Jason, Ash, and Richard Canfield discuss protecting disabled children through life insurance. They share how a child-protection rider let one family convert a term policy to a $250,000 permanent policy at age 25, while preserving Ontario's $100,000 disability assistance limit through trusts.
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Wow, this is why I do this.
So that they can benefit and better their, their family's financial position from for now and securing their legacy moving forward. Anytime I, you know, conversations like that, they're just— it's worth the reason why we do this.
All day long. Because they did something really powerful and really important. They put a child protection rider on that term policy for, in this particular case, it's $2.50 a month. They locked in this little piece of protection that actually created an opportunity to turn into a new life insurance policy up to $250,000 at age 25. Well, here we are.
Can you think of a moment that— a conversation, maybe an interaction that you've had, whether it's with a prospective client or an existing client, and you left that Zoom meeting or that in-person meeting thinking, wow, This is why I do this.
Yeah, that's a great question, Jason. I would say yes. I have a client who's a large family, lots of little ones, and it's always a joy and a pleasure to have a conversation with them. And they're really taking the time to understand, but also put themselves in a good position financially for their children, focus on estate planning, focus on, hey, what's the next steps? Like, what do I do in case something were to happen? And they're also starting this process, building out their family banking system by having all their kids doing it as well. But it's always such a joy to listen to them because they have such a willingness and an eagerness to learn so that they can benefit and better their family's financial position for now and securing their legacy moving forward. Anytime conversations like that, they're just— It's worth the reason why we do this. All day long.
I got to share this with you guys. So I had an amazing meeting here this week with a gentleman, amazing guy, one of my favorite clients, such a neat guy, always has an amazing attitude and really circles back to the book on a regular basis and Nelson's teachings. Now, his oldest son has been uninsurable. He has a disability. And because of that, he will require some assistance throughout life. And so At some point in time, we were talking and said, you know, at some point in time, we're going to be talking about one another in the past tense. One of us, one of us or both of us aren't going to be here, but your son will still be here. And in that scenario, we have to think differently about how we put certain things together. And so here we are at a position where gratefully and thankfully, when he first came to us, he already had some term insurance in place. Amazing. His family's protected. He had something in place. The previous advisor who I would, I would hug if I knew who the person was, I'd give him a big hug. Because they did something really powerful and really important. They put a child protection rider on that term policy for, in this particular case, it's $2.50 a month. They locked in this little piece of protection that actually created an opportunity to turn into a new life insurance policy up to $250,000 at age 25.
Wow.
Well, here we are, we're 4 or 5 months away from age 25, and he received a notice in the mail. That he can exercise this option.
Yeah.
In fact, he wanted to get rid of this policy and I said, well, don't do that. We need to keep it and we need to keep it for this reason.
Yeah.
And we— this, like, this is a critical cog in your family's machine, so we have to make sure that we maintain this. So he had to go through a term renewal, maintain it for a couple of years just to be able to turn this thing on. And we're in the process of now sketching out how to do that.
That's great.
Now, is it with the company that I prefer or that he would prefer? The answer is no. But we've got, you know, Nelson would say, work with what you got.
That's right.
And so it was just a fun and really engaging conversation.
And I learned some interesting, because we're always learning in what we do. And I learned some things about, at least at the rules in Ontario, someone who's got, you know, a particular disability, they might qualify for certain assistance programs. And, but in order to do that, they can't have a, they can't end up with a net worth over like $100,000. So like, If they had cash value and they owned the policy and it exceeds that number at some future point, it would kill their income benefits potentially, which could be devastating in the future.
Yeah.
So we had to have a conversation about ownership. Well, the good news is the father can own it and the son doesn't have to own it. And they've already created in their will a trust model that will be set up upon him and his wife passing so we can transfer the contingent ownership to the trust. When they go so that it won't interrupt any of those benefits. And then it's like, well, the other thing is we don't— we want to make things simple and easy so that at this future point in time when you're no longer here, while it would be great if we could pay a premium, it'd probably be a lot easier if he doesn't have to. So why don't we set the payment period to a lower timeframe, like a 20— you know, it's fully funded in 20 years. There's no requirement for premiums afterwards. So we can create the methodology that allows us to Think into that future environment.
And so it was a really good example of Nelson thinking long range.
Rule number 1, you got to think long range. He says, learn how to think beyond your own lifespan. And just the pure idea of that one thing, which this has become a natural statement for me, sometimes I catch myself and like, oh, it was a point in time in my life where I didn't know that that was possible. I couldn't comprehend the idea that you could think beyond your own lifespan. And ever since the day that Nelson taught me that you could do that, I've never been able to go backwards into the space where I realized it wasn't possible. And so once it becomes this known element, it's like you just move forward in that direction and you don't realize that there was like life before. Does that make sense?
Yeah, perfect sense.
That's a, that's a good job, Richard. That's a great example of really looking out for somebody and, and them, and them really taking ownership on I'm looking after their family as well.
Well, and we get the opportunity to do this. And it's— so kind of going to your question, you know, if you had that moment in time where you realize that there's, you know, this family now gets it or this family gets to do these things, you know, that's one of the most amazing elements that we're privileged to be able to have on a pretty regular basis with our clients. Our team, often we share stories. Jason, how often do we get on a meeting with the team and you're like, okay everybody, before we get started, let's go and look at some of the Google reviews and then we're gonna read it. Okay, Ash, you read one. Richard, you read one. And we read it out for the whole group and everyone gets kind of invigorated by what it is that we do.
That's right.
There's a, do you mind if I share a short story that goes along those lines, Richard?
Go ahead.
So, I was actually just responding to an email from a client and it had to do with the last quarterly coaching session that you ran there, Rich, with legacy and stuff like that.
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And they were looking at it through the lens of, well, this is like a future me problem. I'm not going to worry about this. I'm not in my 80s or on my deathbed or whatever it is. So maybe I'll forward this to my beneficiary or something later on or whatever that is. And it was a great teaching moment to be like, well, no, this is there because Although we like to think that we're going to live a long life, unfortunately, you know, there are accidents and tragedies that happen every day. And God forbid that doesn't happen to us. But if we don't set the plan in place to be able to help our family at the time when they're going to need it most during that difficult time of someone passing, well, then we're doing them a disservice by not even addressing it. Yeah, we don't want it to be a— we don't want it to be a reality. We don't want it to happen. But unfortunately, we don't get to control all things in life. So, it was a good opportunity to say, no, that's— I understand that that's your perception of it, but this is why we put that, laid that training on for our clients so that they can bring that to the forefront so they can really lean into and cover off all the bases of the stuff that we're trying to talk about when it comes to think long range.
