The right life insurance for your family — placed by an advisor who has seen Surrey grow up.
Family-owned independent insurance brokerage since 1994. We quote your application across the full Canadian life insurance market and place it with the carrier that fits your situation best — most often RBC Insurance, Equitable Life of Canada, or Wawanesa Life, where we hold direct contracts. When a specialty carrier is the better fit, we place through MGA channels. Speak with Kul Shergill, our Senior Advisor and sole life specialist, licensed in life insurance in British Columbia since 1988.
Life insurance is one of the simplest things you will ever buy. It pays your loved ones a tax-free amount when you die.
That payment, called the death benefit, is what your family uses to keep going. The mortgage gets paid. The kids stay in school. The funeral costs do not become a fundraiser. The surviving spouse does not have to sell the house in the worst week of their life.
It is one of those things people put off until they are older. Then when they finally call us, we have to explain that life insurance gets more expensive every year you wait, and harder to qualify for if your health changes. The best time to buy life insurance was a few years ago. The next-best time is now.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada explains it the same way we do — life insurance gives your beneficiaries a one-time, tax-free payment they can use to replace your income, support your dependents, pay off debts, cover funeral expenses, or leave a charitable gift. That is the whole product. Everything else is detail.
— Kul Shergill, Senior Advisor
Term and whole life. Most families need one, some need both.
Almost every life insurance product sold in Canada falls into one of these two categories. The right choice depends on what you are protecting and how long you need to protect it.
Term Life Insurance
Coverage for a fixed period — usually 10, 20, or 30 years. Premiums stay level for the chosen term. The death benefit pays out tax-free if you die during the term. Term insurance is the most affordable type of life insurance, particularly when you are younger.
- Lowest cost per dollar of coverage
- Premiums level for the term you choose
- Most term policies are convertible to permanent insurance later, without a new medical
- No cash value — purely protection
- Coverage ends when the term ends, unless renewed at higher rates
Whole Life Insurance
Coverage that lasts your entire life — as long as premiums are paid. Premiums are guaranteed level. The policy builds guaranteed cash value over time. Participating whole life policies are also eligible for non-guaranteed annual dividends from the carrier's participating account.
- Coverage for your entire lifetime
- Premiums never increase
- Builds guaranteed cash value you can borrow against
- Participating policies eligible for annual dividends
- Higher premium per dollar of coverage than term
Many families end up with a combination — a large term policy covering the working years, plus a smaller whole life policy for permanent needs and estate planning. We will walk you through which combination makes sense for your situation when you come in.
The honest answer: it depends on your situation. The starting point: seven to ten times your annual income.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada recommends life insurance coverage worth seven to ten times annual income for the typical income-replacement scenario. That is the rule of thumb.
The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association uses a more conservative starting point of five to seven times current net income. Both ranges are starting points, not answers.
The DIME method for a more precise number
For a more precise figure, work through the DIME method. It is the same financial-needs analysis we walk through with you in the office, just laid out simply:
- D — Debt. Add up your non-mortgage debts. Credit cards, lines of credit, car loans, student loans, business loans, anything else that would still be owed.
- I — Income. Multiply your annual income by the number of years your family would need it replaced. For young families with small children, this is often 15 to 20 years. For older couples with grown kids, it might be 5 to 10 years.
- M — Mortgage. The full balance remaining on your mortgage.
- E — Education. What you would want set aside for each child's post-secondary education. A reasonable estimate in BC is $80,000 to $120,000 per child for a four-year degree at a Canadian university, more if private school is in the picture.
Add those four numbers together, subtract any savings or existing life insurance you already have, and you have a coverage target that fits your actual life rather than a generic multiplier.
For a typical Surrey family — two working parents, two kids, mortgage on a townhouse — the DIME number often lands somewhere between $750,000 and $1,500,000 of total coverage. Your situation may differ.
Full Canadian market quoting. Three direct carrier contracts. Your application goes to the carrier that fits your situation best.
We are an independent insurance brokerage, not a captive agent for any one company. That means we are not paid more or less depending on which carrier you end up with. Our incentive is to place you with the right carrier the first time, because that is how we end up with families who refer their cousins, their parents, and their kids twenty years later.
For every life insurance case, we start by quoting your application across the full Canadian life insurance market through Compulife — the industry-standard quoting platform that compares every major Canadian life carrier instantly. Then we place your policy with the carrier that fits best. We hold direct contracts with three Canadian carriers where most placements land. All three are federally regulated for solvency under the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, and all three have well-established participating accounts for whole life policies. Here is who they are and what each one is known for:
RBC Life Insurance
RBC Life Insurance Company offers YourTerm — a term product where you can choose any term length from 10 to 40 years, year by year — and RBC Growth Insurance, the participating whole life product. Convertible without medical to age 71. RBC's 2025/2026 dividend scale interest rate is 6.30%.
Equitable Life of Canada
A Canadian mutual insurer — meaning participating policyholders are the owners. Equitable has credited dividends every year on its participating whole life policies since 1936. The 2025/2026 dividend scale interest rate is 6.40% — the highest currently published among Canadian participating insurers.
Wawanesa Life
The life subsidiary of Wawanesa Insurance, Manitoba-founded in 1896, with an A rating from A.M. Best. Wawanesa Life is known for affordable Lifetime Term pricing and straightforward whole life with both 20 Pay and Pay-to-100 options.
When the full-market quote points to a carrier we do not hold direct — substandard underwriting, large face amounts, simplified-issue products, or specific niche cases — we place through MGA (Managing General Agency) channels with additional Canadian carriers. The carrier choice always follows the case, not the other way around.
You will speak with Kul Shergill — not a call centre, not a junior associate.
Kul Shergill
Kul has been advising Surrey families on life insurance since 1988 — longer than most insurance brokerages in the area have existed. He has been the licensed-in-charge Senior Advisor at Prime Insurance since the family bought the office in 1994. When you call about life insurance, you speak with Kul directly. He works through the financial-needs analysis with you, walks through carrier options, runs illustrations, and stays your point of contact for the life of the policy.
For complex cases — corporate-owned life insurance, estate planning, intergenerational wealth transfer — Kul works alongside your accountant or tax advisor. We do not give tax or legal advice ourselves, but we are comfortable being part of the team that does.
Family-owned in Fleetwood since 1994. The same family. The same office. The same number.
From your first call to your policy in force — usually three to four weeks.
There are five steps. Most happen in our office or over the phone, depending on what you prefer. The whole process is free of charge to you. We are paid by the carrier when your policy is issued, not by you.
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Call or visit — first conversation
Call 604-582-0557 or come into the office. The first conversation is a financial-needs discussion: your situation, your dependents, your existing coverage, and what you want the policy to do for your family. It usually takes 30 to 60 minutes. There is no application yet, no credit check, no commitment.
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Carrier illustrations
We run illustrations from the relevant carriers based on your age, health, smoking status, and coverage target. You see the premiums, the cash values (for whole life), the dividends if applicable, and the riders available. We explain what is guaranteed and what is not. This step is where you get to compare and decide.
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Application
You sign the application for the carrier you choose. The application includes a health questionnaire. Your signature authorizes the carrier to confirm your medical history with your physicians and the Medical Information Bureau. Be honest on the application — accurate information is what makes the policy enforceable.
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Underwriting
The carrier's underwriting team reviews your application. Depending on your age and the coverage amount, they may request a paramedical visit (blood and urine, blood pressure, basic measurements), records from your physician, or additional questionnaires. Most applications are approved at standard rates. About 96% of applications are issued.
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Policy delivery and review
When the carrier issues the policy, we sit down with you again and walk through what you actually have. The policy contract is the legal document — what you read in the illustration is just an illustration. You have a 10-day "free look" period after policy delivery during which you can cancel for any reason and receive a full refund. After that, the policy is yours, and we are your point of contact for the life of it.
What Surrey families ask us about life insurance.
How is life insurance different from the mortgage life insurance the bank offered me?
When you take a mortgage, the bank often offers a creditor group insurance product that pays off the mortgage if you die. That product has four important differences from a personal life insurance policy.
The bank owns the policy. The bank is the beneficiary. The coverage amount drops as you pay down the mortgage, even though you are paying the same premium. If you switch lenders, you reapply and may not qualify at the same rate.
A personal life insurance policy is the opposite of all four. You own the policy. You name the beneficiary — your spouse, your children, whoever you choose. The amount stays level for the term you choose. The policy does not change if you switch banks. For most families, the personal policy is better protection at a similar or lower cost. We are happy to compare both for you side by side.
Do I need a medical exam?
It depends on your age, your health history, and the amount of coverage you apply for. Many policies under a certain face amount and for younger applicants are issued with no medical exam, just a health questionnaire.
Larger amounts or older applicants typically require a paramedical visit — a 30-minute appointment usually at your home, with a nurse who takes blood and urine samples, blood pressure, height and weight. The carrier pays for this. You pay nothing.
Some carriers we work with offer simplified or no-medical options for clients who prefer to skip the exam, though those products usually have lower coverage limits and slightly higher premiums. We tell you up front which option fits your situation.
Can I convert term insurance to whole life later?
Most term policies sold in Canada are convertible to permanent insurance without a new medical exam, usually before age 71. This is a feature worth understanding when you buy.
It means you can lock in coverage today at a low term price and still have the option to switch to whole life in the future, even if your health changes. If you are diagnosed with a condition five years from now that would normally make life insurance hard or impossible to get, the conversion privilege protects you. You convert at the rates for your age at conversion, but no new medical questions are asked.
The deadline to convert and the specific permanent products available vary by carrier and by policy. We always ask about convertibility when we quote so you understand the option you are buying.
What if I already have life insurance somewhere else?
Sometimes replacing an existing policy is genuinely better for you. Sometimes it is not. The right answer depends on your current policy's features, your health today versus when you bought the original, and whether your needs have changed.
We follow British Columbia's Insurance Contracts (Life Insurance Replacement) Regulation, which is the BC rule that protects consumers when one policy is being replaced by another. If replacement is on the table, we present and review the Basic Disclosure Statement Regarding Replacement of Contracts of Life Insurance with you before you sign any new application. Your existing insurer is notified per the regulation.
The conversation is always about whether the new coverage is genuinely better for your situation, never about generating new business at your expense. Often the right answer is to keep what you have. We will tell you that if it is the case.
How are you paid? Is your advice free to me?
We are paid a commission by the insurance company that issues your policy, not a fee from you. Our advice does not cost you anything. The premium you pay to the carrier is the same whether you buy through us or directly from the company.
The difference is that we shop your application across the full Canadian life insurance market and pick the right fit for your situation, rather than offering one company's product. We are also your point of contact for the life of the policy — beneficiary updates, address changes, claims assistance, and policy reviews are all part of what we do at no charge.
Is the death benefit taxable?
As a general rule, the death benefit paid to a named beneficiary on a personal life insurance policy is not taxable. This is one of the main advantages of life insurance — it is one of the few large financial transfers in Canadian tax law that passes to your loved ones tax-free.
If the policy is left to your estate rather than to a named beneficiary, the proceeds become part of the estate and may be subject to probate fees. If you cancel a permanent policy and take the cash value, a portion may be taxable. Some advanced strategies, particularly those involving corporate-owned life insurance, have specific tax treatment.
We are licensed life insurance advisors, not tax advisors. For complex tax planning we always recommend working alongside your accountant. The Canada Revenue Agency has also issued recent warnings about aggressive tax schemes involving insurance products — we do not participate in those, and we caution clients against any arrangement that promises to use insurance to dramatically reduce taxes.
I am new to Canada. Can I get life insurance?
Yes, in most cases. The carriers we work with have specific underwriting guidelines for new immigrants and permanent residents.
Generally you will need to have been in Canada for a minimum period — often six to twelve months — and to have valid identification, residency status, and a Canadian address. Some products are available immediately on landing, particularly for Permanent Residents and those on long-term work permits. Coverage amounts may be more limited in the first year or two, with the option to apply for additional coverage once your residency history is established.
We help families across Surrey navigate this every week. Our team speaks English, Punjabi, and Hindi and is familiar with the documents you will need. Bring your status documents, your Canadian ID, and any existing insurance from your home country, and we can tell you on the spot what you qualify for.
What languages do you speak at Prime?
Our team serves clients in English, Punjabi, and Hindi. Kul Shergill, our Senior Advisor and sole life specialist, speaks all three and most of his clients prefer to discuss life insurance in the language they are most comfortable in.
The application paperwork is in English — that is a carrier requirement, not ours — but the conversation that decides what is right for your family can happen in whatever language helps you understand it best. We have served the Surrey Punjabi-speaking community since 1994, and we understand how important it is to talk through something this important with an advisor who actually speaks your language.
Take the next step. Call Kul.
30 to 60 minutes in our Fleetwood office, or on the phone if that is easier. No application yet. No commitment. Just a real conversation about what your family would need if something happened to you.
Mon–Fri 8:30am–9:00pm · Sat 8:30am–6:30pm · Sun & Stat Holidays 10:00am–5:30pm