An in-depth look at the InsuranceINTEL database has made it possible to map the offerings of 23 life and health insurers in Canada. The Insurance Portal reveals this in this supplement to the December 2025 of the Insurance Journal.
This map provides an at-a-glance view of the business lines in which insurers’ offerings are concentrated and the niches where they are more sparse. It shows that insurers have no shortage of tools to reach a larger number of Canadians.
Traditional products lead the way
For fully underwritten individual life insurance, there is a wide range of providers. All insurers offer permanent life insurance, a category that includes non-participating whole life insurance, participating whole life insurance, and universal life insurance.
However, only a few insurers offer all three types of products. These include Desjardins Insurance, iA Financial Group, and Sun Life.
At the other extreme, three insurers offer only one permanent product each. Serenia Life and Wawanesa Life sell only whole life insurance with dividends. UV Insurance sells only whole life insurance without dividends.
Serenia Life and Wawanesa Life’s offerings are geographically limited. Serenia Life states in the InsuranceINTEL database that it only offers its products in English. It does not offer them in the following regions: Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, and Yukon. Wawanesa Life has indicated to InsuranceINTEL that it offers its products only in English and not in Quebec. However, information about its products is available in French on its website.
Other insurers offer two individual permanent life insurance products. Among them, Assumption Life, Empire Life, and Foresters Financial offer whole life insurance with dividends and whole life insurance without dividends.
Beneva and BMO Insurance offer whole life insurance without dividends and universal life insurance.
Canada Life, Co-operators Life and its subsidiary CUMIS Life, Equitable, Manulife, and RBC Insurance offer participating whole life insurance and universal life insurance.
Simplified issue and health insurance
Finally, Specialty Life Insurance and Canada Protection Plan (a subsidiary of Foresters Financial) do not offer fully underwritten permanent life insurance. These two insurers focus solely on simplified issue insurance, both permanent and term individual life insurance.
Blue Cross, Greenshield, and Securian Canada do not offer any individual life insurance products, either permanent or term (CAA/Securian Canada). Blue Cross’s offering is limited to group insurance and individual travel and health insurance. Greenshield’s offering is limited to group insurance and individual health and dental insurance in the simplified and guaranteed issue categories.
In a unique case, Securian Canada offers individual health and dental insurance to members of the non-profit CAA (Canadian Automobile Association). This is therefore a group insurance plan. The CAA has seven million members through eight automobile clubs.
In its database, Securian specifies that it is targeting retirees looking for a new plan to cover their medical and dental expenses, those nearing retirement who want to extend their group plan, as well as self-employed individuals and those seeking coverage for their entire family. This is a fully-priced product that insures individuals or families, up to 11 members in total. The age limit for enrollment ranges from 18 to 79 years.
Securian Canada acquired Sun Life’s group and affinity plan business and its group credit insurance business in February 2023. It was then that the insurer, formerly known as Canadian Premier Life Insurance Company, adopted the name Securian Canada.
Term life insurance
Short-term term life insurance forms a monolithic block in the most common individual life insurance offering: all insurers offer 10-year (T10) and 20-year (T20) term life insurance.
The offering of other terms is more varied. In the Canadian life insurance market, the range of terms offered extends from one year to 100 years. In addition to T10 and T20, the term insurance market offers the following terms: T1, T15, T25, T30, T35, T40, and T100, as well as terms up to age 30, 65, and 85. T15, T25, and T30 policies are the most common in the market.
Aside from T10 and T20, Equitable, Foresters Financial, ivari, and Serenia Life only offer 30-year term life insurance (T30), and Manulife only offers term life insurance up to age 65.
Canada Life, iA Financial Group, RBC Insurance, and Sun Life stand out by offering multi-term products. Canada Life’s My Term covers terms from 5 to 50 years, and Sun Life’s Evolve Term Life covers terms from 5 to 40 years. iA Financial Group’s Pick-A-Term Insurance and RBC YourTerm cover terms from 10 to 40 years.
UV Insurance offers the only 30-year term life insurance policy: its Juvenile 30/100 product. This policy ends when the insured reaches age 100 and automatically renews as permanent life insurance.
Term or permanent?
Several insurers offer term to 100 life insurance (T100), but many others do not, including Assumption Life, Canada Life, Empire Life, Equitable, Foresters Financial, ivari, and Sun Life.
Within the industry, many consider T100 to be a permanent insurance category. Unlike whole life insurance, T100 generally offers neither cash surrender value nor reduced paid-up insurance. It is the least expensive permanent product, and actuaries refer to its price as “pure cost of insurance.” Insurers use T100 to offer universal life insurance with a level cost of insurance option, and T1 for universal life insurance with a renewable or annually increasing rate.
Living benefits
Individual critical illness insurance is the flagship of living benefits products. Eighteen insurers offer it. Among the few absentees are Specialty Life Insurance, Blue Cross, GreenShield, Securian Canada, and Serenia Life.
In addition, 11 insurers offer group critical illness insurance in Canada: Assumption Life, Beneva, Canada Life, Co-operators Life, Blue Cross Life, Desjardins Insurance, Empire Life, Equitable, iA Financial Group, Manulife and Sun Life.
In contrast, individual disability insurance is less readily available. The most widely offered product in this category, non-guaranteed disability insurance, has only six providers: Beneva, Desjardins Insurance, Humania Insurance, iA Financial Group, Manulife, and RBC Insurance.
Business overhead expense insurance comes in second, offered by Canada Life, Humania Assurance, iA Financial Group, and RBC Insurance.
Once a flagship product, non-cancellable disability insurance is now offered by only two providers: Canada Life and RBC Insurance. This insurance is aimed at professionals and senior executives. The market for disability buy-sell insurance – which provides funds if a business partner becomes disabled and needs to be bought out – is served by these two insurers.
Also considered a living benefits product, credit insurance is offered by seven insurers: Assumption Life, Beneva, Desjardins Insurance, Humania Assurance, iA Financial Group, RBC Insurance, and UV Insurance.