Benefits Ontario (Canada) 1.866.856.6799

Well, all we tend to hear these days is the jeopardy of the pension system.

So, do not be surprised if Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan ignores last year’s proposal from former law dean Harry Arthurs to increase the maximum pension guarantee from $1,000 a month – where it has stood since the early 1980s – to $2,500 a month.

Guarantees are harder to find.....life insurance may be the answer

The government of Canada  and it’s provinces has thrown their hands in the air and pleaded an inability to guarantee Canadians their supposed right to receive their company pensions.

History has shown that when companies fail, or reach a point of restructuring or going out of business, they look to tap into what should be the “untappable”.

Laws tend to not protect the hard workers that have contributed to, and are relying on their company plans.

Now, let’s take this a step further.

The husband and wife living off one pension, and realizing the uncertainty are looking for ways to ensure the survivor and their children are left with a half decent standard of living need to look at what can be guaranteed.

In the old days, countless sales ideas were bantered around to suggest that life insurance can be an estate creation tool, and an estate preservation tool.

It is also a tremendous way of creating a pension, and it is this aspect that should be explored.

When young, and furthest from retirement, the amount of life insurance a couple needs is the greatest.

Often however, the agent looking to sell a policy looks to sell the one with the highest commission, and therefore leans toward the permanent versions at the outset.

This can cause a variety of issues, the greatest being a high premium outlay, and a low insurance amount.

If you are lucky enough to survive to retirement age, and are looking to use your insurance as a pension plan backup for your family, have you got enough coverage to be turned into an income stream?

If you are no longer insurable, you have now created a situation that you cannot change the amount of insurance (money) you will be able to leave your spouse and family. Wouldn’t it have been better to guarantee the higher amount with term insurance?

And, there is another problem you have when working – disability.

If you bought expensive life insurance and did not look at disability issues, then you will be taking additional chances.

You work to provide income, but also only by working do you contribute to your pension.

If the disability plan at work does not include a contribution to the pension when disabled, your pension will be smaller than it should be.

And, what if your income level is literally cut in half? Would your mortgage payment be covered?

Would you become a bank mortgage statistic? Another foreclosure because of poor planning or an insurance agent that did not include disability as part of your insurance planning?

It happens, and it happens more than you might think.

To prove it, ask yourself when your insurance agent last looked at your situation should you become disabled, and did he/she review your long-term disability coverage in your employee booklet?

You can ask us to help you – 1.866.856.6799.

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A single injection of squalene may not sound like much, unless you look at the pathological, medical evidence

Why is it that many health professionals working in a local hospital refuse to get the new H1N1 flu vaccination?

watch?v=zhQ-Tu4ljEo

The uninjectable suddenly has become injectable

The reason – the inclusion of squalene.

Squalene may be safe in certain environments but rumor has it that it should never, repeat never be “injected”.

Well, if it’s in a flu vaccination, how are we supposed to believe it enters our system – correct – it’s injected!

According to the examiner.com:

Squalene has been shown to cause severe autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis, reheumatoid arthritis and Lupus. Furthermore, Blaylock claims this particular vaccine adjuvant is connected to the Gulf War syndrome that killed thousands of soldiers and caused a 200% increase in Lou Gehreg’s disease.

Another issue of similar proportion is that of the Gardasil treatment for teenage girls to prevent cancer.

Is there a pattern here? Are we becoming human guinea pigs?

Who, including which drug companies are we supposed to trust?

And why is the vaccine for pregnant women different than that for the rest of us?

H1N1 is no joke. It seems to be taking it’s toll, and the biggest risk group seems to be teenagers that have not been exposed to this flu that has been around in the past, making the older generation less likely to get sick.

But like a loaded gun, and the effect on those that were injected with squalene in the Gulf war that now have health problems, are we asking for bigger trouble?

Squalene is mixed into the formula for one reason and one reason only – more bang for the buck! It all boils down to the “almighty dollar”.

I’m starting to feel like that human guinea pig, or rat:

A 2000 study published in the American Journal of Pathology demonstrated a single injection of the adjuvant squalene into rats triggered “chronic, immune-mediated joint-specific inflammation,” also known as rheumatoid arthritis.

People don’t know the facts and understand the implications. It reminds me of the insurance industry, where the real issue is finding an agent to trust, and not knowing all the ins and outs. The question is, is the medical word trustworthy when the soldiers of the U.S. military continue to be exploited medically, and in every other way too.

  Shouldn’t we all  start asking the hard questions?

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One of the best arguments for personal, individual disability plans I have ever seen!

For those that think group insurance is adequate, and are relying heavily on the promises of industry to back it up – you’d better take a hard look at the pitfalls of any kind of group insurance – especially one that is designed to protect income in the event of disability…..

You are an employee of a company with a long-term disability plan.

Do you know the terms of how it may pay, and more importantly if it might not?

How much control do you as an employee have over the payments that might be made from the long-term disability insurance?

Well, bizarre as this may sound, Nortel was covering the payments in disguise of an insurer (Sunlife), and now with the company in hard times, those disabled employees stand to lose their benefit:

Imagine that you have a good job at Canada’s premiere telecommunications manufacturing company. You choose to make regular contributions to your company’s long-term disability (LTD) benefit plan because, while you are unlikely to ever need it, you don’t wish to risk finding yourself living in poverty or possibly institutionalized as a result of an accident or disease.

One day Fortune knocks, recruiting you into the world of the disabled. Though you’ve lost much, you are thankful that you’re not also left penniless. Then you receive a letter from your employer informing you that, regrettably,your LTD plan was not really covered by an insurance company and when the business evaporates so will your paycheque.

 

Even as an insurance broker of 21 years, I find this arrangement bizarre, and under the circumstances unacceptable.

Why on earth would the government allow a company to self insure an area of insurance that can be very expensive indeed?

And, as argued in the article, shouldn’t the money be locked up, as a form of pension plan, as has been argued  in the past as companies faltering try to tap into the company pension coffers?

A single disability claim can add up to millions of dollars in payments, and therefore Nortel, with over 400 employees on disability would need to set aside an enormous amount of money. Again, it begs a couple key questions that employees should demand, and seek the answers to:

1. Does my company have a similar arrangement?
2. How much net income will I get paid if I am disabled?

It also stresses the need to discuss these circumstances with a qualified broker who can help you with an overview of your options and alternatives. In light of the uncertainty of group long-term disability plans, you should discuss the individual options a personal policy could provide.

Insurers can give a discount for employees that want to take out individual policies.

So, while your group plan may be first payor, the individual plan will not leave you hanging as the group plan at Nortel has done.

Premiums for individual policies are guaranteed, the policy cannot be cancelled with the best plans, and you can take it with you from employer to employer.

When you rely on your income, and you stand to earn millions of dollars over the course of your career, can you tell me of a single more important issue you need to look at now?

Call us at 1.866.856.6799.

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We use Compulife to search the market and get you the best rate on life insurance.

With over 50 years combined life insurance experience, we are here to help you save on life and disability insurance. Experience and advice are as important as price. And we can guarantee you the best price and best direction!

As brokers, we work with all the major life insurance providers.

Please call us at 1.866.856.6799 today!

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You stand to inherit an estate from your parents, or you are a parent wondering what the strategy for wealth transfer should be….the bottom line – what statement will you make when you are gone, that cannot be undone, and that “isn’t about the money”?

Power and money. Money used as power. Interchangeable ideas, and in that sense synonymous.

How can you avoid the inheritance fight?

What will be phase one? When the boomers of today’s parents leave an estate. And the reason for the battle:

“We believe that as more and more boomers (many of them spenders who have lots of debt) inherit from their depression-era parents (many of them savers), there will be many more families at war,” Kotzer predicted.

Phase two will occur once you succesfully make it through phase one, and the guilt of your good fortune sets in, as you look toward the legacy you will be leaving your kids.

Your children may not be as fortunate as you will be this time round. You have not been able to amass the wealth your parents did that you stand to gain.

What to do?

How to keep the piggy bank full from generation to generation....life insurance

What can you do to “even the score” and ensure your children inherit the advantage you stand to?

Simple answer that is all too often forgotten – life insurance.

Life insurance - the instant estate.

The least expensive way to ensure the distribution to children is to allocate each as equal beneficiaries so they know the amount they are receiving has been well thought out, with “fairness at the root of the consideration”.

Joint last to die policies fit nicely for this reason. Exisiting term plans can also be converted to permanent versions of insurance to make sure they exist for the ultimate goal of leaving your kids with money.

Should husband and wife have a term plan each, then when an inheritance comes, the best thing to do is pay off existing debt, and replace the money used to pay debt, in part, to changing the insurance program to permanent coverage options.

All too often, people take out smaller face amount permanent coverage when bills are highest, the kids are youngest, and the need for the larger insurance amount is vital to replace the income that would otherwise be lost if we were to die prematurely.

But, at certain junctures in life, such as coming into an inheritance, then your financial circumstances and focus changes, or it should.

There may be many of us looking to the next 20 years or less, and although we should not count on the inheritances we can foresee, at the same time it is impossible to ignore.

There may be circumstances where the parent is facing pressure from the grown children, and there may exist family infighting, and “jockeying for position” in the favor department with elderly parents. Sad, but it happens all too often.

There may be manipulation from either the elderly parent or the children, either way, to exercise and gain control over money. Again sad, but also common.

There truly is only one acceptable way to look at wealth and it’s transfer.

The only way you as a parent will send the proper message to your adult children is to make it clear, through the distribution of your estate, that you love them all equally, and the will and estate should reflect this with full explanation.

Because, here is the crux.

When you are gone, the time for questions is past. The “final statement” you make with the allocation of your assets has been made, and cannot be undone. If there were children that manipulated you to the detriment of siblings, then that can and will create unnecessary hardship and damage the relationships between the surviving family members.

A revised will over the bedside of the sick and elderly is not a reality any of us want to see, but we’d be burying our heads in the sand if we thought it doesn’t happen. Sad, sad, sad.

And for those children looking to ensure equality one generation from now, assess your own situation, and determine if you should be preparing for the present and the future with sizeable amounts of term insurance.

Term life insurance can be converted  without proving health in the future, and is a good guarantee that wealth will be available for transfer.

The bottom line and the best advice that can be given – is keep it fair, and ensure the heirs know it!

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Let me ask you a question or two.

What if you called our office looking for medical and dental benefits for you and your family because you didn’t have any?

And, our office found you a package for say, $150 per month covering medical drugs, semi private hospital, and dental care. Okay.

And you paid your premium for months, but then all of a sudden you got sick.

Still with me? Okay, good….

So now you are sick, and it looks like it is pretty serious, so you get your spouse to talk with the company you work for and they work out how much you will receive income wise when you are off on long term disability.

You have a mortgage and a family, and basically you needed every bit of your income to make it every month.

They give you the news…..your net pay will be about half of what you made net before. Is that okay?

You panic, and then you wonder why you were spending the $150 per month for a “benefit” plan if you could no longer afford to keep it.

You call me up and explain the situation, and I advise you that the plan you were so adamant to buy does not have an income replacement feature, and it therefore cannot make up the 50% loss of wages.

You become even more distraught and you realize that you can no  longer even afford to pay for the insurance you bought in case you got sick (which you now are) because you won’t be receiving enough money. What a nightmare.

What went wrong?

What went wrong is that if I didn’t ask you pertinent questions to first ensure your income would be enough if sick or disabled I would have failed you from the start.

When you called in originally for a benefit plan, “my job” would have been to screen out your current circumstances to see where you would be in the event you ended up where you did – disabled and sick, or injured. The bottom line is that you could no longer work to produce an income to live on.

I wouldn’t have done my job because I know that the likelihood of a disability is far greater than dying before age 65, and without income the bills (including health insurance) will not get paid.

I would not have done my job because the chances are you will earn millions of dollars in your lifetime, and it takes money to live. I would have failed you as your benefit advisor if we didn’t take the time to look at what would happen if you got into the situation you got into – not out of fault – but out of circumstance.

So when you come to me looking to spend $150 per month on a benefit program, please excuse me for caring, and ensuring that we know what will happen if you get to a point where you need some serious drug coverage.

It is not my job for you to appreciate my concern, but it is my duty to try to go over these important areas with you.

And I share that responsibility with my business partner, Nanette Gozutok. She is at extension 204, and I am at extension 201.

Pull up a chair, pour yourself a coffee, and give us a call. We want to hear about your situation, and discuss your needs.

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Well, did you know that periodontal disease is linked to heart disease?

It is. And yes, I am here to scare the daylights out of you!

Put mildly, poor oral health links your teeth to your heart. And you thought you could avoid going to the dentist.

Bacteria is in tremendous number in one’s mouth, so imagine if it should get from an infected gum, into your bloodstream, and bingo, to your heart. Not good, right?

Please see  this article for more information on periodontal disease, which affects at least 10 to 15% of the world’s population. Will you allow this to become a health issue for you and your family?

Is it really something to be "cut" from the budget?

If fact, if you do not have a dental plan, and say are self employed looking to cut expenses, then Houston, we have a problem if you think that not going to the dentist is the route for you and your family.

Here’s an interesting article for further reading.

Here’s the deal….

If you are self employed it really is an issue of priorities, tax savings, and many other issues to streamline your business, to make it the most “bottom line” conscious it can be. We have all “wasted money”, and what’s the sense of working for everybody but yourself?

Call us, and we can set you up with good advice and other professionals that specialize in their respective fields, to ensure you are taking advantage of all you can, so you can get to that dentist appointment.

There is help, and it’s a phone call away – 1.866.856.6799.

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If you are worried that you may not qualify for standard insurance, this plan info is provided by CPP (Canada Protection Plan). We are brokers for this insurer, and can establish need, and set you up with coverage as required.

The Simplified Life policy is designed for the hard-to-insure, seniors, and those who do not want to take the time for a medical examination or wait for a doctor’s report. There are a number of options available with this plan. It can be purchased by those 25 to 80.

 

 

Automatic Premium Loan Provision
Once you have made a number of premium payments, and you miss a payment then the insurance company automatically borrows (with interest) against the policy coverage to pay your missed premium. Any missed payments can later be repaid to return your coverage amount to its full value. This benefit is included at no extra cost.

OPTIONAL FEATURES

 

 

 

Accidental Death Benefit
The accidental death benefit can equal your benefit amount, or be 3 times, or 5 times your initial coverage. This means that your beneficiary would receive a total of 2, 4, or 6 times your initial coverage amount ($125,000) if you passed away in an accident. This option can be purchased by those under 65 and the benefit ends at age 70.

 

 

 

Child Term Rider
This option can be purchased for children from 1 month to 18 years of age. It provides $5,000 in coverage per child up to age 21, or age 25 if the child is a full-time student (or until the policyholder turns 65). If the Child Term Rider is purchased, you will need to complete form CPP01 – Child Term Benefit Questionnaire.

 

 

 

Hospital Cash Benefit
This optional benefit pays $25, $50, or $100 a day while you are in hospital up to 180 days and double the benefit amount if you are in ICU (Intensive Care Unit) for up to 30 days.

 

 

PAYMENTS

Premium payments may be made annually or monthly. All payments can be made through your bank account or credit card. There is an annual policy fee of $60. There is a $40 policy fee for an optional second policy.

Benefits
Benefit amounts range from $1,000 to $50,000.

 

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Insurance can sometimes be hard to get for a variety of medical conditions. There is a strategy that should be followed, as we can see from the following….

From a broker’s experience, here is how the products from CPP (Canada Protection Plan) fit the needs of clients.

As an example, let’s say you have a questionable medical condition, and are worried that you may not be approved with standard insurance plans.

Here is a strategy that only a qualified broker can suggest:

• if questionable health, but you have never been declined for coverage, do a Simplified Life application through CPP. With this you will be assured up front, day one coverage, with no waiting period.
• Apply to the standard insurer at the same time, to see what the offer coming back is
• Compare the offer from the standard insurer to that of the simplified life cost, to assess the best course of action

Now, if you do not apply and have the Simplified Life app approved and issued while you are being medically assessed elsewhere, then you run the risk of getting the coverage immediately, and a two year waiting period would apply. This is a situation we want to avoid at all costs.

As a broker, I use the services of Compulife to assess the best cost and do a comparison of the marketplace for any amount of coverage we deem required by you, the client.

Stop buying insurance policies, and allow a qualified broker to plan your insurance needs with you.

There is a world of difference between the two.

Please fill out this basic information to help us look at the insurance market for you:

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I will post links as found on a regular basis for the drug Gardasil.

Beware. Is this the biggest human guinea pig experiment in medical history?

Links:

• http://bit.ly/SDuve ABC News, 2008
• http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/78737.php From 2007: Ontario grade 8′s
• http://www.healthyontario.com/DrugDetails.aspx?brand_id=2456&brand_name=Gardasil From healthyontario.com
• http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/242383 Toronto Star from 2007

Remember, the pharmaceutical industry is “selling” this cure:

Merck Frosst, which manufactures Gardasil, has been lobbying government officials both in Canada and south of the border about the need for school vaccination programs.

• http://www.topix.com/forum/city/ontario-ca/T9Q7TCO9J3U8CS5J3 Gardasil is “dangerous” – forum

Please check back often, as I will continue on an ongoing basis to monitor the articles of interest, in the hope of education for us all with teenage daughters!

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