Protect your family’s income

Life insurance pays a lump sum to the people you choose when you die. In Canada the death benefit is paid tax-free, and your family can use it for anything: to replace your income, pay off the mortgage and other debts, pay for your children’s education or settle final expenses.

Term insurance covers you for a set number of years, such as 10, 20 or 30, and costs the least to start. Permanent insurance, whole life or universal life, covers you for your whole life and can build a cash value over time.

The right amount comes from adding up what your family would need without your income. Santhakumar works through the numbers with you and explains the options.

OHIP pays for doctors and hospital care, but not for most prescription drugs, dental work, eyeglasses or visits to a physiotherapist, chiropractor or massage therapist. Personal health insurance pays back part of those costs.

It suits anyone without a benefits plan at work: the self-employed, contract workers, early retirees, and people whose group coverage ends when they leave a job or retire.

Critical illness insurance pays a one-time, tax-free lump sum if you are diagnosed with a covered condition, such as cancer, a heart attack or a stroke, and survive a short waiting period, usually 30 days.

The money is yours to use as you need: to take time off work, pay for treatment or care that is not covered, keep up the mortgage, or let your partner stay home with you while you recover.

Your ability to earn an income is usually the largest thing you own. Disability insurance pays you a monthly benefit if an illness or injury keeps you from working, so the bills keep getting paid while you recover.

Policies differ in how long you wait before payments start, how long they last and how they define being unable to work. Santhakumar explains those differences before you choose.

A group benefits plan covers your employees, and often their families, under one policy: health and dental care, prescription drugs, life insurance and disability income.

Good benefits help a business hire and keep good people. Santhakumar can show you what a plan would cover and cost for a team of your size, and review an existing plan.

OHIP pays only a small part of medical costs outside Canada, and a hospital stay abroad can cost thousands of dollars a day. Travel insurance covers emergency medical care while you are away, and some plans add trip cancellation and interruption.

Visitors to Canada are not covered by OHIP either. Visitor insurance covers medical emergencies for family and friends who come to stay with you.

The Super Visa lets the parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens and permanent residents visit for up to five years at a time. To apply, they need private medical insurance that is valid for at least one year from the day they enter Canada, with at least $100,000 of coverage for health care, hospital care and repatriation.

Santhakumar explains the options, the deductible choices and how the premium can be paid, so your parents’ application has the proof of insurance that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada asks for.