Canadians may dread filing their tax returns, but that annual chore hands them something they rarely have in one place: a full, up‑to‑date snapshot of their financial lives. According to Domenic Bruno (pictured), senior group manager at TD Insurance, it is also the moment many people are missing their best opportunity to fix dangerous life‑insurance gaps.
“Tax time is one of those times where you have your full financial picture in front of you,” he told Insurance Business. “You’ve got your income, you’ve got the value of your home, you’ve probably got your partner’s income. Those are three great numbers to look at to determine how much coverage you need.”
Bruno argues that while Canadians are used to treating April as “tax season”, they would be better off treating it as protection season as well – using the same documents they assemble for the Canada Revenue Agency to check whether their families could cope financially if a breadwinner passed away.
“You’ve already done all the hard work,” he said. “You’ve got that snapshot in front of you. You’ve probably celebrated some milestones – buying a home, getting married, having a child. Why not take that time to also review your life‑insurance needs to protect what matters most, which is you and your family’s well‑being?”
TD’s research, Bruno noted, found that people will quite literally choose a tax return over a life‑insurance conversation.
“If you can believe it, people prefer reviewing their taxes to doing life insurance,” he said. “The same two points keep coming up: they don’t know if they’ll be approved, and they don’t know how much coverage they need.”
Bruno is candid that he used to feel the same way.
“Before I got into the life‑insurance industry, I had no idea what it was,” he admitted. “I didn’t have any confidence to know if I was going to get approved or how much coverage I needed.”
The result is that many households simply postpone the decision. They tell themselves they will “look at it later” when they earn more money or when life feels less hectic – but that later often never comes.
Bruno’s first piece of advice is simple: do not wait.
“The number one message I share with prospective clients is start early,” he said. “Starting early can save you thousands of dollars over the lifetime of your policy and also maximizes your chances of being approved instantly.”
Post‑pandemic, he added, many insurers – including TD Insurance – have invested heavily in making life insurance easier to buy. For healthy applicants looking for moderate amounts of cover, the days of lengthy medical exams are often over.
“In most cases, if you’re applying for a million dollars or less, we don’t require a medical exam,” Bruno said. “We’ve put a lot of work into making it easier to purchase and increasing the chance of instant approval.”
That combination – lower cost when you are younger, plus smoother underwriting – means the “I’ll do it later” mindset can be expensive. Each year of delay typically pushes premiums higher, and in some cases health changes can make cover harder, or impossible, to obtain on preferred terms.
For those who feel paralysed by the question “how much do I need?”, Bruno stresses that tax season has already done most of the heavy lifting.
“When you have your taxes in front of you, you’ve got your income, the value of your home, and your partner’s income,” he said. “Those are three great numbers to look at to figure out coverage.”
From there, he recommends a two‑step approach. First, use online tools – most insurers now offer calculators that can produce an estimate in ten minutes or less. Second, sanity‑check the result with a licensed advisor.
“All the common questions in this day and age are easily answered online,” he said. “But it’s a good idea to speak to a licensed advisor. Life insurance is one of those products you purchase that you hope you never use, so you want to make sure you get it right.”
The goal, in his view, is to make a well‑informed decision once, then “set and forget” for the term or lifetime of the policy while you get on with living.
Bruno often illustrates the gap by walking clients through other covers they already consider non‑negotiable.
“I’ll sit down and say, do you have a car? Yes. Do you have auto insurance? Yes. Would you ever think of cancelling it? No,” he said. “Do you have a home? Do you have home insurance? Yes. Would you ever think of cancelling it? No.”
Then comes the key question.
“What protection do you have financially if you or your partner were to pass away?” he asks. “If that question makes you pause for even one second, then being in the life‑insurance market might be the right thing for you.”
