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Steady may be better than perfect. Why dollar-cost averaging matters.
If clients are saving for a first home, staying consistent matters. A quick explanation of dollar‑cost averaging (DCA) helps them see why investing the same amount on a regular schedule can help reduce the stress of volatility, remove guesswork and keep their First Home Savings Account (FHSA) savings on track — giving you a natural bridge to Equitable’s Grow Your Way Home contest this summer.Reinforce that DCA is about time in the market and consistent behaviour, not trying to pick the “perfect moment.” Here are a few talking points to work DCA into your FHSA conversations.
“Consistency beats guesswork.”
With DCA, clients contribute a fixed amount on a set cadence (e.g., bi‑weekly). That discipline can help them keep moving toward their saving goals even when headlines are noisy.
“Different prices, naturally.”
Regular contributions mean clients buy at various price points over time, which can help smooth out the impact of market ups and downs and also help spread risk.
“Make it automatic.”
Align DCA to paydays. Automating bi‑weekly FHSA deposits builds habit, helps reduce friction and keeps clients progressing toward their first home.
As you continue FHSA conversations this summer, remind clients that DCA plus automation helps them participate consistently, through all market conditions. And from May 1 to August 31, 2026, every Equitable FHSA account opened and every deposit to an FHSA account earns automatic entries in Equitable’s Grow Your Way Home contest.Use EZcomplete® and EZtransact® to keep contributions seamless and connect with your Director, Investment Sales for additional support, tools and ideas to help you continue these conversations throughout the summer.
® and ™ denote trademarks of The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada.
Equitable’s Grow Your Way Home contest: No purchase necessary. Contest period is May 1, 2026 to August 31, 2026. Enter by: opening an Equitable FHSA during the Contest Period; making a deposit to your Equitable FHSA during the Contest Period; or submitting a no-purchase entry. Two prizes of $8,000 each to be drawn on September 21, 2026 will be awarded to clients. The servicing advisor for the selected entrant’s relevant FHSA contract is also an eligible winner and will receive a $1,000 prize. Open to legal residents of Canada of the age of majority. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received during the Contest Period. For full contest rules, including no-purchase method of entry, see the full contest rules.
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Update on our service levels during the COVID-19 pandemic
Supporting your clients and their plan members is more important than ever during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
So, we’re providing an update on our service levels.
We acted quickly to ensure there were no disruptions in service – most of our staff were working remotely from home and fully functional within a few days. We’ve reallocated resources from functions where volumes are down, such as dental claims, to those experiencing higher volumes. We also created a separate queue for COVID-19-related STD claims.
As a result, we’ve been able to maintain the industry-leading service levels you have come to expect from us, and our turnaround times continue to be well within our targets.
Here’s a summary of what you and your clients can currently expect in terms of average turnaround times:
Service category Average Turnaround Time
(as of April 26th)Customer Care Centre wait times 89% of calls answered within 20 seconds Responses to emails to our Service Team Within 24 hours Health claims 2 days Dental claims 2 days Life claims 1 day STD claims 4 days LTD claims 4 days Plan member updates 2 days New customer implementations 16 days COVID-19-related plan amendments 4 days Other plan amendments 8 days Quotes 2 days ahead of deadline We will closely monitor the situation and continue to adapt to ensure we maintain our service levels. And we will do our best to resolve any service issues that arise as quickly as possible.
Please feel free to contact your Group Account Executive or myFlex Sales Manager and let us know how we’re doing.
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Ways to reduce net income after age 71 with Equitable Life
Your client is contacting you to ask how to reduce net income after age 71. While each client’s situation is unique, here are a few options to consider.
- Clients with a spouse under the age of 71 can contribute to a spousal Retirement Savings Plan (RSP) up until December 31st of the year the spouse turns 71; provided contribution room is available. This option can also work for those clients over the age of 71 with employment income. This can be useful for small business owners who are still making money over the age of 71 and forced to convert their RSP to a Retirement Income Fund (RIF) or Life Income Fund (LIF).
- For clients with a RIF or LIF, they can strategically elect to use their spouses’ age to calculate the minimum RIF income payment (minimum and maximum for LIF). The idea being that if there is an age gap between spouses:
- Your client makes a RIF/LIF minimum payment lower by using the age of the younger spouse. This is beneficial to clients who do not need a lot of income from their RIF/LIF.
- Your client makes a LIF maximum payment higher by using the age of the older spouse. This is beneficial to clients who want to withdraw as much as possible from their LIFs each year.
To learn more, contact your Regional Investment Sales Manager.
® and TM denote trademarks of The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada
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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. -
Equitable Life Savings & Retirement Webinar Series featuring Equitable Asset Management Group
In 2022, Equitable Life’s® S&R team will continue to spotlight various aspects of our competitive fund lineup and product offerings. Each webinar in the series features a new topic. This series gives advisors an opportunity to:- learn more about various products and product features,
- hear from industry professionals,
- learn about investment strategies; and so much more.
Learn More
Continuing Education Credits
This webinar has been submitted for continuing education (CE) approval with the Insurance Council of Manitoba and Alberta Insurance Council for all provinces excluding Quebec. Upon approval, you will be sent an email notification to come back to the webinar presentation console to download your personalized certificate from the tool bar. To be eligible for CE credits, you must register individually, watch the webcast in full and complete a short quiz. This webcast is available in English only.
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Give clients guaranteed retirement income with Payout Annuities
With increased market volatility and interest rates higher than we have seen for much of the past decade, now is a great time to consider payout annuities. Payout annuities can provide regular guaranteed income regardless of how markets perform.
Clients using only a Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP) for retirement income are potentially vulnerable during times of market volatility due to the sequence-of-returns risk.1 When markets are down, more units are redeemed to cover income needs. When markets later rise, clients are not able to participate fully in the recovery because more units were redeemed to provide income. That is why having a guaranteed income component, like a payout annuity, as part of an overall retirement strategy is so important.
Two great reasons to consider Equitable Life® for your payout annuity business:
1. Choose from a variety of payout annuity options including:
A. Life Annuity – guaranteed income for one life
B. Joint Life Annuity – guaranteed income for two lives
C. Term Certain – guaranteed income for a specific period of time (5 to 30 years)
D. Term Certain to Age 90 – guaranteed income until age 90
2. Attractive rates, particularly in Registered and Term Certain Annuities
For more information, please contact your Equitable Life Regional Investment Sales Manager.
1Sequence-of-returns risk, or sequence risk, is the risk that an investor will experience negative portfolio returns very late in their working life and/or early in retirement.
® denotes a registered trademark of The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada. -
NEW Jump Around feature available on EZcomplete
One of the most requested features is available on EZcomplete® effective November 19, 2022. We like to call it “jump around”. It’s the ability to jump from one part of the application to another and back again. You no longer have to complete the application one section after another in order. This will allow a lot more flexibility when submitting a policy application.
This functionality is helpful as you can input basic client information ahead of a meeting to review with the client later. After completing the Owner’s step (step 1), you could jump to step five (Subsequent Payment) or step six (Third Party). This allows you the opportunity to easily jump back and add a second owner once you have all their details from the client. You can also return to your dashboard, and when you go back into the application, you will be returned to the owner’s section.
Hitting the Save button will save the information you have inputted already, so after jumping ahead to a different section, you can return to complete those questions knowing your progress will be saved. When you have completed all the necessary fields, hitting the Done button will validate all the information and the step will be complete. A check mark will appear beside each completed and validated step.
Please note, if you go back to a previously validated step and change information you will have to go through all subsequent steps and complete and validate them again by clicking next if nothing has changed or making any necessary changes.
To Equitable Life®, the term EZ really means something! Learn more about how doing business with Equitable Life continues to be easy.
Questions: Please contact your Regional Sales Manager
® denotes a trademark of The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada.
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Kickoff to 2023 with Equitable Life and Robert Gignac
Equitable Life® is pleased to present Robert Gignac, author of the book ““Rich is a State of Mind”. Robert will deliver his new “Stop Playing Chess in a PokerStars World” presentation. Robert’s engaging presentation offers examples of what clients (and prospects) are struggling with today and how advisors can take a leadership role by changing from a one-dimensional game (chess) to a multi-dimensional one (poker).
Your hosts, Cam Crosbie, Vice President, Savings & Retirement and Joseph Trozzo, Investment Sales Vice President, MGA, will highlight some of the ways Equitable Life can help make 2023 a great year.
Learn More
Posted: December 23, 2022
Continuing Education Credits
This webinar has been submitted for continuing education (CE) approval with the Insurance Council of Manitoba and Alberta Insurance Council for all provinces excluding Quebec. Upon approval, you will be sent an email notification to come back to the webinar presentation console to download your personalized certificate from the tool bar. To be eligible for CE credits, you must register individually, watch the webcast in full and complete a short quiz. This webcast is available in English only.
® denote a registered trademark of The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada
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This year’s RSP contribution deadline is March 1, 2023
The RSP deadline is fast approaching so whether you are using paper or EZtransact™ here are some important things to remember.
Issuing New Policy with EZcomplete®-
All online applications must be digitally signed and submitted and have a date stamp no later than March 1, 2023.
Issuing New Policy using Paper Application-
For contributions to qualify for the first 60 days, all paperwork must be completed and signed by March 1, 2023. Equitable Life must receive all paperwork by March 7, 2023.
Deposits to Existing Policy-
Advisors can setup a one-time or recurring deposit or edit an existing pre-authorized debit already in place using EZtransact. Online deposits must be made and have a date stamp by March 1, 2023, to qualify for a 2022 tax receipt.
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New to EZtransact? Try our EZtransact Practice Site to see how EZ it is to use.
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Clients can make online deposits to Equitable Life® through their financial institution’s online banking service. Online deposits must be made and have a date stamp by March 1, 2023, to qualify for a 2022 tax receipt.
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Clients can also make a new deposit to an existing policy by cheque. The cheque must be dated and signed by March 1, 2023. Equitable Life must receive the cheque no later than March 7, 2023.
If online banking is being used to fund the policy – either topping up an existing policy or opening a new policy – the online banking transaction must be completed by March 1, 2023, to receive a 2022 tax receipt.
Please note that cheques and other paperwork cannot be backdated. They must be completed and signed by March 1, 2023, to qualify for a 2023 tax receipt.
Don’t forget about the Equitable Life RSP Grow Your Future Contest. We hope you have a great RSP season!
® denotes a trademark of The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada. -
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Announcing our new Travel Assist provider
We are pleased to announce that we are partnering with Trident Global Assistance as our new Travel Assist provider, effective June 1, 2023.
Based in Etobicoke, Ontario, Trident provides travel assistance for thousands of Group Benefits plan members. Trident has an experienced leadership team with decades of combined industry expertise. They have both the operational know-how and global networks to provide your clients and their plan members with 24/7 support for their travel health assistance needs.
No action is required from plan sponsors or plan members. For clients with Travel Assist included in their plan, the transition to Trident will be seamless. The phone numbers for Travel Assist will remain the same and there is no requirement to download a new benefits card.
As we previously announced, Allianz Global Assistance, our current Travel Assist provider, is exiting the Canadian group travel administration market. Allianz will continue to accept and support claims and inquiries received before June 1, 2023. All claims and inquiries received June 1 or later will be supported by Trident.
In the meantime, we are working closely with Allianz and Trident to help ensure a smooth and seamless transition for our clients and their plan members.
If you have any questions about the transition to Trident as our new Travel Assist provider, please contact your Group Account Executive or myFlex Sales Manager.