Permanent life insurance
Lifetime coverage, level premiums, and one detail most comparisons miss
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Key Takeaways
- Permanent life insurance covers you for your whole life, with no expiry date set in advance.
- Cash surrender value is not automatic. Emma's T100 has none, and the premium funds the death benefit instead of an accumulation account.
- Check whether a contract builds cash value before comparing two permanent quotes, because it explains most of the price gap.
- Emma's T100 is issued from age 18 to 80, for 1,000 to 5,000,000 CAD of coverage, with level premiums payable to the anniversary nearest your 100th birthday.
- A simplified-eligibility permanent option exists for harder health files, subject to its own criteria and a 24-month initial benefit limitation.
- No online price is your price. Your premium comes from your age, sex, tobacco use, health and coverage amount.
What is permanent life insurance?
Permanent life insurance covers you for your whole life, as long as the premiums set out in the contract are paid. Unlike term life insurance, which covers a set number of years, it has no expiry date written into it in advance.
That single difference explains most of the price gap. A term policy can expire without ever paying a benefit. A permanent policy is built to pay a death benefit whenever death occurs, so the insurer prices it on the assumption that it will pay out one day.
"Permanent" is a category, not a product. It covers several contracts that work quite differently from each other. At Emma, the permanent coverage on offer is the T100. Policies are issued by Humania Assurance and distributed by Emma Services financiers.
Permanent life insurance does not always build cash value
Most articles on this topic treat cash surrender value as an automatic feature of permanent insurance. It is not. Some permanent products accumulate a value inside the contract, and some accumulate none at all.
Cash value is money that builds up in the policy and that you can take out by ending the coverage. Taking it means giving up the protection. If you want the full mechanics, see our page on the difference between cash value and cash surrender value.
Emma's T100 has no cash surrender value. The premium funds the death benefit, not an accumulation account. Nothing builds up inside the contract to withdraw, borrow against or cash out.
That is a design choice, not a defect. If your goal is to leave a set amount to the people you name, without paying for a savings component you may never use, a contract with no cash value does exactly that job and nothing else. If your goal is to build a pool of money you can reach during your lifetime, this is not the product for you, and a whole life, universal life or participating policy is worth looking at instead.
This is the first thing to check when two permanent quotes come back with very different prices. A quote that includes an accumulation component and a quote that does not are not the same purchase, even when the death benefit on both is identical. Ask each insurer, in writing, whether the contract builds a cash surrender value before you compare the premiums.
How much does permanent life insurance cost?
No price published online will be your price. Your premium is built from your own profile and the contract you choose, then confirmed in the offer you receive. Anyone quoting a permanent premium before seeing your file is guessing.
Here is what actually moves the number, and what to verify before you compare two offers.
| Factor | Effect on the premium | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Age at application | It is one of the criteria used to set the rate. | Once the T100 is issued, the premium is level and does not rise with your age. |
| Sex | Part of the risk class defined in the contract. | Compare quotes built from identical information. |
| Tobacco use | Part of the risk class defined in the contract. | Answer the questions exactly as they are worded. |
| Health | Can change the rate or the conditions offered. | The underwriting of your application sets your risk class. |
| Coverage amount | A larger death benefit generally costs more. | Always compare the same face amount. |
| How long premiums are payable | Paying over fewer years concentrates the cost into a higher premium. | Check the date premiums stop being due on each offer. |
| Cash value in the contract | A product that accumulates a value costs more than one that does not. | Do not compare a policy with cash value against one without as if they were the same thing. |
| Riders | Each optional rider carries its own premium. | Confirm which riders are included in the quoted figure. |
For the pricing factors that apply across all of our products, see our page on the price of life insurance.
The types of permanent life insurance in Canada
Term to 100 (T100)
Lifetime coverage with level premiums and no savings component. This is the permanent product Emma offers. Premiums are payable until the policy anniversary nearest your 100th birthday, and the coverage then stays in force with no further premium due.
Whole life insurance
Lifetime coverage that generally builds a cash surrender value on a schedule set out in the contract. For the same death benefit, the premium is higher than a lifetime policy with no cash value, because you are funding two things instead of one. Our whole life insurance page covers how that value builds and how it can be accessed.
Universal life insurance
Lifetime coverage paired with an investment account that the policyholder funds and manages within the options offered. It asks for more active monitoring than the other permanent contracts. See our page on universal life insurance.
Participating life insurance
Lifetime coverage where the policyholder may receive policy dividends if the insurer declares them. Those dividends are not guaranteed and depend on the results of the participating account, not on the share price of the company. See our page on participating life insurance.
Emma's permanent life insurance at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Permanent life insurance, term to 100 |
| Issue ages | 18 to 80 |
| Coverage amount | 1,000 to 5,000,000 CAD |
| Premiums | Level, payable until the policy anniversary nearest the insured's 100th birthday |
| After age 100 | Coverage stays in force with no further premium |
| Cash surrender value | None |
| Dividends | Non-participating product |
| Renewal and conversion | Not renewable, not convertible |
| Optional coverage | Riders available, including dependent life coverage |
The exact wording that governs all of this is in the policy specimen, which we publish openly. Read it before you sign anything, here or anywhere else.
What if my health makes this harder?
Emma also offers a permanent option with simplified eligibility, built for people whose health makes regular underwriting difficult. It is subject to its own eligibility criteria and to an initial benefit limitation.
In practice: if death is related directly or indirectly to an illness within the first 24 months following the effective date or the reinstatement of the contract, the insurer refunds the premiums paid rather than paying the face amount, subject to the conditions of the contract. After that period, the coverage applies normally.
This is a useful option, but it is not unconditional acceptance and it is not a product without questions. If you are weighing it, our page on no medical life insurance explains how these products are structured, and an advisor can tell you which of the two routes fits your file.
Permanent or term life insurance?
This is not a question of which product is better. It is a question of how long the need lasts. Plenty of people hold both: term coverage for the mortgage and the working years, permanent coverage for final expenses and the estate.
| Item | Permanent (Emma T100) | Term (Emma Term) |
|---|---|---|
| Length of coverage | Your whole life | The term you choose, from 10 to 35 years |
| Premium | Level, payable to the anniversary nearest your 100th birthday | Level during the term, then reset at renewal based on attained age |
| Starting cost | Higher for the same death benefit | Lower for the same death benefit |
| Cash surrender value | None on the T100 | None |
| Renewal | Not renewable, the coverage simply continues | Renewable annually to age 80 with no new evidence of insurability |
| Conversion | Not convertible | Convertible to a non-participating whole life policy until age 65, with no evidence of insurability |
| Common use | Final expenses, estate, a gift | Mortgage, debts, income replacement |
One practical note on that last row: an Emma Term policy can be converted to a permanent whole life policy up to age 65 without new medical evidence, at rates based on your attained age and risk class at the time. If your health has changed since you bought the term policy, that right can matter more than the premium difference. Start with our overview of life insurance if you are still deciding what shape of coverage you need.
What is not covered
Permanent coverage is broad, but the contract sets out limitations. The main ones are these.
- Suicide within the first two years following the effective date.
- Misrepresentation on the application, which can void the contract.
- Death resulting from a criminal act.
- Death occurring during certain high-risk activities named in the contract, including mountaineering, ice climbing, scuba diving outside a resort setting, paragliding, parasailing, hang gliding, skydiving, bungee jumping, heli-skiing, off-piste skiing, off-trail snowmobiling, aviation other than as a commercial pilot, auto racing and kitesurfing.
If any of these describe your regular activities, raise it early rather than at claim time.
Frequently asked questions
What are the types of permanent life insurance?
The main ones sold in Canada are term to 100, whole life, universal life and participating life insurance. All four cover you for life. They differ in whether the contract builds a cash surrender value, who manages that value, and whether the policyholder can receive dividends. Emma's permanent product is a T100 with no cash surrender value.
Can I get permanent life insurance at 65?
Yes. Emma's T100 is available from age 18 to age 80, so 65 is well inside the range. Your premium is set using your age at the time of application, so it will be higher than the premium for the same death benefit at 35. Health questions still apply, and the answers form part of your risk class.
Does permanent life insurance ever stop costing money?
On the T100, premiums are payable until the policy anniversary nearest your 100th birthday. After that the coverage stays in force and nothing further is due. Some insurers offer shortened payment periods on their permanent contracts, over a set number of years or to a set age. That is a payment schedule, not a separate product, and you should check what your own offer says before comparing it to another.
What is the maximum coverage I can get?
The T100 is available from 1,000 to 5,000,000 CAD of coverage. At the higher end, the insurer may ask for additional documentation, including financial information supporting the amount applied for.
Is the death benefit taxable?
The amount paid to named beneficiaries is not taxable income for them. That is one of the reasons permanent coverage is often used for final expenses and estate planning. If covering funeral costs is your main goal, our page on funeral insurance covers that use case specifically.
What happens if I cancel a permanent policy?
The coverage ends and your beneficiaries receive nothing. On a T100 there is no cash surrender value to recover, so cancelling returns nothing to you either. Talk to an advisor before ending a policy that is in force, especially if your health has changed since you bought it, because replacing that coverage later may not be possible on the same terms.
Get your own number
Your premium depends on your age, your health, the coverage amount and the product you choose. The only way to know your real price is to complete an application and receive a personalized offer. You can work through it on your own or ask an advisor for help at any point.
Before you compare that offer to another one, check two things: whether the other contract builds a cash surrender value, and how long its premiums are payable. Those two lines explain most price gaps between permanent quotes.
Jacomo Deschatelets, CMO & Cofounder, Life Insurance Expert
Questions? Email us at editorial@emma.ca
Jacomo Deschatelets
Questions about this page? Email us at editorial@emma.ca
