Your Greatest Asset

When I was twelve, my parents sat me down to share that my mom was diagnosed with cancer and that our family expenses will need to be cut as she will no longer be able to work while she undergoes surgery and treatments. Each of our family members did what we could, I gave up extracurricular lessons and turned down invitations from friends, and my grandparents returned to work as a dishwasher and housekeeper; beneath it all, we lived with the quiet fear that my dad could lose his job at any time amid the recession. What we didn’t know was that this was only the beginning as my mom’s recovery spanned several years, included a second cancer diagnosis, and left a lasting impact on our family’s financial wellbeing.

Years later, when working at RGF, I learned that one of your greatest assets is your capacity to generate income. This realization also underscored a major risk to long-term financial security; something that was painfully clear to me as I saw firsthand how vulnerable we can feel when that ability is threatened. Fortunately, I also learned that there is a way to protect this risk through disability insurance.

Disability Insurance – How It Supports Your Financial Security

Disability insurance is designed to safeguard your financial well-being if you are unable to work due to illness or injury. Key benefits include:

• A monthly income to help replace a portion of your income to help maintain essential living expenses.
• Individual disability coverage which are tax-free benefits.
• The peace of mind that you and your family are cared for, allowing you to focus on recovery.
• The freedom to continue to save towards long‑term goals such as retirement.

Individual Disability Insurance vs. Group Disability Insurance

While some employer group benefits offer a disability coverage, it is important to review and understand the terms within your coverage and their limitations. Individual disability policies typically offer stronger definitions, broader benefits, and more reliable protection. Other considerations are:

• The ability to have full control over your own individual coverage. Group plans can be cancelled by your employer at any time.
• It is portable for when you change jobs. Your group coverage ends when you change employers.
• The underwriting is completed at the time of application, which can significantly impact your ability to claim should future minor health issues arise. Group coverage may exclude pre‑existing medical conditions and may decline your claims based on them.

To this day, I wonder how things would have been different if my mom had disability insurance, how she could have focused on healing instead of returning to work earlier than she should have and how my family could have faced less stress and financial strain.

This experience showed me the importance of protecting your greatest asset: yourself and your ability to earn income.

Business Owners

The most overlooked area of financial planning for business owners and incorporated professionals is the lack of integration between corporate and personal assets. When the majority of your assets are in your corporation you need very specific, specialized and personalized financial advice.

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