Making Dreams a Reality

Critical Illness – Not Me!!

2010-10-08T10:54:00.000-07:00

That’s what I used to think. As a young man the thought of a Critical Illness or any disease, that would impair my abilities or impact my life, was not in my scope of thinking. In fact, I had such a negative experience with a very demanding & overbearing Insurance Salesperson when I was younger, I proceeded to kick him out of my house and, it left me with a very negative impression of Insurance and the people who put it in place.

Obviously over the years my attitude towards Insurance has changed drastically and now being uninsurable, I regret not having more insurance in place but am grateful for what I do have and thank my sister (Betty-Anne) for putting that in place for me.

At the age of 42 I was diagnosed with Arterial Flutter and Arterial Fibrillation and required a very unique procedure called an Ablation in which the Doctors put 5 lasers through major veins, into my heart and proceed to zap areas of my heart that were not working properly – all the while keeping me in a semi conscious state so you can feel the lasers firing and burning your heart. This plus being a Diabetic has made me uninsurable and I cannot express enough my disappointment that I don’t have Critical Illness Insurance in place. Given my previous medical experience I feel certain I could have used it in the future. My wife on the other hand does have a Critical Illness Insurance policy and was easily convinced when I told her that if she didn’t use it – she would get all of her premiums back. “That’s a no brainer” was her response. We pay monthly premiums for our house, car and life Insurance and will get none of those premiums back – it’s too bad those companies couldn’t take a lesson from our Critical Illness provider.

My biggest life experience I can draw on, about critical illness insurance, was my Mother. When I was 23 she told me that she had breast cancer and had to have a mastectomy. I was devastated at the fact that she had to continue to work even though she had the operation and was undergoing chemo at the time. Her employer was very understanding and allowed her to work when she could but the fact remained that the treatment was making her very sick and she could not afford to just try and get better at home. What a difference $25,000 or $50,000 would have made to her as she could have concentrated on just getting better and not worrying about her family and their financial needs. The good news was that her cancer went into remission and the bad was that it came back 5 years later and she died because it had spread throughout her body. There were certain things she wanted to do over the course of those 5 years but the financial restraints on she & my Father, made it impossible.

I firmly believe that not enough people are taking Critical Illness Insurance as seriously as they should.
1 in 3 people will develop a critical illness by the age of 45 and
1 in 2 people will develop a critical illness by the age of 60

The fact is most people are surviving the Critical Illness. World renowned heart surgeon Dr. Marius Barnard helped develop critical illness insurance. Dr. Barnard witnessed the emotional strains that many of his patients faced after surviving serious illnesses. Financial stress often worked against recovery or, in many cases, left patients struggling to pay bills as they resumed their lives.

"You need financial independence when you're ill," said Dr. Barnard. "Not because you're going to die, but because you're going to live." This was certainly the case for my Mother.

People need to take responsibility and insure their greatest asset, which is themselves and their earning potential.

Help yourself by checking this out with your Financial Planner – don’t leave it too long or you may find yourself uninsurable, which is what happened to me.

Submitted by Paul Howard, Financial Advisor
Making Dreams a Reality Financial Services

How to save money with insurance

2010-04-30T04:56:00.000-07:00

How to Save Money With Insurance:

There are many ways to save money through insurance. Let’s begin with the biggest investment of our lives – purchasing a home.

The homes we live in are big investments. Often they are the biggest investment we make and inevitably, whether purchasing a home for the first time or refinancing, someone has suggested you purchase mortgage insurance – life insurance on the home owners, in the event that either of you die, then your mortgage balance is paid off.

There are other options you need to know about that have proven to be incredibly beneficial to our clients and will be for you as well.

I remember 15 years ago when my husband and I bought our first home. We really debated the need for insurance. We certainly didn’t need the extra expense of the premium each month, and the mortgage seemed manageable, we were young, healthy, and both employed. We figured we would pay the mortgage off before anything happened to either of us. Then we had our first child and things changed. We wanted the security of knowing life would continue without hardship if one or both of us passed away. We put a term life insurance policy in place. It was affordable and renews every 10 years.

When the policy came up for renewal last year I reviewed our insurance needs and determined our needs have changed and we need more. We had another child, we bought a bigger house, and our incomes have changed significantly. Fortunately, we already had this term policy in place because my husband now has Rheumatoid arthritis and is considered an underwriting nightmare. His chronic condition and the meds he takes to control its progression make it difficult and expensive to insure him now. Even though he plays hockey, is active and in general good health, he is now in a much higher risk category. We are so fortunate to have the original term policy in place because we will always at least have this.

You can never underestimate the value of continued insurability. Everyone wants insurance when they need it the most, but by then, they can’t get it. We see this all the time in our practice.

A client who called recently commented on how grateful she was to have the life insurance policy we set up for her. Shortly after it was put in place she found out she had cancer. A devastating experience for anyone, particularly for a young woman with a mortgage and dependents. No longer insurable, her existing policy is now a huge benefit offering her and her family some sense of security. She commented that she can’t imagine what she would do now if she hadn’t had it and is grateful that we recommended we assist her in getting her own life insurance policy rather than having mortgage insurance through the bank. Had she not done that, when her mortgage renewed recently, she would no longer be eligible for their insurance. No one can take her own life insurance policy away from her, once it is in place.

As a consumer, it’s always wise to know what you are buying and understand how it works. Let’s face it, we all want the best value for the money we spend.

There are many more benefits to having an Advisor or Planner work with you to get your own insurance policy in place, give us or them a call so we can review those with you and show you how you can actually save money through insurance.

Submitted by: Katherine Davidson

Reflections on putting life insurance in place for a child.

2010-03-10T15:46:00.000-08:00

There are many things most people would rather talk about other than the possible death of their child and looking at putting insurance in place, for that purpose, but what would you do if the unthinkable happened?

It has been my experience that insuring a child at a young age is very smart and responsible thing to do, on the part of the Parent or Grandparent.
Whole Life Insurance increases in cost as you age and is never as cheap as when you are younger. With each passing year the price goes up. Therefore the younger you are at issue the more money your child saves in their long term plan.

In my personal case my Nephew was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia at the age of 24 and therefore became uninsurable. If he had Insurance in place as a child he would not have that concern now. However he is faced with an inability to obtain life insurance coverage now when he needs it the most. There are many things that can happen in your childhood that may prevent you from being insurable or rate you at a higher cost. Not to mention how happy I would have been if my parents had presented me with a whole life insurance policy paid up. In reality I also am faced with insurance concerns now. You see, being Diabetic with a Heart condition means that I myself am uninsurable. I am grateful for the insurance that I did put in place, prior to becoming uninsurable and have future insurability riders.

As a result, both my daughters have $100,000 whole life policies that I took out when they were very young. I structured them in such a way that my wife and I will have them all paid up within a fixed number of years and provides a “line of credit” on their insurability later.

I can not stress enough the importance of Life Insurance for children, for the foundation of a long term financial plan.

Paul Howard, Financial Advisor

The Four Seasons of Financial Planning

2010-01-05T16:56:00.000-08:00

Winter:

Okay, this is Canada and sometime it feels as though winter lasts forever! And yes, this is the second season of Financial Planning and the first one was winter too.

There is a lot of activity this time of the year and that keeps us very busy. Another deadline is looming, and, just to confuse everyone, the deadline is round about the end of February, the very beginning of March, the actual date can change every year, like a moving target.

This deadline is for money you want to use to go towards your future (you would like to retire some day, wouldn’t you?) and, rather than free money (as discussed in the last winter post), these contributions help you keep more of your money, for yourself.

It’s all for you actually. You see, how this works is, you put money away for your future into something called a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and then, you pay less to the government in income taxes, it's as simple as that. Sounds like a good idea, don’t you think!

So, it’s not free money where the government gives you something, it’s more money they would have taken from you but they won’t, this time, because, they don’t want to have to take care of you, later on in life. So, this is considered to be incentive so you’ll take care of yourself. Isn't that lovely.

So, don't forget this years deadline is Monday March 1st. Hopefully, you are somewhat oblivious to this date because you've been dollar cost averaging into your investments throughout the year! More on DCA in a later posting. A very wise move, DCA!

The Four Seasons of Financial Planning

2009-12-22T06:08:00.000-08:00

Just as the group by the same name actually began their careers as; The Four Lovers, we are hoping that the same degree of passion can be brought to bear on Financial Planning. Why not? Just because it’s never been done before, doesn’t mean it can’t! Don’t the four sins include money (along with sex, eating and….) So, let’s begin with

Winter: There is a deadline fast approaching. If you have kids and you want to get them educated beyond high school and, you want them to get access to free money and, stealing is not an option. Here’s a way to do that.

Here’s the best part, you get to receive that free money from the government. Yes, you heard that right! Now some might argue that it was your money in the first place but I wouldn’t go there right now. Just stick with the joy of knowing this is free money and leave it at that.

December 31st is the deadline for these plans called; Registered Education Savings Plans. This is not a forever deadline, you can still get free money next year and keep that scheme going for a while. It’s just that there are some restrictions so it’d be good to talk to a Financial Planner about that so you don’t lose the opportunity to take advantage of these plans.

P.S. There is also an ugly rumour going around that if you don’t get another plan in place before the end of December – that would be a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA), - you lose this years contribution amount - don’t believe it, it’s not true!

Oh yes, and another deadline, ever heard of a Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP)? If not and, you qualify, December 31st is another important deadline for you (or your child).