As someone who has been around the life insurance industry in a professional and personal capacity for several decades, I am always curious about what motivates people to buy or not buy life insurance. I understand that few people spend time thinking about the consequences of low-probability events and are…
Category: Insurance
Total 30 Posts
In Neszt v. The Queen 2019 DTC 1105, the taxpayer held two life insurance policies with a life insurance company. He subsequently took personal loans against his life insurance policies. The amount of each such loan was greater than the adjusted cost base of each policy, (being the sum of…
Life insurance policy – rollover at cost? In a recent technical interpretation, the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) confirmed that where a spousal trust is required to pay the life insurance premiums on a policy it owns and is the beneficiary of the policy, a rollover at cost pursuant to the…
They see you when you’re sleeping, they know when you’re awake. They’re ready to decide if you’ve been unjustly enriched, so be good for goodness sake. The Supreme Court of Canada is coming to town. The Supreme Court of Canada in their festive/ceremonial robes [Not pictured – Santa Claus] …
Ownership of assets into ‘joint tenancy with right of survivorship” is a mechanism of ownership transfer commonly used for estate planning to address such issues as probate fee and tax avoidance. Recently, this blog site very capably addressed the issues surrounding “joint tenancy” of life insurance in particular (“Life Insurance…
I think it is fair to say that joint ownership of property[2] is one of the most commonly used strategies for property ownership in the context of developing an estate plan. Like any form of partnership, there are many issues to consider in jointly owning property. In the context of…
It is not uncommon to see corporate owned life insurance transferred to a shareholder particularly when the company is being sold. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) was asked to comment on a set of facts and their response was no surprise given the relatively new rules in this area of…
Depending on the specific terms of an insurance contract, under certain conditions, an insurer may adjust a death benefit under a life insurance policy, or deny payment altogether. For example, if an insured person commits suicide within two years after the day the policy or coverage is issued or last…
The Canada Revenue Agency was asked to speak to the implications of a gift return and their response included some commentary on the impact on the donor. The situation the CRA was asked to consider involved an individual taxpayer who, in 1981, gave a whole life insurance policy to a…
As people live longer their cash requirements can increase exponentially. My Blog colleague, Audrey Miller, recently told me that, in Ontario, publically funded Nursing home expenses for a private room start at $30,000 per year and private retirement residences are much more expensive. There are other potential cash requirements such as the expense of personal care…