All About Estates

Category: Insurance

Total 34 Posts

Under what Circumstances can an Insurer Deny Payment of a Death Benefit to a Beneficiary under a Life Insurance Policy?

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…

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Gift returned receipt required

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…

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Tontine – an ‘old’ annuity idea re-visited

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…

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ESTATE PLANNING REFRESHER: TRANSFER OF LIFE INSURANCE

From time to time, we are asked about the tax consequences of transferring life insurance policies particularly in the context of some common (or not-so common) estate and trust planning scenarios involving transfers. As most people know, when a transfer of ownership of a life insurance policy occurs, the transferor…

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Grandfathered Agreements

My most recent blogs have explored the possible use of life insurance to completely eliminate the capital gain on death (assuming that sufficient insurance was in place) provided certain stop-loss rules do not apply. Not all was lost because, “grandfathered” agreements could prevent the application of the stop-loss rules.

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