Tara McDonald

Ask an advisor: Mortgage or individual life insurance?

Find out why individual life insurance is your most flexible option to help protect your family financially when buying a home.

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Description: This animated video introduces a character named Aiko and her advisor with illustrated graphics to show the difference between mortgage insurance and life insurance.

Text “Ask an advisor” appears. The camera zooms out as the text lands in an outlined square. “Mortgage insurance or life insurance?” fades in below. An illustration of a shield with a checkmark draws on the right side of the frame.

Aiko: What’s better? Mortgage insurance or individual life insurance?

Description: Aiko appears in a video chat window on a computer screen. Her advisor’s head nods to the right of the frame.

Advisor: I’d always recommend individual life insurance.

Description: Cut to a split-screen of Aiko at home on the left and her advisor in his office on the right.

Advisor: With mortgage insurance, when you die, the money goes to the lender, and they use it only to pay down your mortgage.

Description: An illustration of home draws into the frame. The home moves over to the left and an arrow animates in, pointing towards a box labelled “Mortgage.”

Advisor: As well, your premium payments stay the same while the balance of your mortgage and your insurance coverage decreases.

Description: Cut to a line graph labelled “Mortgage insurance” showing coverage over 10 to 50 years. The coverage decreases over time. The advisor’s hand enters the frame and draws a straight line from the top of the coverage to 50 years, dollar signs pop in to show payments. The camera zooms out to show a line graph of “Individual insurance” where the coverage and payments stay the same.

Advisor: But with individual life insurance, you decide who receives the money and how it’s used. It could be to pay off the mortgage. But it could also pay off other debt, or fund an education or a retirement plan.

Description: An illustration of a shield draws into the frame. A dotted line connects the shield to four boxes labelled “Mortgage,” “Debt,” “Education” and “Retirement.”

Advisor: You also get to say how long your coverage lasts – for a short term or for your lifetime, even after your mortgage is paid.

Description: Cut to bar graph displaying the length of insurance coverage from “Present” to “Lifetime.” The advisor’s hand moves into frame, adjusting the bar from 10 years to lifetime coverage.

Advisor: That’s just a couple of the ways individual life insurance gives you more choice and flexibility in how you protect yourself and your loved ones.

Description: Cut back to the split-screen of Aiko and her advisor.

Text “Contact me today to talk about your insurance needs.” appears with legal line: “Video produced by Canada Life. canadalife.com 1-204-946-1190”

As a Financial Security Advisor, I’m passionate about helping my clients succeed at this crazy thing we call life. I use my love of numbers and my tenacity and drive to help clients create financial security plans that keep up with their lives. It’s rewarding to help clients understand not only the decisions they need to make about their finances, but why they need to be made.

I focus on working with families, business owners and professionals. I use a customized and holistic approach to understand each client’s goals and dreams before we begin building their plan together. Then I analyze their current situation to identify any opportunities. Finally, we work together to create a financial security plan tailored to the client’s needs, risk tolerance and goals. Finally, we’ll meet regularly to review their plan to ensure it continues to meet their changing needs. I help clients plan for their future, their goals and the unexpected.

In 1997, I moved from Winnipeg to northwestern Ontario and my love of the outdoors and the simple life have kept me here ever since. When I’m not working, I’m enjoying lake life, fishing, boating, kayaking or simply sitting on the deck taking it all in. I keep active playing ladies’ fastball and hockey, hiking, downhill skiing, snowshoeing and snow machining. Basically, I’m living cottage life all year!