Company Overview
Sun Life Insurance started in Quebec, Canada in 1865. It is one of the oldest Canadian insurance providers. To date, the company has developed into a real powerhouse in the insurance industry, with a wide variety of insurance products, including health insurance, life insurance, mortgage insurance, family and business insurance.
Ratings
Sun Life receives a rating of A+ from AM Best in terms of financial strength. This guarantees the company’s capability to repay their clients’ claims.
Products
Life Insurance
Term life insurance
Overall, Sun Life offers 4 products including Sun Life Go Simplified Term Life Insurance, SunSpectrum Term Life Insurance, Sun Life Go Term Life Insurance, SunTerm Life Insurance.
Unlike other companies such as iA or RBC, which offer very flexible terms, Sun Life’s term life insurance products have more limited terms.
If you apply for SunSpectrum Term Life Insurance or SunTerm Life Insurance, you have to undergo the traditional underwriting process. For Sun Life Go Simplified Term Life Insurance, you only have to answer 3 simple questions. For Sun Life Go Term Insurance, the questions are more simplified and if the applicants do not have any health problems as asked in the application form, he/she can skip the underwriting process.
For comparison, you can refer to the table below.
Sun Life Go Simplified Term Life Insurance | SunSpectrum Term Life Insurance | Sun Life Go Term Life Insurance | SunTerm Life Insurance | |
Coverage amount | Starting from $50,000 | Starting from $50,000 | Starting from $100,000 | Starting from $250,000 |
Online quote | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Available terms | 10 years | 10, 15, 20 or 30 years | 10 or 20 years | 10, 15, 20 or 30 years |
Eligible age | 18 – 69 | Term 10: 0 – 75Term 15: 0 – 70Term 20: 0 – 65Term 30: 0 – 55 | Term 10: 18 – 69Term 20: 18 – 69 | Term 10: 18 – 75Term 15: 18 – 70Term 20: 18 – 65Term 30: 18 – 55 |
Number of the insured | 1 | Up to 5 people | 1 | Up to 5 people |
Convertible to permanent life insurance | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Table 1. Term life insurance by Sun Life
Permanent life insurance
Sun Life offers two permanent life insurance policies namely Sun Life Go Guaranteed Life Insurance and SunSpectrum Permanent Life II. The first one is a type of no medical life insurance and the second one is a traditional permanent insurance plan. You can look at the table below to see the comparison between the two.
Sun Life Go Guaranteed Life Insurance | SunSpectrum Permanent Life II | |
Coverage amount | $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, or $25,000 | From $10,000 to $10 million |
Eligibility age | 30-74 | Single coverage: 0-85Joint coverage: all ages |
Underwriting requirement | No | Yes |
Coverage options | N/A | Single life Joint first-to-die, two lives includes: Survivor benefit and Automatic survivor benefit Joint last-to-die premiums to second death, two lives Joint last-to-die premiums to first death, two lives |
Table 2. Permanent life insurance by Sun Life
Participating life insurance
This is a combination product of whole life insurance accompanied by a cash value growth. Your premium and insurance is guaranteed as long as you pay the insurance premium on time. Policyholders are entitled to receive dividend payments.
Products | Sun Par Protector II | Sun Par Accumulator II | Sun Par Accelerator |
Coverage amount | 0 – 17: $25,000 to $ 15 million18 – 85: $50,000 to $ 15 million | From $250,000 to $15 million | From $250,000 to $15 million |
Period payment options | Life pay10 pay20 pay | Life pay10 pay20 pay | 8 pay |
Coverage options | Single life Joint first-to-die Survivor benefit and Automatic survivor benefit are included Joint last-to-die, premiums to first death (life pay only) Joint last-to-die, premiums to second death | Single life Joint first-to-die Survivor benefit and Automatic survivor benefit are included Joint last-to-die, premiums to first death (life pay only) Joint last-to-die, premiums to second death | Single Life Joint first-to-die Survivor benefit and Automatic survivor benefit are included Joint last-to-die, premiums to second death |
Eligibility age | 0-85 | 0-85 | 0-65 |
Underwriting requirement | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Dividend options | Paid-up additional insurance Enhanced insurance Annual premium reduction Dividends on deposit Cash payment | Paid-up additional insurance Enhanced insurance Annual premium reduction Dividends on deposit Cash payment | Enhanced insurance dividend option |
Table 3. Participating life insurance by Sun Life
Universal life insurance
At Sun Life, there are three types of universal life insurance: SunSpectrum Universal Life II, SunUniversalLife II and SunUniversalLife Pro. These all cater to single plans and joint plans (both first-to-die and last-to-die). One advantage of universal life insurance offered by Sun Life is that there are a wide range of investment options and death benefit options.
The details can be seen at the table below.
Product | SunSpectrum Universal Life II | SunUniversalLife II | SunUniversalLife Pro |
Death benefit options | Insurance amount plus fund | Level insurance amount Insurance amount plus policy fund Level insurance amount plus indexing Level insurance amount plus return of payments (ROP) Level insurance amount plus adjusted cost basis (ACB) | Level insurance amount Insurance amount plus policy fund Level insurance amount plus adjusted cost basis (ACB) |
Investment account options | Daily interest account (DIA) Guaranteed interest account Managed accounts Option to elect reduced paid-up insurance | Daily interest account (DIA) Guaranteed interest account Managed accounts Sun Life Diversified Account | Daily interest account (DIA) Guaranteed interest account Sun Life Diversified Account Pro |
Table 4. Universal life insurance by Sun Life
Health Insurance
Critical illness insurance
For critical illness insurance, Sun Life offers two main coverage: Sun Critical Illness Insurance and Express Critical Illness Insurance. The former covers 26 major critical illnesses and 8 minor illnesses for partial payout. The latter insure 1 to 7 common life-threatening conditions. Overall, we can see that Sun Life offers a myriad of choices for their policyholders in both product lines.
Product | Sun Critical Illness Insurance | Express Critical Illness Insurance |
Coverage amount | Adult plans: $25,000 to $3,000,000Child plans: $25,000 to $1,000,000 | Adult plans: $25,000 or $50,000 |
Eligibility age | 18-65 | 18- 65 |
Covered illnesses | 26 critical diseases for full payout8 minor illnesses for partial payout5 additional illnesses for child plans (covered until age 24) | Basic plan: Cancer Enhanced plan: Cancer, heart attack, stroke Comfort plan: cancer, heart attack, stroke, coronary artery bypass surgery, aortic surgery, major organ transplant, major organ failure on waiting list |
Available plans | Term 10 (T10) Term 75 (T75) Lifetime (T100) | Basic plan Enhanced plan Comfort plan |
Additional benefits(Optional) | Return of premium on death Return of premium on cancellation or expiry benefit Total disability waiver Owner waiver death Owner waiver death and disability Long term care conversion option | N/A |
Table 5. Critical illness insurance by Sun Life
Pros and Cons
Sun Life’s strengths
Sun Life is one of the largest insurance providers in Canada, second only to Manulife. Therefore, clients can totally entrust their money to Sun Life without worrying that their claims are not paid. In addition, Sun Life also has a reputation for providing insurance services for companies and businesses.
The company also has a wide range of options when it comes to critical illness insurance, so clients will have more choices when buying this product. Furthermore, Sun Life allows potential clients to access a lot of contract samples on their websites, so clients can have a look at these to understand more about each policy plan.
Sun Life’s weaknesses
The biggest shortcoming of Sun Life, as observed in other insurance carriers in Canada is that it does not provide an efficient digital and online platform. Also, for some plans, clients cannot get a quote by themselves but need to talk to the advisor, which makes the process quite time-consuming. Besides, policyholders do not receive electronic insurance policies and have to do with paper policies. This can cause certain inconveniences.
In addition, many people complain that the application and claiming process of Sun Life is quite long and cumbersome. Since Sun Life is such a big corporation, its products and its customer services seem to be less personalized. This can be seen in the limited options of terms in its term life insurance. Another con is that compared to other counterparts in the market, the premiums of Sun Life’s coverage is relatively higher.
The Bottom Line
To sum up, Sun Life is a good choice for those who want to seek a financially reliable insurance provider in Canada. However, in terms of flexibility of choices and premiums, there are better options in the market. To have more information, read through our articles about other companies, such as Manulife, BMO Insurance, iA Financial Group, RBC Insurance and Canada Life to have further insights.
If you need a broker which can provide you with quotes from different insurance companies, help you buy a policy or just advice – we’d recommend Insurance Direct Canada.
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