Cover the stay-at-home parent too
Childcare, transport, and household management have a replacement cost of tens of thousands a year. If one income buys the groceries and the other raises the kids, both need coverage.
Life insurance · Young families · British Columbia
The bank sold you mortgage insurance. It's the wrong product.
Bank mortgage insurance shrinks as your balance shrinks, pays the bank instead of your family, and can be re-examined after you're gone. A term policy you own costs about the same — and does none of that. Here's the math for a BC-sized mortgage.
The comparison the bank won't show you
Mortgage insurance vs. term life you own.
Both protect the mortgage. Only one protects your family. The premiums are usually comparable — the contracts are not.
Term life you own
Bank mortgage insurance
Payout amount
Level — $650K stays $650K for the whole term
Declines with your balance, while premiums stay the same
Who gets paid
Your family — spend it on the mortgage, or don't
The bank. Your family gets no choice
Underwriting
Done upfront, before you pay — approval means approval
Often verified at claim time, after death, when it's too late to fix errors
Portability
Yours. Switch banks, refinance, move — nothing changes
Tied to the lender. Refinance elsewhere and it can end
Rate guarantee
Locked for the full term at your application age
Can be repriced in age bands as you get older
Beyond the mortgage
What a complete family plan includes.
Children's coverage for dollars a month
A child rider adds coverage for every current and future child on one policy, and typically guarantees them insurability as adults — regardless of health.
Critical illness & disability
A parent surviving a cancer diagnosis or a back injury is far more likely than a death — and just as capable of breaking the household budget. A serious plan covers all three risks.
Straight answers
What BC parents ask us.
I already said yes to mortgage insurance at the bank. Am I stuck?
No. You can apply for a personal term policy, and once it's approved and in force, cancel the bank coverage. Never cancel first — keep the old coverage until the new policy is issued.
How long a term should we buy?
Match the term to the risk: the longer of your mortgage amortization or the years until your youngest is financially independent. For most young BC families that's 20 or 25 years. Buying too short to save a few dollars a month is the most common mistake we fix.
We have coverage through work — isn't that enough?
Group life is typically 1–2× salary. Against a BC mortgage and a decade of income replacement, that's a fraction of the need — and it disappears the day you change jobs. Count it in the calculator above, but don't build the plan on it.
What does $750K of term coverage actually cost?
For healthy applicants in their 30s, large term policies commonly run in the range of a streaming-services budget per month — and the rate is locked for the full term. We'll quote your exact age and amount across Sun Life, Canada Life, Manulife and Blue Cross on one call.
Do we both need medical exams?
Often not. Depending on age, health and amount, many parents are approved on application questions alone. Where an exam is needed, it's a free nurse visit we arrange around your schedule.
No chatbots. One advisor.
Fix the mortgage-insurance mistake in one call.
Bring your number from the calculator. We'll quote it across four Tier-1 carriers, structure coverage for both parents, and tell you exactly what to cancel and when.