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4. Coming March 23, 2020 – Equimax enhancements include 60 months of flexibility to make extra deposits

   The following features will be available on Equimax Estate Builder® and Equimax Wealth Accumulator® plans!   
   
   60 months of Excelerator Deposit Option (EDO) flexibility

   • Up to 60 months to make initial EDO payment or resume stopped or reduced payments. No additional underwriting required. 
   • For approved EDO amounts exceeding $150,000 annually ($12,500 monthly), clients have up to 12 months from the date the EDO application was signed or the date of the last EDO payment to make an EDO payment before a contribution cap may apply.
   • Available on all policies with an effective date of March 23, 2020 or later.
   
   
   
   EDO available on case ratings of 300% or less
   • If a policy already in effect has a rating over 200% and up to and including 300%, the owner can apply to add EDO provided the policy was issued under the 2017 tax rules.
   • Additional underwriting and submission of satisfactory evidence may be required.
   
   
   
   Disability Benefit Disbursement at no extra cost
   • If a life insured becomes disabled from a severe mental or physical impairment as defined in the policy contract, the owner may apply for a tax-free,* lump sum payment of up to 100% of the policy’s cash value.
   • Exclusions apply. See sample policy contract for full details, including the qualifications for the disbursement.
   • Available on all policy issued under the 2017 tax rules.

   
   
   * Tax laws are subject to change. The payment of the disability benefit disbursement may affect the adjusted cost basis (ACB) of the policy as it is considered payment of a capital benefit. Changes in ACB can affect the future taxation of the policy.

   Processing your Application
   To make the transition as smooth as possible, please take a moment to review the following transition rules.
    

5. Can’t meet in person? EZcomplete is an EZ way to meet online

   
   Instead of canceling your meeting, why not meet online instead? Our EZcomplete^® application makes it easy to process your non-face-to-face applications and do business with Equitable Life.
    
   EZcomplete is available on Pivotal Select™ segregated funds and all life products – Term, Whole Life, CI and Universal Life – and allows for the signing process to change from in-person to non face-to-face at the end of the application, despite how it was started.  This gives you and your clients the option to easily and efficiently connect remotely.
   
   
   
   How does it work?
    
   EZcomplete gives you the option to conduct your non face-to-face business easily and quickly, enabling your clients to provide their signature remotely on their own device. You simply need to enter their email address and provide them with a secret passcode to securely access the documents to review and sign.
    
   There is no limit on the face amounts or product options and the time to settle is reduced when using the application. It is a flexible, intuitive tool to use, and helps keep business on track now that many clients and advisors are opting for more social distance.

   
   For Life Advisors, please refer to the New Business and Underwriting page on Equinet for details about non-face-to-face delivery.

6. Mental health support for all plan members

   As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, many Canadians are dealing with increased stress and anxiety. Now, more than ever, plan members need easy to access resources to help them cope with these uncertain times.

   Through our partnership with Homewood Health^®, the Canadian leader in mental health and addiction services, all of our clients and their plan members have access to tools designed to provide guidance and support, including i-Volve, Homewood’s Online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy tool.

   Proven therapy, at your own pace

   Included with Homewood Online resources in every Equitable Life^® plan, i-Volve can help plan members identify, challenge and overcome anxious thoughts, behaviours and emotions. It encourages incremental changes in behaviour and is proven to be an effective therapeutic approach for dealing with mild to moderate anxiety or depression. Plan members work at their own pace through a series of web-based exercises, ultimately helping to change the ways in which they think, feel and react in various situations.

   Free for all Equitable Life plan members

   All Equitable Life clients and their plan members have access to i-Volve. It’s available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, wherever you choose to access it.

   Contact your Group Account Executive or myFlex Sales Manager to learn more about Homewood Health and i-Volve Online CBT.

    

7. Deposits to the Fidelity Special Situations mutual fund are being limited but the segregated fund is
   Fidelity Investments^® recently said they would no longer accept deposits from new investors into the Fidelity^® Special Situations Fund. This notice however does not affect Equitable Life^® clients.
   
   The Special Situations Fund will continue to be open to new and existing Equitable Life clients. This includes clients with Pivotal Select™, Pivotal Solutions* or Personal Investment Portfolio segregated funds contracts.
   
   Why is Fidelity limiting access to the mutual fund?
   This award-winning mutual fund has grown significantly and now has $3.6 billion of managed assets. To preserve the integrity of the fund’s investment strategy, Fidelity^® decided to limit inflows to the fund. Limiting the amount of managed assets held within the fund allows the fund’s portfolio manager to focus on what he does best - finding special situation investment opportunities and capitalizing on positive change within companies and industries across Canada and around the world.
   
   If you like the Special Situations mutual fund, you will value the Equitable Life Fidelity^® Special Situations segregated fund. Segregated funds are similar to mutual funds but offer different features and guarantees. To learn about these features, check out the Investment Advantage. To learn more about the Special Situations segregated fund, click here.
   
   
   For more information about Equitable Life’s segregated funds, speak to your Regional Investment Sales Manager or visit our segregated funds page on EquiNet^®.
    
   References:
   Fidelity’s press release announcing the limited fund closure
   Fidelity^® Special Situations portfolio management strategy, webinar featuring Mark Schmehl, Portfolio Manager.

   
   
   *No Load, Deferred Sales Charge, Pivotal Solutions II
   ® or ™ denotes a trademark of The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada, except as noted below.
   Fidelity and Fidelity Investments are registered trademarks of 483A Bay Street Holdings LP. Used with permission.

8. Enhancements to ID Verification and Business Forms

   We have made enhancements to some of our forms and created an additional form to help make it easier for you to do business with Equitable Life®.
    
   The first enhancement is an update to the ID Verification section to allow for Third Party ID Verification when a client doesn’t want to provide ID documents to an Advisor. They are now given additional options to either use the Alternative Identification requirements, or consent to Equitable Life verifying their identity through a third party service provider. We’ve also clarified in the Advisor declaration that they can’t sign for their own policies as they aren’t able to validate their own ID.
   
   The above changes have been made to the following forms:

   • 671OC – Ownership Change Form
   • 1027 – Additional/Updated Customer Information
   • 1616 – Application for Term Conversion
    
   The second enhancement is an update to Business forms. We’ve created a new form, 2004 Signing Authorities Certificate, to help Businesses provide the Signing Authority information needed more easily!  Forms 594 and 682ENT have been updated to point to the new Form 2004 and also have new “Ownership structure” requirements added in section 2.
   
   View the below forms for details on these changes:
   • 2004 – Signing Authorities Certificate (NEW)
   • 594 – Business Information Form
   • 682ENT – Claimants’ Statement for Entities
   
   ® denotes a registered trademark of The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada.
    
9. Changes to Short Term Disability Benefit Calculations The Canada Employment Insurance Commission and Canada Revenue Agency have announced the 2022 changes to Maximum Insurable Earnings, and premiums for employment insurance. These changes take effect January 1, 2022.
    

   	2021 Amount	As of Jan. 1, 2022
   Maximum Insurable Earnings (MIE)	$56,300	$60,300
   Maximum Weekly Insurable Earnings (MWIE)	$1,083	$1,160
   EI Benefit (55% of the MWIE, rounded to the nearest dollar)	$595	$638

    
   How does this affect your clients?
    
   If your client’s Group Policy with Equitable Life includes a Short Term Disability (STD) benefit which is tied to the EI Maximum Weekly Insurable Earnings, and at least one classification of employees has less than a $638 maximum, then to comply with the provisions of their policy, their STD benefit will be revised with the maximums updated based on the percentage of EI Maximum Weekly Insurable Earnings shown in their policy.
    
   The additional premium for any increase from their previous STD amounts and new STD amounts will be show on their January 2021 Group Insurance Billing (as applicable).
    
   If their STD maximum is currently higher than $638 or based on a flat amount (not based on a percentage or regular earnings), no change will be made to their plan unless otherwise directed.
    
   If your clients wish to provide direction regarding revising their STD maximum, or have questions about the process, they can email Kari Gough, Manager, Group Quotes and Issue.
10. Manage more details within Contract Delivery for New Business applications We are excited to announce further enhancements to our eDelivery process to empower you, the advisor, the ability to manage client details more easily within Contract Delivery.
    
    Effective January 15, 2022, advisors will need to create a Password within Contract Delivery when choosing “eDelivery” as the contract delivery method and provide the password to the client to use as their password:
    
    The Password must be between 4 and 100 alpha/numeric characters, and cannot be the Policy number. For multiple signers the password (and email address) must be unique per each signer.
    
    Advisors can now edit and/or update an email address within Contract Delivery, in the event of a bounce back or email change, to keep the eDelivery process moving and avoid delays in processing time. If a lock out occurs, advisors can trigger a resend of the signing email once they add a new valid email address in Contract Delivery. Simply click the pencil icon beside the Email field to enter the valid email address:
    

    Another new feature- in the event a client has declined, the advisor will get an email from Equitable Life^®. Click through to EquiNet^® within the email to view the message within Contract Delivery that the client provided as the reason for decline under a new “Declined Details” section. This enables you to connect with the client to proceed with the sale by discussing the reasons for decline with them directly.

    Also new for clients with this enhancement, policy owners of a policy created after January 15 will be able to see a PDF copy of their policy within client access. Note: this PDF copy is as the policy was originally issued.
    
    Resources: 

    • eDelivery of a Contract - New Business
    • eDelivery FAQ