Canadian Insurance Companies: Standard Life
As part of my series on Canadian insurers, let me present to you Standard Life today. In particular, I will talk about the company’s Universal Life and Term Life policies.
The Universal Life policy:
Applicants up to 80 years of age are eligible for Standard Life’s Universal Life. Perspecta – as the policyis called – has many interesting things to offer, including the following: multiple death benefit, flexible monthly premiums and also cost of insurance options.
The policy’s portfolio includes a cocktail of active and passive accounts, long-term deposits and one daily interest account. Furthermore, Perspecta features a Shelter Optimizer and Account Optimizer, which maximize the return on premium investments by ensuring their tax-exempt status. When the policy matures, the so-called client bonus payments kick in to augment cash accumulation even more.
Among the policy’s add-on options are: 10 and 20-year convertible and renewable term riders, critical illness riders for both children and adults, term riders for children, guaranteed insurability benefit, accidental death benefit and a disability waiver benefit.
On the downside, Standard Life insurance (which used to have industry-leading rates on their Universal Life policy) came with an increase in its rates in 2005. Their current rates are no longer very competitive among particular age groups. As one of only a few insurance companies in Canada, Standard Life still offers preferred rates available on their policies, which slightly compensates for their now higher overall rates.
To illustrate, a 45-year-old non-smoking male will sign up to $211.95 monthly at the very least, as this is the minimum premium which keeps the policy alive.
Term Life:
Standard Life has two term life policies in its portfolio – Term 10 and Term 20. The Term 10 policy is accessible to individuals aged 18 to 70, and the Term 20 policyis accessible to individuals aged 18 to 65. An existing client can renew the policy up to age 85 or convert it until age 65. Just like with Universal Life, you can add a plethora of different add-ons to the policy – please see above.
Standard Life’s term policies are available on an individual or joint first-to-die basis.
Should you have a very good health history (backed by your family’s above-average health history), you may be awarded preferred rates. Better yet, if you are really very healthy, you might even qualify for a super preferred rate! There’s a minor caveat though – face amounts for term policies start at as much as $100~000. If you lack enough spare income, then this fact may become a major issue.
