AIG Life of Canada

American International Group (AIG) has been among the most crisis influenced companies. This old big insurance company lost 90% of its value within few month and asked for government help. What's the situation in Canada?

There is AIG Life of Canada company present on our market. Despite its name, AIG LoC is not a subsidiary of AIG anymore. It was sold to Bank of Montreal few weeks ago. BoM is a respectable bank institution holding more than $400 billion of assets, representing thus a very solid partner for AIG LoC. This purchase helped both BoM (which now became a big player on the insurance market) and AIG LoC. Canadian branch has not been bounded financially with its American mother and hasn't shared any of its loss, but still, loss of reputation and bad image caused sales in Canada to plunge. New partner should help to reestablish trust in AIG.

But bad psychological effect can't be beaten so easily and many clients are still concerned. But you should know policy switch can cause you a lot of expenses, especially:

• New policy life insurance, disability insurance or any other policy will be based on your new age and your current health status. It will also be subject to a new incontestability and suicide provisions
• Cancelling insurance policy may trigger a taxable gain. Many older AIG policies have valuable tax benefits which may not be available on new policies! You can be surprised with your tax bill then...
• Some policies carry surrender charges for cancelling the plan

All insurance companies in Canada are under regulation by The office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions of Canada and are obliged to provide ongoing financial reporting
AIG LoC is member of Assuris. All policies <$200000 are 100% covered. In case you are hesitating about your AIG policy, I recommend you to visit an independent broker, who will help you to count all possible pros and cons!