Disability Insurance on the street is "rumored" as an over priced benefit that will let you down when you need it most; not to mention nearly impossible to get underwritten for.
This is a delima I face on the street almost every day, and finally I think people are starting to grasp the concept. YES- disability coverage is not cheap, but I would argue with anyone that in relation to your income level it's not expensive.
Insuracne advisors are to blame for the lack of education to their client ( or themselves for that matter) as they only show the illustration's with 100% of the income protected and poor definitons. Limiting anyone to 1 or 2 options will almost always invite them to politley say "no thanks"
Occupation definitions, step benefits, wait periods, monthly income level and on and on are factors that should be discussed in making sure EVERYONE who is employed has some level of individually held disability coverage.
If you make $100,000 and can't afford the whole premium of what a real disability plan looks like, then you should insure yourself for half of that ($50,000) or whatever you can afford.
Hardly anyone I meet has disability coverage and i blame the advisor. It takes a long time to get the coverage, advisor has to do a lot of work and many think it's not worth their time. This is garbage talk, because it is our responsibility to get these extremely effective products into the hands of employed Canadians.
Since December 1st our office has had 9 disability applications submitted , and I am very proud to do the hard work for these clients in attempts to make sure they are COVERED properly.
Tucker Wright
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Monday, June 22, 2009
Look deeper
Last week I encountered a discussion with a college that I haven't yet come across to date. First off I was messing around with some Insurance companies software and notice a few interesting concepts around Return of Premium options inside disability and critical illness policies. The concept would make sense to have your premiums returned if one of these benefits were not required in a specific period of time- 10th anniversary, 15th anniversary etc.... when looking deeper into the numbers I noticed that the rate of return can be as high as 17% in some cases!
ROP has now become a new option for anyone who has enough cash flow to pay for their lifestyle and at least a 10 year term- where are you going to find a return with no related risk north of 10%????????
Answer: you don't.
Look to discuss this option with your financial advisor as it is becoming a new trend to grow your Cash while having the ultimate protection with a living benefit like Disability coverage or Critical illness.
I'm off to a Manulife conference - should be interesting, I'll update tomorrow.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Where were we......?
Driving downtown can be the most frustrating thing possible until I found King West! I often have appointments in the downtown core that range from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm and no matter what time of day the streets are a mess. Taxi's swerving in and out, construction reducing streets to 1 lane and trying to remember what streets are a 1 way; downtown financial district is becoming my new nemesis so when I had a few appointments this week booked in and around King west between Spadina & Bathurst I was preparing for the worst.
Now I've been down there many times in my life, but always between 11:00 pm - 3:00 am and not usually really soaking in the neighbourhood ( soaking other things). When I pulled off the Gardiner to make a left turn on Wellington is was shocked by how easy a maneuver this was in the morning, already I'm so happy that i have reached my location early of my targeted time. Park the Mali, and stroll up to King street where i was meeting my first client at Starbucks, remembering that I need to walk past For Your Eyes Only to get there and it's across from the Brant I think?
Thank god I wore my dancing shoes, because I was in and out of every stroller to mankind- Mommies everywhere??? Youthful business people walking and talking and the streets looked freakishly neat, "this is wild " I'm saying to myself. Traffic was moving at the same speed of Mt.Pleasant & Davisville and everyone looked so dam happy. I truly was impressed with the day scene down on King. Mix in a night life and you have an area that is truly fit for the emerging 20 something crowd and beyond.
I noticed many developments either on King and behind on Wellington that looked to be moving along nicely, most notably Fashion House 2008 project of the year. Freed Developments looked to have a foot hold on the development in this area, and with little research it was easy to see the kind of stuff they put together. Unique architecture and the opposite of anything you would see in and around Sky dome ( sorry Rogers Center), Freed Developments offers a lifestyle that fits the Torontonian at heart.
I'm headed out this afternoon for some introduction meetings with a couple in Aurora and later a referral with a young business owner uptown. I'll touch base back this week. I'll put some shout outs on twitter www.twitter.com/bcommfinancial
Monday, June 1, 2009
Does your cash flow look like this??????
Last week I experienced a first in my industry- TWICE....
2 clients didn't have sufficient funds to pay their monthly premium, leading their personal bank accounts to be O/D. The interesting thing is that one client was a smaller term policy and the other was one of my longtime most stable clients. I looked deep into this situation to find answers and I have simply come up with- Cash Flow is tight right now. Life is expensive and a tough place to grind it out all the time, mix in some unexpected expenses and your financial situation can be a mess pretty quickly. Both clients of mine will be fine and have stable incomes, this is simply a small bump in the road but more importantly I would like to think they are both happy to have an advisor who understands and is willing to help and walk the extra mile.
This week I will be meeting with both clients to re asses their current situation of Life Insurance and other expenses that are creating a crunch. FP solutions software allows me to do this and I'll make reference to this once again.
Remember you are the CEO of your own financial situation and open your eyes to what's really going on, attack your expenses- use credible people to help you get there and most importantly believe in what your doing. We use the phrase pillow factor around here often, and it refers to how well our clients should be sleeping- if you don't feel comfortable in what your doing DON'T DO IT.
I have to get back to getting these illustrations put together on top of my other task this week, check twitter.com/bcommfinancial until the next blog tomorrow afternoon.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
A few pointers for entrepreneurs
I introduce Doug Steiner........ and the crowd goes wild!!!!!
If you're not familiar with Doug he writes for the globe and mail Report on Business, while he also runs his own business in the financial service sector. I am fortunate enough to know Doug personally and find him to be a great voice to speak with, not only because of his witty nature but the overall advice and stability he has when discussing business ventures.
Take the time to view this quick video of Doug delivering a tutorial at the Rotman school of business. Hope you enjoy! Tucker.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Facebook gets face lift
I find it very interesting to see that Facebook was valuated at U.S. $10 billion, when this week many articles were breaching the conversation of the real evaluation of $3-5 billion.
Yuri Milner recently invested $200-million for a 1.69% stake in Facebook. With 200 million members world wide Facebook is a prime example of the value in social networking sites today and well into the future.
As a generation Y member I can easily see how this movement will impact the future of purchasing and advertising. Generation Y is becoming true consumers of top end products such as Mortgages, Investments, Life Insurance etc...... gone are the day's of skateboards and ball hockey sticks and welcome to heating bills and car payments.
How are social networking sites going to adapt to this market? Obviously there are people out there who believe these sites will become a pillar in the NEW everyday purchasing decisions faced by generation Y. $200,000,000 is a figure that i can't shy away from, especially in the downturn 2009 that we are all becoming too familiar with. 10 million- 20 million are figures we read about everyday in private equity deals, but 200 million has a different ring.
Once again I want to hear from you and hear your side of what social networking is to you???
Personally I like them and think they can be a huge resource for purchasing decisions if used wisely and effectively- Like anything be cautious.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Are you ready to change???
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/its-a-punctuation-point-in-history/article1152251/#video
Please check out this video and identify if you are ready to change or if you have been psychologically damaged by the recent downturn?
As i know many of the readers are from the younger generations, do you feel that there is opportunity out there? Do you plan to run a small business in the future?
I personally believe that in the near future we will see thousands upon hundreds of thousands new small business in Canada where people strive to control their own destiny & life style. This excites me as more than ever Canadians will need more and more help identifying their new risks they face as individuals and business owners.
Let's hear form you.
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