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June 28, 2017

Empire Life launches Website to help Canadians with Life & Money Matters

Empire Life is launching Life & Money Matters, a new website to educate Canadians on financial planning and investments. The site answers the most common questions Canadians have at different life stages about life and money, and provides articles, videos, tools and calculators to help Canadians better understand their personal situation and how to navigate through it.

For consumers seeking advice or help with their investments or financial plan, the website offers a “Find-an-Advisor” feature to help them connect with a licensed life insurance advisor in their area. Learn more.

Empire Life Par Insurance: New Lower Juvenile Coverage Amounts

Effective June 26, 2017, Empire Life is reducing the minimum base coverage amount for participating whole life insurance products for juvenile sales (insurance ages 0 -17).

The minimum base coverage amount for EstateMax and Optimax Wealth is reduced from $25,000 to $10,000 for life insureds insurance ages 0 to 17.

Our insurance sales illustration system has also been updated and Envision 10.9 is now available for download!

View the release notes.

Genetic Non-Discrimination Act

On May 4, 2017, the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act- Bill S-201 received Royal Assent and came into force in Canada. Under this Act, Empire Life will not require individuals to undergo genetic testing or disclose genetic test results in order for consumers to obtain insurance, reinstate insurance, change an insurance policy or receive a benefit under an insurance policy. Please review this information circular for more information.

5 Reasons why the Fed rate hike is positive. Geoff Johnston discusses in the latest Off the Cuff

Geoff Johnston, Senior Portfolio Manager Fixed Income discusses his top 5 reasons why the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate hike is positive news in this Off the Cuff video.

Important Update

The CLHIA Reference Document “Advisor Disclosure” was revised recently. The most significant revision was the addition of a new disclosure element “Licences and Jurisdictions”. This element indicates that advisors should be disclosing all licences held, where those licences are held and the firms they place business through. The updated reference document includes updated sample disclosure documents for advisors to use if they wish.

Advisors should familiarize themselves with the revised reference document and ensure that they are meeting the requirements in their practices.

If you have any questions about Advisor Disclosure, please contact the Distribution Practices team at distribution.practices@empire.ca.

New Anti-Money Laundering Legislation

Empire Life has implemented changes to our Insurance and Investment Applications and Forms based on the updated Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulation (refer to Information Circular 2017-12) and the introduction of Common Reporting Standards (CRS) (refer to Information Circular 2017–13). Paper stock of applications will need to be destroyed and replaced with the updated versions (version date 06/17) prior to June 17, 2017 (AML deadline).

For more information, please refer to Information Circular 2017-15.

Common Reporting Standard (CRS) new tax legislation

The Department of Finance Canada announced consultations to implement the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) in Canada. Effective July 1, 2017, Empire Life will be required to collect additional tax information under new Canadian Income Tax Act (ITA) legislation from certain policy owners.

 

Please review this information circular for more information.

Dividend Scale Change for Empire Life Participating Plans

Effective July 1, 2017, the Dividend Scales for Empire Life Participating Policies will change. This change reflects recent investment and mortality experience and will result in an average dividend change of -0.6% across all affected policyholders. The actual change in dividends allocated to a particular policy may be less than or greater than the overall average. This year’s change to the Dividend Scales reflects recent investment and mortality experience. The Dividend Scale interest rate, which is used to determine the interest component of the dividends, is 6.51%Learn more.

#Canada150FunFact Trivia social media contest

We’re a proud Canadian company and we’re celebrating all this great country has to offer to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday with a #Canada150FunFact social media contest.

Each day, from June 21, 2017 to July 4, 2017, we’ll post a daily fun fact about Canada on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. Leave a comment (and follow us and tag a friend on Instagram) to be entered to win the Grand Prize of $500 in gift cards from Canadian retailers or one of three #Canada150 party baskets. Enter the contest yourself and share our posts so your clients can join in on the fun. See full contest rules. Happy Canada Day!