New Tax Legislation for Life Insurance Policies
We wish to take this opportunity to inform you about the new legislation affecting the taxation of Canadian life insurance policies taking effect on January 1, 2017. For policies issued on or after that date the new rules will impact the amount of money that can accumulate on a tax exempt basis over the lifetime of a permanent life insurance policy.
If you own or are considering purchasing an RBC Universal Life™, a Term Life Insurance with cash values or a Whole Life Insurance with cash valuesDisclaimer1, the tax rules will apply as follows:
- If your policy is issued on or after January 1, 2017, the new legislative rules will apply.
- If your policy has an issue date earlier than January 1, 2017, it is referred to as a "grandfathered" policy and it will continue to be governed under the current set of rules.
A grandfathered policy can lose its status and become subject to the new rules if certain types of changes, such as adding coverage or increasing the amount of existing insurance, are made on or after January 1, 2017.
As the new rules are generally more stringent than the rules currently in place, if you currently own a policy and are planning on making changes to your life insurance policy this may be a good time to review your needs with your service advisor. Your advisor will have the information required to determine whether a requested policy change could impact its tax status.
We recommend you contact your service advisor should you have any questions.
1) Other RBC Life Insurance products may be impacted.