Company Review: ivari

ivari has a long track record in the life insurance industry and provides an array of products that may be a good fit for you and your family, with a higher price than average.

Company Overview

Founded	1927
Headquarters	Toronto, Ontario
Employees	501 – 1,000
Insurance Products	Universal Life, Term Life, & Critical Illness Insurance (vary by provinces)
Provinces Licensed	AB, BC, MB, NB, NL, NWT, NS, NU, ON, PEI, QC, SK, YT
AM Best Financial Strength Rating	A+
Assets	$12 billion
Annual Premiums	Approximately $870 million
Website	ivari

ivari Insurance (formerly Transamerica Life Canada) is a life insurance and investment company that is committed to simplifying the process of getting insurance for their clients. ivari is now owned by the Canada Pension Plan through Wilton Re, specializing in the acquisition and management of investment and mortality risk. ivari products are distributed through thousands of independent brokers across Canada. 

Costs

There is limited information about how ivari actually charges premiums on their website. However, similar to many other insurance providers, ivari determines insurance rates based on a range of important factors, including the following:

• Age
• Gender
• Health
• Family health history
• Smoking
• Lifestyle
• Occupation

The commonsense is always the higher the risk, the higher the premiums for most insurance companies. 

Based on a non-smoker in good health as a customer, with a coverage amount of $500,000 and a 20-year term, we have compiled representative values of ivari Insurance rates as follows: 

AGE	MALE	FEMALE
20	$35.55	$23.85
25	$36.00	$24.75
30	$36.90	$26.10
35	$39.60	$30.60
40	$56.70	$42.30
45	$89.55	$63.90
50	$149.85	$100.80
55	$288.80	$189.45
60	$486.90	$322.65

We have also compared ivari against one of their competitors – Sun Life, to figure out which insurance company is a better choice price-wise. However, they are not that different. 

For instance, for a 40-year-old male, non-smoker in good health with a 20-year term policy: 

• ivari Insurance $400K – $49.86
• Sun Life $400K – $50.13
• Cost Savings over 20 years: $65

Products and Features

Overview

Term Life	Universal Life
Minimum Coverage	$50,000	$25,000
Maximum Coverage	$10 million	$10 million
Term	10, 20, and 30 years	Lifetime

Insurance Products

ivari offers 3 types of insurance products: 

• Term life insurance: term 10, term 20, and term 30 with SelectOptions (i.e., Select 30, SelectLIFE, or SelectVALUE). 
• Universal Life Insurance
• Critical Illness Insurance

For more information, please refer to ivari’s official website or contact us via Best Insurance Online for advice. 

Additional Riders

Critical Illness Protection 

If you are diagnosed with one of the covered critical illnesses, this rider will provide you with a lump sum payment to help you care for your bills. 

Especially, ivari also offers 4-condition and 25-condition critical illness protection riders. Both include unlimited complimentary access to Advance Medical for professional advice free of charge to you. 

Child Insurance Rider 

This rider offers term life coverage for your children and guarantees that they will be insured if they choose to buy their own policy in the future, with no medical exam.

Waiver of Premiums 

If you become disabled before age 65, your future insurance premium payments will be waived. 

Payor Waiver of Premium

If the insured is minor and the payor named in the policy becomes disabled, this rider waives all premiums.

Term riders

You can purchase additional coverage for a specific term over and above your average policy. 

Accidental Death & Dismemberment 

In the event that you suffer from the incidents mentioned above, this rider provides you with an additional benefit to help you or your beneficiaries handle any loss of income and added expenses. 

Other services

Besides insurance, ivari also provides Canadian customers with a wide array of financial products. 

ivari Annuities

Annuities are a source of income for retirement or estate planning. ivari offers 3 kinds of annuities: 

• Term certain annuity
• Single life annuity with or without a guarantee period
• Joint and survivor life annuity with or without a guarantee period

ivari Inforce Products

Guaranteed Interest Account (GIA) and Daily Interest Account (DIA) products were both part of ivari’s investment fund products. Nevertheless, as of March 2020, customers can no longer participate in these funds, ivari does provide support for previous investments. Hence, if you already had a deal with them before March 2020, you do not have to worry about your contract being terminated. 

ivari Investment Planning

ivari’s has a wide selection of valuable resources for new customers considering life insurance. You can find information regarding: 

• Create assets for your children to help reduce tax burdens via your insurance coverage. 
• Fit your insurance policy into your retirement saving plan for future expenses. 
• Protect your mortgage through your insurance policy

Apart from these handy materials, you can also access the interactive, intuitive “My Insurance View” tool to determine which policy and amount of coverage will best suit your needs. 

Pros and Cons

Pros

Cons

Offers a number of optional riders, including a children’s insurance rider Multiple term options available 30-year term offers unique flexibilities, upon maturity Reliable track record of paying out claims Owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP) The ability of conversion from a term policy to a permanent one Joint insurance option for up to five insured lives Allows for joint policies to be split into individual single life insurance policies Personal, compassionate customer service  Access to the intuitive insurance calculator My Insurance View

Tend to have higher premiums, compared to other insurers in the market No flexibility to choose your own exact term. Only 10, 20, and 30 term offers (unlike RBC and Industrial Alliance, for example) No digital access to policy and application Only one permanent life insurance product available Does not offer participating whole life insurance products

Claims

Should you have a critical illness insurance policy with ivari and are diagnosed with a severe medical condition that stops you from working, you can file a claim by either phoning ivari at 1-800-846-5970 or emailing claimsdepartment@ivari.ca.  

It is vital that you have all the required information relevant to the incident to commence the claims process. This includes your full name, policy number, your diagnosis, and the date of the diagnosis. Once the claim is reported and gone through the system, a claims adjudicator will call to inform you of the necessary forms to fill out. 

In the case of passing, your beneficiaries will be the ones to begin the claims process to collect the death benefit. They will be required to submit a copy of your death certificate to ivari as proof of your passing. 

Some certain types of information will also be needed in the process, such as your full name, policy number, cause of death, and the country where you passed away. Providing that your premiums have been up-to-date and your policy is still active, your named beneficiaries will receive a tax-free lump sum of money.

Application

To submit an application for ivari’s life insurance policies, there are only two options for you: 

• Call and speak with an ivari agent directly 
• Get the process dealt with by a licensed independent insurance broker

Unfortunately, it is impossible to apply online via ivari’s website, which is quite inconvenient in this digital age. However, if you do not mind calling directly or already have a trusted insurance advisor, this is not much of a problem for you. 

The Bottom Line

ivari indeed offers unique life insurance coverage products that are an excellent fit for many Canadian consumers. Nonetheless, its rates for some insurance products are above average compared to its competitors. If you are not bothered by this aspect, ivari is definitely a worthy contender. Be sure to check out all of ivari’s offerings and compare them to your unique needs and budget before beginning with the application process for a life insurance policy. If you need some assistance or want insurance quotes from ivari, you can always visit Insurance Direct Canada!

We also have review articles for Manulife, Desjardins, Canada Protection Plan … and more if you are interested in having more insights.