Life insurance, in plain English.
The words the industry uses — beneficiary, cash value, convertibility — translated into what they actually mean for you.
Cash surrender value
The cheque you'd actually receive for cancelling — usually less than the raw cash value.The net amount actually paid to you if you cancel a permanent policy — cash value minus surrender charges and any outstanding loans.
Cash value
The living benefit inside permanent insurance — useful, but not free money.The savings component inside a permanent life insurance policy that grows over time and can be borrowed against or withdrawn.
Cost of insurance
The engine charge inside your premium — and it usually climbs with age.The portion of your premium that pays for the pure protection — the death benefit — as opposed to cash value or fees.
Minimum premium
The floor that keeps the policy alive — pay only this, and you leave yourself exposed.The lowest payment needed to keep a flexible-premium policy, such as universal life, in force.
Mortality charge
The actuarial heart of your premium — priced from risk, not opinion.The specific charge within a policy that reflects the statistical risk of a death claim, based on age, health, and other factors.
Paid-up additions
The compounding engine inside a participating policy.Small chunks of fully paid-up insurance you can buy with policy dividends, increasing both your coverage and your cash value.
Participating policy
You share in the insurer's good years — as long as you read the guarantees, not the projections.A permanent life insurance policy that shares in the insurer's favourable experience through non-guaranteed dividends.
Permanent life insurance
Coverage that doesn't expire — the right tool for permanent needs, the wrong one for temporary ones.Life insurance designed to cover you for your entire life, as long as premiums are paid — the category that includes whole life, universal life, and Term-100.
Policy dividend
A share of the insurer's good years — welcome, but never promised.A non-guaranteed payment that participating life insurance policies may distribute when the insurer's experience is favourable.
Policy loan
Access to your cash value without cancelling — but it isn't interest-free, and it isn't always tax-free.Borrowing against the cash value of a permanent life insurance policy while keeping the policy in force.
Premium
What you pay, why it's priced the way it is, and what changes it.The amount you pay — monthly or annually — to keep your life insurance policy in force.
Simplified issue
Faster and easier to get — at the cost of price and coverage size.Life insurance you can qualify for by answering a short list of health questions, with no medical exam.
Single premium
Pay once, done — but the tax rules deserve a close look.A policy you fund with one lump-sum payment up front instead of ongoing premiums.
Surrender value
What cancelling actually gets you — often less than you'd expect in the early years.The amount you receive if you cancel a permanent life insurance policy — the cash value less any surrender charges and outstanding loans.
Underwriting
The step that decides your rate — and why honesty on the application protects your family.The process insurers use to assess your risk and decide whether — and at what price — to insure you.
Universal life insurance
Permanent coverage with more levers to pull — and more responsibility to manage them.Permanent life insurance that separates the insurance cost from an investment account, giving you flexibility over premiums and how the cash value is invested.
Waiver of premium
Insurance for your insurance — it keeps coverage alive when you can't pay for it.A rider that pays your life insurance premiums for you if you become totally disabled and can't work.
Whole life insurance
Coverage that never expires — and the trade-offs that come with paying for that guarantee.Permanent life insurance that covers you for your entire life and builds a guaranteed cash value alongside the death benefit.