability Insurance?

Disability Insurance provides a monthly income if you are incapacitated and incapable of working due to an injury or illness. Often called “Income Replacement Insurance”, this coverage is essential for self-employed individuals and those without disability insurance via their employer.

The risks of income loss Your ability to earn income may be compromised through injury or illness if you become disabled. Your ability to pay bills or save for retirement could remain the same. Disability insurance plans are designed to help you meet necessary income requirements enabling you to concentrate on recovering from your disability and returning to an active income-generating life.

Do you know who can be covered? Income protection can provide peace of mind for professionals such as lawyers or doctors, small business owners like plumbers or carpenters, leading business executives, and full- or part-time or home-based workers. You can also supplement the disability coverage you have with an employer or an association such as the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP).

How do you collect disability benefits? Your policy contract determines how soon and for how long you can collect benefits. Generally, disability benefits are received if you can’t perform the duties of your occupation, a similar job in your field, or any job at all.

How are befits paid? Disability insurance benefits are payable every month during a disability for the benefit period of the contract, which can vary. When you recover from a disability, the policy continues, usually payable again for a subsequent or recurring disability.

I’m healthy: why should I be covered? Most people know the importance of life insurance but rarely think about having a disability despite the statistics indicating they are pretty standard. Death is inevitable, while disability is probable at any given age.

Develop your backup plan today! If you are running a business (or work as an employee), you should be covered by some form of disability insurance (income replacement insurance). Such planning is the only way to avoid the financial and emotional stresses resulting from long-term disability.

Note: Life and disability insurance taxation varies in accord with the strategies used by the life insurance specialist, changing legislation, and hiring an accountant to guide significant business strategies relative to succession or an estate.

Is Mortgage Life Insurance practical?

Mortgage insurance is creditor insurance which financial institutions offer to pay off the indebtedness of a mortgage if the mortgagor died during the term of the mortgage.There is another strategy to achieve this using personally owned life insurance which offers you flexible choices with more freedom as to how you will approach insuring your mortgage liability.

Compare the mortgage insurance your bank or financial institution uses for your mortgage creditor life insurance to buying your own personally owned term insurance.

Mortgage Life Insurance from the financial institution

Premiums can be much higher.
The death benefit replaces only your remaining balance of mortgage indebtedness.
Premiums do not reduce when your mortgage debt is reduced.
The death benefit only pays off your remaining mortgage debt.
The contract stipulates that the financial institution is the only life insurance beneficiary.
You cannot alter the irrevocable beneficiary of the contract.
The entire amount of life insurance is lost upon mortgage repayment, or when in default.
The mortgage life insurance is not transferrable to another financial institution or private lender.
Because so few health questions are required, underwriting is often done at time of claim, resulting in denied claims.
When you move your mortgage to another firm, you generally lose the coverage issued from an existing institution. If you have health concerns you may not be able to buy more coverage.
Creditor insurance may cover two parties who jointly mortgage their property. However, it pays only on the first death, even if the two were to die. When one spouse dies, creditor insurance no longer covers any survivors.
- In contrast, by owning your own insurance policy, two spouses or partners may each own separate life insurance death benefits. In the case where both parties die, double the benefit would be paid, thus adding increased value to the estate. If one survives, the coverage on that life continues.

Your own Term Insurance

You have full control over the type of life insurance plan.
You can set up multiple beneficiaries, including a fund to pay off some or all of your mortgage debt.
Beneficiaries can choose to not pay off the mortgage if they prefer to pay off higher interest debt.
You can add or revoke beneficiaries.
Your life insurance face benefit amount does not shrink with a reducing mortgage debt, and can actually increase with some plans. Your coverage level is controlled by you.
Many term plans offer level premiums for longer periods or are convertible to Term to Age 100 plans, without a medical exam, even if your health declines.
- In time, in most cases, you can reduce your coverage to have enough for the proceeds to pay your final expenses to take the financial burden from your loved ones.
You needn’t qualify for new mortgage life insurance if you move your mortgage to a new financial institution. You just continue using your existing term plan, which covers you regardless where your mortgage is.
Once your mortgage is repaid or reduced you will have life insurance to cover other liabilities or for other estate planning purposes.
Term insurance allows you to look at your entire capital needs and buy coverage applicable to you total needs, in the event of death.
A custom life insurance plan often offer other optional benefits that you can include, such as riders which can include: life insurance coverage for children, disability coverage, and critical illness coverage.
More control over the cost of premiums which can go up over time if you don’t own and control the life insurance contract.
Your insurer underwrites your policy when you apply for it. Other mortgage life insurance from a financial institution offer you little control and may choose to underwrite your health history at claim time.
Ask your advisor how to shift out of mortgage life insurance into personally owned life insurance to achieve the above advantages.

Why is portfolio strategy important?

Portfolio strategy is a method used for investment planning. Here we look at some of the sub-categories within investment planning:

Having a strategy helps you to understand your tolerance for risk.

Each of us has a personal level of risk tolerance which indicates how much risk one is willing to take while investing in markets that always go up and down. Your advisor can help you establish your own unique governing guideline.

Understand your investment time frame.

You may want to save for your child’s education, your retirement, a vehicle, or a home down payment. Each of these projects can take a certain amount of time, which is a component you apply to your calculations and potential future value with tax considerations and/or registered government tax programs.

Re-evaluation and Re-balance your portfolio holdings.
You also may want to monitor, re-evaluate, and balance your portfolio. When you consider how your assets performed, you will also need to consider any market situations that may be occurring. Some assets may have returns that are greater than their benchmarks, others may not.

While rebalancing your portfolio, you can re-establish original asset allocations. When you are re-balancing assets be cautious of any tax consequences for selling early, or buying and selling too often.

Develop your “Investment Plan”.

Once your investment plan is written down for reference, it will provide a road map to help you attain your investment goals while not getting you off track due to analysis paralysis, or the many distractions that may cause people to procrastinate. If you find that you just can’t get motivated but know time is slipping by, call us and we will be glad to work with you to develop a portfolio strategy, within your overall investment planning. Getting assistance from a professional advisor will ease the stress of thinking about investing and help free your mind to enjoy life?

Don’t become a Chameleon.

Beware of following the investment crowd or chasing last year’s stock or fund winners. Past performance is not an indicator of future gains while investing in securities, or equity funds that invest in stocks and/or bonds.

How to prepare to qualify for a mortgage

When you apply for a mortgage, there are several questions that a lender may ask, for which you can prepare. They will want information relating to:

The primary information they will need.

1. Employment and income

2. A summary of your outstanding debts

3. Cash reserves, bank account cash, investments, and other assets

4. The down payment that you have on the property you are purchasing, and is it your own money

5. Will the loan also be to consolidate any debts

6. What will be the use of the property

7. What is the equity you now have in your current home, if applicable

Employment and income.

Who is your employer?
How much income do you make, and can you provide payment receipts/stubs?
How long have you been working at your job?
Is your income a salary or other income such as sales commission?

Your liabilities.

What are your outstanding debts?
What commitment level per month do you have to pay debts?
What is the cost per month for auto loans?
How much of your income goes to pay off credit cards, and what is the gross credit card debt?
How much money will be left after you pay for your down payment and closing costs?
- If you are refinancing debt, how much debt will your mortgage cover and reduce your equity?

What you will use the real estate for:

Will this be your residence?
Will you rent a portion of the home out?
Is it an investment property?

Property type

A condominium?
A duplex?
A single dwelling?

Replies which can work in your favour:

I have steady employment with the same employer for two-plus years.
I carry little debt with a debt-to-income ratio of 25% or less.
The mortgage is only for a home purchase.
My down payment of at least 30% of the purchase price with my own money.
The cash reserves will pay several months of the mortgage payments once the property closes.

Replies which can work against you:

Self-employed or contract worker.
High debt with credit cards maxed out, with a total debt-to-income ratio of more than 30%.
We intend to renovate the property for rental use.
The liquid cash situation will be tight once all expenses are paid after we close the deal.

When should you review your Life Insurance planning?

You may want to replace the income of the life insured—either you or your spouse. Ask your advisor to do a capital needs analysis. It is easy to calculate the capital needed over any short or long period of time in any situation if the life insured were to die. Many professional calculators allow advisors to prepare accurate life insurance assessments.

It may be time to review your Life Insurance at these life junctures:

After you have finished your career training and begin a new job, you will want to buy life insurance as you start the foundation of your goal-setting strategy to gain financial independence. Life Insurance proceeds can pay off any OSAP or car loans so that the family has no financial burden should you predecease them.
If you have recently married or are engaged, your finances take on a new scope of responsibility for spouses jointly planning to protect one another’s financial security. Also, review your Life Insurance needs together to protect your income if one of you die or become disabled. This is a key foundation for developing a sound financial strategy when you are young and newly married.
- If either of you had a will, it might be revoked upon marriage unless it specifically states it was created in contemplation of marriage. When planning your Life Insurance together, consider how to set up your beneficiaries carefully. Often it is best to do so outside of a will.
If you work at a trade, make sure that you have Disability Insurance. This insurance is also called Income Replacement Insurance because it provides a paycheque if you become disabled. Your children and spouse are dependent upon your income. What if you became disabled – will that source of income dry up or become minimal?
When you have children, Life insurance is purchased to provide capital if one of the parents should die. A young mother would not be forced to work, reduce her lifestyle, or leave her children cared for by others.
When children go to college, many of us tap into our savings to help meet their tuition and housing expenses. We may purchase a child’s first car or provide an income for one or more years. If you die without providing continuing support, your young adult child may need to quit seeking a higher education due to a shortage of funds.
Suppose you have a change of executor, lawyer, accountant, or guardian. If one of these key people dies or becomes incapacitated, or is replaced regarding your estate plan, it is wise to review that aspect of your plan, which may include an entire rewriting of your will as you appoint new people.
If you want to establish planned giving, Life Insurance works well. If you desire to leave money, for example, to a charity, church or religious organization, an art gallery, or a school, you will need to do some estate planning. Consider using advanced life insurance planning. Life insurance can assign a beneficiary, allowing the monies to go directly to the charity or foundation. Consider that your will may need to be changed if you use Life Insurance to circumvent your will.
If you have grandchildren, you may want to ensure that they are provided for, perhaps through life insurance planning.
If you have experienced a significant change in your level of wealth, replanning may be important. If you inherit money or inherit Life Insurance proceeds, you may want to talk to your advisor about implementing Life Insurance in your own estate planning. Also, look at Disability Insurance and Long-term Care Insurance to see if financial risks can be insured to protect or enhance your wealth. If your assets decline, consider altering your bequests and newly establish this in your will.
If special care is needed for a loved one, make sure to plan. When a spouse, parent, or child has become disabled and needs future care, consider: Long-term Care costs are very high if you want a private room or special personal attention (such as defining when you want to take a nap or go to the washroom or bath, versus a strict schedule), for yourself, your parent, or another.
If you personally anticipate requiring costly long-term health care, you may want to alter the specific bequests in your will to reflect this new reality.
If you appoint a new or revoke a previous beneficiary, review your beneficiary designations with your Life Insurance representative and your beneficiaries.
If you have sold or will sell a business, your Life Insurance will need a review. If your assets become more liquid upon the sale of a business, you may want to pass that benefit along to beneficiaries or charities; or enhance your retirement. If a partner has bought or is buying your business previously bequeathed in your will, you may need to adjust your estate planning while using advanced life insurance planning for business-related solutions.
Replanning your Life Insurance may be necessary when you want to use or change a trustee or trust institution. You may, at some point, want to assign others to be in charge of investments within a testamentary trust directive.
A change of legislation can affect your plan. Changed government legislation can affect your estate planning. The validity of your will may be affected by changes such as estate taxation or probate laws.
Capital gains taxation on a major asset will eventually come due. When you own an asset that has appreciated, such as a cottage or business, or equity investment, make sure the tax payable will not harm the estate. Affordable Life Insurance solutions can pay off your estate liabilities after death.

What makes investing in mutual funds simple?

The following advantages, make investing in mutual funds simple:

· Simplified investing You can select an industry or sector or country and/or currency within which a mutual fund trades securities. You do not have to to hand-pick each security. The mutual fund manager does this security selection process for you. You don’t have to be assessing which stock or bond may or may not be a winner. A fund manager is trained to weigh out all the market contingencies which can affect investor performance.

· Low-cost diversification A small monthly purchase plan can have you moving forward in your mutual fund investments in a day. Your money can buy a piece of many different investments held within one or more funds.

· Dollar-cost averaging Dollar-cost averaging allows you to buy more fund units when the unit values are down, less when they are high, giving you some benefit from downward volatility.

· Flexible access to your money You can sell your fund shares in one day. Your proceeds are available the next day if your money is needed in the short term.

· Portfolio balancing Choices include the full range of fund types, and strategies are available to use such as strategic balancing of your fund holdings.

· Automatically invest You can automatically invest more in mutual funds at any time or use dollar-cost-averaging.

· Professional management Mutual funds have active professional management watching over your investment.

Source: Adviceon

How simple is it to invest in segregated funds?

You may want to consider using segregated funds when the market is offering low snail-paced returns on guaranteed term deposits.

The following advantages, make investing in segregated (seg) funds simple:

Invest in stocks when interest rates are low Interest rates on term deposits pay a very low percentile return per year, whereas the stock market can grown rapidly.
Simplified investing You can select an industry or sector, for example, without having to hand-pick each security. The segregated fund manager does this selection process for you. You don’t have to be assessing which stock or bond may or may not be a winner. A seg fund manager is trained to weigh out all the market contingencies which can affect investor performance.
Low-cost diversification A small monthly purchase plan can have you moving forward in your segregated fund investments in a day. Your money can buy a piece of many different investments held within one or more funds.
Dollar-cost averaging Dollar-cost averaging allows you to buy more seg fund units when the unit values are down, less when they are high, giving you some benefit from downward volatility.
Flexible access to your money You can sell your seg fund shares in one day. Your proceeds are available the next day if your money is needed in the short term.
Portfolio balancing Choices include the full range of seg fund types and strategies which are available to use such as strategic balancing of your funds holdings.
Automatically invest You can automatically invest more in segregated funds at any time or use dollar-cost-averaging.
Professional management Segreaged funds have active professional management watching over your investment
Segregated funds also offer some certainties Some guarantees are offered or optional as far as principal retention goes or the investor, which are quite different than segregated funds, which may differ according to the segregated fund policy.

Talk to your advisor about how you might benefit from the use of seg funds in your investment planning strategies.

What is an investor risk/reward trade-off?

Understanding investor risk/reward trade-offs.

The risk/reward concept states that the higher the risk of a particular investment, the higher the possible return. Although there is usually risk with any equity investment, assessing just how much risk your portfolio should carry is essential. Risk involves the potential for gain or loss of monies invested.

Many people take on more risk, hoping to achieve a higher return without regard to cyclic markets. If an investor expects higher returns based on the past, he must understand that markets can go through gain and loss periods.

In theory, many think that the higher the risk, the more you should receive for holding the investment. With cyclic markets, this is not necessarily true. Conversely, in theory, the lower the risk, the less you should receive. Unfortunately, the dilemma is this: a higher potential for above-average returns comes with a higher risk of below-average returns. Conversely, safer investments, such as cash and bond instruments, have a lower potential for high returns and a higher potential to not keep up with inflation.

While choosing investments for your portfolio, you need to be conscious of risk/return trade-offs and risk tolerance. Different types of securities have associated levels of risk. Every investor’s goal should be to find a balance that allows you to not experience undue anxiety in the markets and achieve your long-term financial goals at the same time.

Media chaos causes investors to fear investing.

Psychological fear can hold one back from investing. People behave according to their mindset. Some of the following thinking can keep one from not putting their money to work by buying equity investments such as equity investment funds. If you have said any of the following statements, you may be experiencing investor anxiety:

“I think the markets will pull back and lose some value.” I will wait and invest when this happens.” This viewpoint is based on the need to confirm a belief before acting, where the investor must minimize any evidence that contradicts their belief mantra. The media frequently offers terrible news if the market has a low day, and it is easy to hear only this information while filtering out other positive news. This process can paralyze an action plan to invest for years.

“I want to sell the investment if I see a profit.” People might sell an investment early once it rises in value for fear of future loss. Aside from considering taxation, once sold, an investment with either a gain or a loss ends any future potential of that investment rising in future value. To avoid this mindset, one should have a disciplined written plan for buying and selling assets that can be frequently referred to.

“The market is bound to correct and head down because it is at a peak.” Anchoring our point of view occurs when someone assigns a reference number, like a 52-week high or low, to compare the price of an investment stock, the unit value of a fund, or a stock exchange’s last peak value. Past price movements are poor predictors of future price performance. When you invest for the long-term for retirement, using past price patterns is comparable to driving your car while gazing in the rearview mirror as a reference.

Conclusion
The above emotional mindsets can ruin or avoid forming an otherwise excellent investment plan. They can help you develop a risk tolerance profile and investment plan. Please work with your investment advisor to help you understand how the mind can trick us into failure simply by not investing over the long term.

“Individuals who cannot master their emotions are ill-suited to profit from the investment process.” Benjamin Graham

What insurance planning fits a good Estate Plan?

What are the key insurance components of an Estate Plan?

An estate plan is a singular categorical part within organized financial strategies aimed at achieving financial independence. Life insurance, disability insurance (group or personal), critical illness (CI) insurance and long-term care (LTC) insurance policies are key components of a good estate plan when protecting your family’s financial security.

Keep your documents up to date with your life needs. It is important that an individual maintains and updates a will and two powers of attorney documents: 1) for property such as real estate, bank accounts, and investment assets, and 2) a power of attorney for personal health care.

Life changes can affect the integration of each of the above strategic solutions. Therefore it is important to review the above aspects of an estate plan every three to five years. For example, there may be a change in the beneficiaries, where a person needs to be added or removed during an addition to the family; or if you remarry, your existing will may automatically become nullified.

There may be significant changes in your net worth if the value of your residence or investment assets change over time; or your liabilities increase or are paid off. If you have significant assets, have your accountant make sure that the best tax arrangements are in place.

Business owners If you are the shareholder of business assets, make sure that a buy sell agreement is in place in the event of your death or disability, assuring that every owner is covered with life and disability (income replacement) insurance.

An estate plan may benefit from using formal trusts to reduce taxes and segregated funds to circumvent or minimize probate or estate administration tax and/or fees or protect assets from creditors.

Life insurance with named beneficiaries can also be solutions to transfer capital tax-free to heirs outside of probate/EAT scrutiny. For an estate plan seeking to transfer large capital assets to named heirs, it would be wise to discuss these capital-transfer techniques with an account and/or tax lawyer.