Life Insurance: Frequently Asked Questions

Cover Direct Family Life Insurance is protection that helps to ensure your loved ones have some financial help in place if the worst were to happen. There are two types of policy available: term life insurance and whole of life insurance (also known as permanent life insurance). With a term life policy, the term lasts between 10 and 30 years depending on your age. If you die during the term, your legal beneficiary will receive a cash amount. With a whole of life policy, you’ll be protected for life. That means that whenever it is you die, your loved ones will receive a cash amount. A member of our expert team will explain all of the details over the phone.

You must be a Canadian resident aged 18-70 to apply for coverage¹. Our coverage is exclusive to us and can only be arranged directly. Simply choose a benefit amount with a monthly premium that you can afford, and you’ll have protection in place for your loved ones.  

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You are not covered for death as a result of suicide until 24 months after your policy has begun. The optional children's coverage and critical illness insurance will only cover the specific types of death, injury or illness defined in the policy terms and conditions.

Generally, the younger you are when you take out a life insurance policy, the cheaper your premiums could be. You can apply for larger benefit amounts when you take out a policy sooner rather than later. However, the decision to purchase life insurance depends on your personal circumstances and needs. Please contact us if you would like to discuss this further.

While you may have protection through your employer now, if you leave your job for any reason in the future your coverage may end, and you could be left without any protection. Because of this you might want to consider taking out your own life insurance policy. 

You will pay monthly premiums for the duration of your coverage. If you cancel your life insurance policy, you will no longer pay premiums. If you cancel your policy more than 30 days after the start date, you won’t get anything back.

With the right coverage in place, you can help protect your loved ones from inheriting your debt when you’re gone. The cash amount could be used to help cover tax bills, final expenses and outstanding debts. It could also simply be used as a gift to help keep life on track for your family if the worst should happen.

This depends on what you want your benefit amount to do. If you want it to cover tax bills when you’re gone you should consider how much this may cost. Likewise, if you want to help cover your final expenses, such as your funeral, you should think about what costs may arise from it. You could also consider choosing an amount of money that could help pay off outstanding debts such as your mortgage. If you’re still unsure, our life insurance calculator can help you.

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How much your life insurance costs will depend on your own circumstances. The main factors that impact the overall cost are: 

• Your age at time of applying 
• Your smoker status 
• Your gender
• What optional extra coverage is added to the policy
• Your response to health, lifestyle and occupational underwriting questions during the application process

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You don’t need a medical test during the application process to get life insurance with Cover Direct. Instead, we’ll ask you a few simple health and lifestyle questions.

It depends on the type of Cover Direct Family Life Insurance policy you have chosen.

With whole of life policies, the premium for your basic coverage is not guaranteed to remain the same and will be recalculated each year based on the premium recalculation method described in the policy terms and conditions. This also applies to any optional insurance selected.

With whole of life insurance, an automatic benefit amount increase option is included, where your premium will automatically increase each year in order to provide you with a 3% benefit amount increase to help keep up with the impact of inflation on your life insurance policy. You can opt out of this.

For term life insurance, the premium amount and benefit amount both remain fixed for the selected term of your policy.

Cover Direct Family Life Insurance covers you for any cause of death, excluding suicide within the first 24 months after your start date. 

If optional critical Illness coverage is included, you'll also be protected for the following illnesses: heart attack, cancer, stroke and coronary artery bypass grafts (as defined in the policy terms and conditions).

If optional children's coverage is included, you will also have protection if your child were to die from an accident or suffer a serious injury or illness (as defined in the policy terms and conditions).

With Cover Direct, you can choose the whole of life (permanent) policy, which includes an automatic benefit amount increase option. This option will increase your benefit amount by 3% of the original amount each year. Your premiums will also increase each year. This can help you offset the impact of inflation on your policy. Please bear in mind that there is no guaranteed protection for a life insurance policy from inflation as it is hard to predict. A member of our team can explore all of the details over the phone.

Yes, it is possible to get life insurance if you are smoker. However, life insurance could potentially be more expensive if you are a smoker. This is a direct result of the higher risks of contracting disease associated with smoking. It is important to be truthful about your smoking status during the application process, and failure to do so may result in your policy being invalidated.

Health insurance is a type of insurance that is designed to help protect you against the cost of medical expenses. Life Insurance, on the other hand, is designed to help you provide financial support for your family if you were to pass away unexpectedly. It can help them pay final expenses, tax bills, cover remaining debts, day-to-day costs as a result of lost income or it can even be used as a gift.  

With term life insurance, your benefit amount and the cost of your monthly premiums stay the same for the duration of your policy. With whole of life insurance, your benefit amount and monthly premiums will be recalculated each year as described in your policy terms and conditions, and include automatic benefit amount increases to help keep pace with the effect of inflation.

Yes, you can hold more than one Cover Direct Family Life Insurance policy at a time. Please note that with Cover Direct, you can only hold policies that have a combined benefit amount that is within the limit you can apply for based on your age. Here is a list of those limits: 

• Minimum Sum Insured $100,000 
• Maximum Sum Insured - up to age 45, $1,500,000 
• Maximum Sum Insured - 46-55, $1,000,000 
• Maximum Sum Insured - 56-60, $600,000 
• Maximum Sum Insured - 61-65, $300,000 
• Maximum Sum Insured - 66-70, $200,000 

No, you are unable to cash in your Cover Direct Family Life Insurance policy at any point while you have coverage. Our family life insurance is not a savings or investment product.  

Your plan will not be subject to taxation in most cases. If there has been no Will prepared and no beneficiary named, the lump sum amount may be used to pay for several administration fees. The cost of administration taxes the life insurance policy could be subject to will depend on the laws in your province.

You can apply to make changes to your policy at any stage. To make any changes, call us TOLL FREE at 1-844-990-4466. Our office is open Monday – Friday 9am to 8pm ET (excluding public holidays). From there you can apply for the specific changes you would like to make. Please be aware that any changes you make such as increasing or decreasing your benefit amount can have an effect on your monthly premium. 

If you pass away within the first year of your plan, your full benefit will be paid to your loved ones. Please note that if you pass away because of suicide within the first 24 months the policy benefit will not be paid out.  

Getting Cover Direct Family Life Insurance is simple and straightforward. You can get in contact with one of our highly trained team members TOLL FREE at . Our office is open Monday – Friday 9am to 8pm ET (excluding public holidays). You can get everything you need sorted out in one phone call. Family Life Insurance is only available exclusively from Cover Direct - you can't get it anywhere else. Our trusted insurance advisors are ready and waiting to get you honest and straightforward life insurance to help you provide protection for your loved ones.

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Yes, you can cancel your policy if you no longer feel like you need it. Please be aware that if you cancel your policy after the 30-day waiting period at the beginning of the policy you will not receive any money back. If you cancel within this 30-day period you will get any premiums paid back.  

In order to make a claim you or a family member will need to email claims@coverdirect.ca. Once you have emailed us one of our team members will send you or your family the necessary documentation. Once it has been filled out and returned to us the claim should be processed as quickly as possible.  

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Once a claim has been approved, payment will be made to whoever is legally entitled to it. Usually this will be the beneficiaries designated by you in your application or any subsequent change of beneficiary request. If no one has been designated by you, payment will be made to your estate and will then be distributed according to your will (if applicable) or applicable law.

If you outlive your policy term, you will not receive any money back. Your policy will only pay out a lump sum amount if you suffer one of the insurable events covered while you are insured.

It is important that you make your monthly payments on time. If you miss a payment you will need to get in contact with us as soon as possible to make the payment. In the case that you miss two monthly payments in a row you will no longer be covered. Your policy can be reinstated up to 24 months after the last missed payment date. 

Critical illness insurance with Cover Direct allows you to include an additional coverage amount of $50,000 in your Cover Direct Family Life Insurance policy. With this optional extra, you will be insured for heart attack, cancer, stroke and coronary artery bypass, as defined in the policy terms and conditions.

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You can apply for critical illness insurance during your Cover Direct Family Life Insurance application. Once it is in place you will have coverage for a number of illnesses. The cost of this optional extra will be added to your monthly premium. If you suffer one of the defined illnesses, you or your loved ones will be paid a tax-free lump sum amount to help with the costs of healthcare². The cash amount you receive after the claim is accepted will be deducted from your total Cover Direct Family Life Insurance benefit amount.

The cost of your critical illness insurance will be linked to the overall cost of your Cover Direct Family Life Insurance policy. Like the main policy, the cost of this optional extra will depend on things like your age at the time of application, your smoker status, your response to health, lifestyle and occupational questions, and whether you want a joint or single policy.

Children’s coverage is optional coverage that can be added when applying for Cover Direct Family Life Insurance. It offers coverage for your child if they were to suffer from a specified serious illness or injury. Adding this extra to your policy, will increase the cost of your monthly premiums.

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Children's coverage is optional coverage that can be added at the time of purchasing your policy, or shortly afterwards. Including it will increase the cost of your monthly premiums. Once it’s in place, if your child were to suffer from one of the defined serious illnesses or injuries, you’ll receive a cash amount. This could be used to help with medical bills or other family expenses. For full details on the list of defined illnesses or injuries, please consult the terms and conditions.

Like the cost of life insurance for yourself, it will depend on your own personal situation. There is no answer that will apply to everyone. The main factor that will determine the cost of this option is the age of your child at the time of application. You can get $30,000 worth of coverage for a child up to the age of 17 and they will be covered until they are 21.

Our policies are underwritten by Canadian Premier Life Insurance, who work with MIB during the application process. MIB is an organization of insurance companies that operates a confidential database of personal information about individuals, including health information. 

When you apply for Canadian Seniors Life Insurance with Cover Direct, you are required to authorize MIB to provide any medical or personal information that it has about you to Canadian Premier Life Insurance Company, its reinsurers and any MIB authorized third-party service provider acting on Canadian Premier's behalf. As part of your application, you also authorize Canadian Premier to make a brief report of your personal health information to MIB.

You can request a free copy of your MIB Consumer file at www.mib.com, or by calling 866-692-6901 toll-free. You can also seek a correction from MIB if you believe any information held is inaccurate. 

Cover Direct is a trading name of Neilson Financial Services which has an office based in downtown Toronto, Canada. Over the last number of years, we have helped to provide Canadian families with financial protection for their loved ones. You don’t have to take our word for it though, find out what our Canadian customers are saying about buying direct life insurance from Cover Direct by checking out our reviews page.

You can trust that when you get in contact with Cover Direct you will be speaking directly with a Canadian based advisor that will help you find a policy that can help you provide protection for the ones you love. Giving you peace of mind that your loved ones will be looked after.