Happy holidays and best wishes for a wonderful & safe 2022.
As another year comes to a close, many of us reflect and wonder what the future holds.
Hopefully the world will see success in dealing with the Pandemic and all that is involved.
Life seems to have been reduced to its most important components. Matters of high priority have been emphasized and one could say that the silver lining is that many people have been able to appreciate one another more than before.
With whom we spend our time, and what we spend our time doing has become perhaps more important than ever before.
Why do you do what you do?
It has been asked on occasion. Eric, with your credentials and experience, why do you do what you do. Why work in the field of personal and corporate insurance?
I believe that the end of 2021 is the perfect time to share the answer – to help create personal security!
You see, besides it being another Pandemic year with Covid19, and despite the fact that the markets have enjoyed tremendous gains over the last decade, and thus, one would presume great personal wealth and freedom, reality indicates a different picture.
First, the gains are not pure.
There are money management fees, which may have matched or surpassed the broader market gains.
Second, there is the matter of tax. Unless all of your assets are within a TFSA, tax becomes a matter of importance, now or later.
Third, if the gains are unrealized, what does crystaliz’ing them look like; or, what will it feel like if gains go backwards?
If they realized, are they frozen in an RRSP, or can you utilize them after the given tax is paid?
What I learned was that financial planning is not just about tax planning, or rates of return, it is what the money is supposed to do, create enjoyment and personal security. I have met some extremely affluent people who were constantly stressed and concerned about their investments, about market volatility and tax consequences. Will that get better when (not if) taxes go up to pay for Covid19, etc?
So, I do what I do from a standpoint of protection and financial security. I add tax advantaged assets, liquidity and a way to support your financial picture with insurance risk management tools. No one gets out alive and many of us suffer along the way. Insurance is the best way to address these matters, and we can leverage these vehicles intelligently to:
Enable use of your money now and when you retire, both tax-free.
Enable capital protection from the volatility of the markets without sacrificing returns.
Create guaranteed growth that compound better tax free than your TFSA
The base of this is Life Insurance. Everything else is on top of the financial pyramid. A time-tested vehicle that you can manipulate to serve your personal or corporate needs, or both.
Here are some top professionals and their take on what this does for a family and a business:
Neil Paton Partner, President and Chief Executive Officer at The Edge Benefits
As someone who has spent the vast majority of my career in the income protection business, I have seen close up both the phenomenal power of how tax free life insurance proceeds create outstanding financial security, and how not having life insurance creates significant financial hardship.
I know of no other financial instrument that creates such powerful leverage as it takes such an insignificant monthly premium and turns it into a significant tax-free lump sum payment that literally changes lives.
Tony Bosch Executive Vice President, Broker Development – Hub Financial
We have a habit of thinking about insurance logically and buy it out of a sense of responsibility. We know that if we buy a house it is our responsibility to insure that debt and that when we have a child it is only prudent for us to protect them by insuring our lives. We begrudgingly pay the premium because it is the responsible thing to do.
The true value of owning insurance occurs on the night that we are driving on a snowy, icy, highway and wonder if we will make it home, or when we receive an unexpected diagnosis from a doctor – when an event suddenly shakes our world and our thoughts are shifted from the mundane routine of life to “what would happen if …?” It is times like this we grasp for certainty and ask ourselves, “what is the worst-case scenario?” Our thoughts and emotions go to those who matter most in our lives and knowing that if we do not make it home, our family will be taken care of financially. We reflect on past decisions and the prudent decision to financially protect the ones we love. In times of financial turbulence, life insurance can be the greatest asset we own.
Jim Ruta BA RHU EPC President, Advisorcraft
Nothing else can do what life insurance can do. Not an investment. Not a stock. Not a savings plan. Not a bond. Not a mutual fund. Not an ETF. Nothing.
Nothing else can deliver the exact amount of tax-free cash at exactly the right time to cancel a mortgage and all debts, provide a guaranteed lifetime income to a surviving family to keep them together, put the children through university and brighten their future, pay income taxes and expenses and relieve that burden on the death of a prudent and responsible breadwinner. It keeps businesses alive and employees employed when owners die. It preserves business’ sweat equity. It provides the money that makes wills work and keeps dreams alive after dreamers are gone. It’s your own private, pre-paid GoFundMe page for family financial security. It can even provide a little immortality for grandmas and grandpas when used right.
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