Arithmetic for how much life insurance you need, the size of your disability income gap, LTD taxation and term length, plus checklists.
The two questions that matter most are simple to ask and easy to get wrong: how much money would your household need if you died, and how much income would you lose if you could not work. Both can be answered with a page of arithmetic using your debts, your income, your existing group coverage and the public benefits you could claim.
Start with how much life insurance you need. From there, work out your disability income gap, check how group LTD benefits are taxed, choose a term length or a ladder of policies, and test the classic buy term and invest the difference argument with real arithmetic.
Two situations get their own guides: income protection for the self-employed, who have no group plan and no automatic EI, and lender mortgage insurance versus personal term life.
Use the income gap calculator, the disability quote comparison, the term versus permanent projection and the application checklist alongside the guides. All premiums and returns in the examples are illustrative.
Worked Calculations and Buying Checklists
A worked Canadian test of "buy term and invest the difference" against term to 100: TFSA growth, the years after the term ends, break-even age and the conditions that decide it.
Worked Calculations and Buying Checklists
Worked Canadian example of a disability income gap: group LTD percentage and cap, tax on benefits, CPP offsets, the waiting period, inflation, and how to size a top-up.
Worked Calculations and Buying Checklists
When group LTD and STD benefits are taxable in Canada, how employee contributions reduce the tax, employee-pay-all plans, group life taxable benefits and Quebec differences.
Worked Calculations and Buying Checklists
Calculate how much life insurance you need in Canada: debts, income replacement in present value, education and final costs, minus group life, savings and CPP benefits.
Worked Calculations and Buying Checklists
Lender mortgage life and disability insurance compared with personal term life in Canada: who gets paid, falling coverage, post-claim underwriting, portability and a cost example.
Worked Calculations and Buying Checklists
How self-employed people in Canada can protect income: EI special benefits registration, CPP disability, individual disability and business overhead expense insurance, with worked costs.
Worked Calculations and Buying Checklists
How to pick a term length for life insurance in Canada, why renewals get expensive, and how laddering two or three term policies can cut cost, with worked totals.
