MacLean Rowe Financial

Maclean Rowe Financial

Families

Helping families establish and achieve their goals.

Business Owners

Strategies to help increase your personal cash flow, keep key employees and protect your business.

Latest News

Disability Insurance and Small Business: How a Small Business Owner Used Disability Insurance to Stay Afloat While Managing Depression

Sandra ran her own successful insurance agency company for over a decade before it hit her like a ton of bricks – she was chronically depressed and something had to change.

Triggered by a combination of constant stress leading to severe burnout and her 12-year-old son’s recent diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes, Sandra needed some time away from the office to recover and receive treatment. Her depression was absolutely debilitating and could have been devastating to her business and income.

Luckily, Sandra, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, had purchased two disability insurance policies eight years prior that would help her through such a turbulent time. Sandra worked in the insurance industry and had seen just how important it was to protect yourself from a loss of income in case of a debilitating illness or disease.

Who Should Own My Life Insurance?

The planning considerations of where and how to own your life insurance can be varied and sometimes complicated. It is important to remember that who owns the policy, controls the policy. The owner has the right to name a beneficiary, assign the policy, take cash value loans or even cancel or surrender the policy. The insured does not have to consent to these transactions although there are steps available to require his or her permission when necessary. This article focuses on the main, but not all, issues in determining the ownership of a life insurance policy.

Stop Living Paycheque to Paycheque and Start Living

We are now living in a gig economy as a result of wage stagnation and increased globalization. While previous generations have usually worked one full-time job, often with a pension plan, today more and more Canadians are working for several different companies as independent contractors.

While this type of work does offer much-needed flexibility for some, it also creates financial instability for millions of Canadians. A recent survey of all working Canadians by the Canadian Payroll Association suggests that 43 percent of workers were living paycheque to paycheque prior to COVID-19. That statistic does not take into account COVID-19’s impact on the workforce.