Connect With The Best Insurance Broker In Edmonton Through Life Guard Insurance

Connect With The Best Insurance Broker In Edmonton Through Life Guard Insurance

When you go shopping for life insurance, disability insurance or health insurance you may have been approached by many agents acting for specific insurance companies to offer you advice instead of a life insurance broker. Insurance agents generally represent only one insurance company and cannot offer you the industry wide choice of life and health insurance products in Canada that would match your needs, or be the most competitively priced.

An Edmonton life insurance broker will be able to offer you the right insurance advice, explore the entire Canadian life insurance market on your behalf, and analyzes which insurance companies would be best for you. Not each life insurance broker is built equal. Lets examine what makes an Edmonton life insurance broker the qualified you can trust.

An Edmonton Life Insurance Broker should have access to all the major life insurance companies. There is a primary list of the top companies that your Edmonton life insurance broker should have contracts with in order to get you the most competitive premium. Here is a list in alphabetical order:

BMO Insurance
Canada Life Assurance
Desjardins
Empire Life
Equitable Life
Industrial Alliance Pacific
Manulife Financial
RBC Insurance
Sun Life Financial
Transamerica

These are the top 10 life insurance companies in Canada today (Canada Life is the brokerage division of Great West Life, with very similar products). There are a number of life insurance companies that employ only career agents (captive agents) and train them to market only their product line insurance policies are not offered to the brokerage market. These companies include Freedom 55, Primerica and Sun Life Career Sales (some unique products). There are also captive agents who only represent one insurance company, even if those companies allow brokers to also sell their products. These captive agencies include RBC Insurance Career Sales, Desjardins, Industrial Alliance, Sun Life Career Sales and World Financial Group (sells mainly Transamerica policies).

If you are dealing with a captive agent, you won't have access to the entire Canadian marketplace to locate the lowest cost life insurance policy to match your needs. And some companies, like with Primerica, have life insurance policies that are inferior to the competitive policies sold in the open market (Primerica is the only life insurance company in Canada who only offers term life insurance, and has no permanent insurance policies to offer to clients).

If your Edmonton life insurance broker doesnt have access to at least 8 of the top ten companies, you're probably buying a policy that will cost you much more than you should be paying in a competitive life insurance market.

Access to specialty insurance companies

Not many fits into the standard definition of risk for a Canadian. There are a number of specialty insurance companies that could offer unique benefits for situations that don't fit the standard risk. Here are three companies in the specialty market with the kinds of unique benefits they offer to our clients in Edmonton.

Assumption Life: best for foreign travel, even insuring Canadians living overseas as ex-patriots. With this company, clients in the remote locations can can apply online or over the phone.

Canada Protection Plan: Canadas best non-medical life insurance company. This offers diverse types of plans for different types of health risks. If you have a health issue and cannot get approved for regular life insurance, CPP will probably be able to offer you a policy.

The Edge Benefits: Canadas best specialty disability and living benefits insurance company for the trades and blue collar workers. Specialty products designed for higher risk jobs.

Access to specialty carriers will round out your brokers offering and make their advice suitable for any situation. If you fit into a non-standard category, like travelling overseas regularly or you have a major health issue, your life insurance broker should have some solutions for you.

Having technical expertise and negotiating power

Unfortunately, not all brokers have the kind of support they should have to best serve their clients. In the Canadian brokerage world, agents and agencies work with large, full service brokerages called Managing General Agencies (MGAs). These MGAs deal directly with life insurance companies and have a large number of life insurance brokers who process business through them.

The MGA provides ongoing training, expertise in designing complex insurance policies, ability to negotiate problem cases with the underwriters of a particular insurance company, and an efficient and up-to-date back office administrative system. At Life Guard Insurance we work with PPI Solutions. PPI Solutions is the #1 MGA in Edmonton, the largest MGA in Alberta, and part of a national network of MGAs, making them the largest MGA in Canada. They have a deep relationship with insurance companies going back three decades. They offer Life Guard Insurance the best back office support, state of the art online administrative and tracking systems, and the technical and underwriting support needed to get our clients the best policies. If there is an issue in the underwriting process, PPI Solutions is able to discuss on behalf of clients and insurance brokers for the most beneficial decision possible.

Your Best Edmonton Life Insurance Broker

If you are already doing business with an Edmonton life insurance broker, check to see if they have access to all the major and specialty insurance companies. If you are doing business with a captive life insurance agent, it is wise to get a second opinion before you buy (or you might be paying too much for life insurance).

At Life Guard Insurance we can offer you:

choices all Canadas top life insurance companies and specialty carriers
negotiating power Canadas largest MGA for underwriting support and negotiating power
insurance expertise advanced case workers and technical specialists
the highest level of customer service in the industry

For advice with your insurance planning, or if you are looking for a second opinion of your current life insurance and/or health insurance policies, please don't hesitate to contact us.