Altaf Nathoo - Legacy Private Wealth and Estate

Permanent life insurance is one of the few financial decisions in Canada that is genuinely hard to undo. The insurer sets your cost of insurance at issue based on your age and health that day, and it is locked for life. The ownership structure, the funding schedule and the dividend option are all decided before the policy is ever issued. I have spent 35 years cleaning up policies bought on the wrong advice and the honest truth is that sometimes there is not much left to fix. An hour of proper advice before you sign is worth more than years of adjustments afterward.

Comment “BEFORE” for the Pre-Purchase checklist. The questions to ask any agent before you sign, and the design details that decide what your family actually receives.

Most people buy a permanent policy once and never look at it again. In 35 years I’ve found that a large share of the policies I review were never structured to do what the family actually needed - sometimes underfunded, sometimes designed for the wrong outcome entirely. The hard part is that once a policy is in force, your options narrow. Some things can be adjusted. Some can’t. The earlier it’s caught, the more can be fixed.

Comment REVIEW” and I’ll personally look at your existing policy - what it was designed to do, whether it’s on track, and what can still be adjusted.

Two families can buy the same policy from the same company in the same year and end up with completely different outcomes. The difference is how it’s structured — the design, the funding schedule, how the cash value is built and accessed. In 35 years I’ve reviewed thousands of policies, and the gap between a well-structured one and a poorly structured one on the same premium is routinely six figures to the family. Same product. Same money. Different design.

Comment “STRUCTURE” for the Policy Design checklist the specific things to look at in any permanent policy, and what separates a good design from an expensive one.

Roughly half of Canadian families now own an investment property, and most intend to leave it to their children. Here’s what almost none of them plan for -on the day you pass, the CRA treats that property as if you sold it that morning at full market value. The tax bill lands on your kids before the property does, and many are forced to sell the very asset you wanted kept in the family. Wealthy families solve this in advance by funding that future bill with a tax-free asset, so the property transfers intact.

Comment “PROPERTY” and I’ll show you the structure that keeps the property in the family.