Nearly a third of Canadians, or 32%, said they don't have life insurance, according to new TD Insurance research.
The gap skews older, with 42% of Boomers and 32% of Gen X - the two generations closest to retirement - reported having no coverage at all. Among the uninsured, 46% can't envision any life event that would prompt them to reconsider and 35% cite cost as the main barrier, with 31% saying they simply don't think they need it at their current life stage.
"Life insurance isn't necessarily something people review regularly, and knowing how much coverage you may need isn't always straightforward," said Patricia Foley, TD Insurance's associate vice president of delivery excellence for life, health and credit protection.
The survey, conducted through the Leger Opinion panel among a nationally representative sample of 1,500 Canadian adults between August 31 and September 2, found 74% want clearer guidance on how factors like age and health affect coverage options and cost.
TD's 32% uninsured figure is worth noting alongside PolicyMe's 2026 Life Insurance Gap Report, which found 68% of Canadians report having some form of life insurance.
This suggests roughly a third of Canadians lacking life insurance is a genuinely stable, well-supported national figure rather than an artifact of one survey's specific methodology.
TD's data on workplace life insurance adds a layer PolicyMe's research also touched on. Forty-four percent (44%) of Canadians with workplace coverage either don't know how much they have or aren't sure it's enough, while 34% said they have put off buying or reviewing personal coverage because they assume their workplace plan already covers them adequately.
That's consistent with AM Best's recent Canadian life/annuity market report, also covered by this desk, which found existing in-force policies increasingly fail to keep pace with inflation-driven increases in mortgage size and income, precisely the dynamic that leaves group plan members with coverage that was adequate when purchased but isn't any longer.
TD's survey found 73% of Canadians have put more thought into other major financial decisions than into how much life insurance they need, and that Gen Z specifically is most likely (56%) to view life insurance as something that can wait, compared with 41% of Canadians overall.
That's a notable finding given PolicyMe's own data showed the sharpest coverage growth this year came from exactly that age group, suggesting a split within Gen Z between those who have started buying coverage around milestones like homeownership and family formation, and those who still see it as a future problem.
For advisors, that split is worth treating as two distinct client conversations rather than one.
For life insurance advisors and brokers, TD's data offers a specific, practical entry point: rather than waiting for clients to raise a life insurance review themselves, proactively tying the conversation to major milestones, home purchases, job changes, family growth, approaching retirement, addresses exactly the gap TD's own data shows isn't closing on its own.
That's particularly relevant for group benefits advisors, given how many Canadians with workplace coverage appear to be relying on an assumption of adequacy rather than an actual confirmed coverage amount.
