Updated: August 27th, 2016
The great news is that finding life insurance for Canadian Citizens in the US should be very easy.
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In this article you will learn all you need to know to get life insurance in the U.S. as a Canadian citizen. First of all, every life insurance companies list Canada as an “A” country. This means that you will be treated as a resident/citizen for all intends and purposes. The benefit to you will be that you will get great life insurance for great prices.
You need Insurable Interest
Before we get started, you need to make sure you have “insurable interest” in the U.S.. This mean that you will need to have a reason for the life insurance. Life Insurance companies need to know why you want to have life insurance. Here are a few reasons that would qualify you:
- Have a home in the U.S.
- Work in the U.S.
- Beneficiaries that depend on you
- Investments in the U.S.
- You plan on moving to the U.S.
Also you will need to have a bank account in the U.S. to apply for life insurance.
As you can see, it is very likely that you meet one of these scenarios. However, lets’ look at some different migratory status and how they can affect you.
Life Insurance for Canadian Citizens in the US with a Green Card
This is an easy one. You will be treated as a citizen, and you can get all types of life insurance (term and permanent), without any restrictions.
- Term Life: you will be able to get any length of term 10 years, 20 years and 30 years.
- Whole Life: every single company will approve you for permanent guaranteed whole life insurance.
- Universal Life: you can get Index, Variable and Guaranteed products.
You will have every Life Insurance company at your disposal and the process will be very simple.
I am a Canadian citizen, I am not a permanent resident and I need life insurance
Great news again. The process should be simple. Almost all insurance companies will take a non-resident Canadian citizen without restrictions. You will need to provide information regarding your migratory status, copy of visa, passport and you will need to have insurable interest. Whole Life, Term and Universal will all be viable options for you.
I am a Canadian Citizen, but I don’t live in the U.S. and I want life insurance
Here are the requirements to get life insurance in the U.S. for foreign nationals. Insurable interest for a Non U.S. resident will be more restrictive. You will need to have 2 items from the following list to get life insurance:
- Own real estate in the U.S.
- Own a business in the U.S. or working for a U.S. company
- U.S. tax liability
- Immediate family residing in the U.S., and 25% of assets required to justify the amount applied for must be U.S. assets that have been held in the U.S. for at least six months prior to application.
- Having financial assets in the U.S. 25% of assets required to justify the amount applied for (must be U.S. assets) and minimum 15 days presence in the U.S. annually.
You can see from the rules that for a Canadian citizen with almost any ties to the U.S. will be able to get life insurance.
Permanent and Term Insurance for Canadians
As we mentioned, you will be able to get permanent or term insurance without many restrictions. Depending on your situation one of these may make more sense than the other. In general term insurance cover your for only a specific time period, and is very affordable. Permanent insurance last forever, and you have other benefits that go with it, but it is more expensive at the beginning. If you want to learn about one type of permanent insurance, whole life insurance, please read our article.
Now that we know it’s simple to get life insurance, you need to find out what companies will give you the best rating for your specific situation. In addition, you will need to determine what type of policy is best for you.
Recommendations
Two companies that we would recommend are: Prudential and MetLife. These are very large, very well known and very high rated companies. They will look very favorable to Canadian citizens, and they insure many non U.S. citizens.
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