Regardless of your life stage, you may be thinking about how you want to be remembered and the legacy you want to leave behind.
You believe it's important to be able to build and protect a financial legacy for your loved ones.
Statistics show, however, that some of the hardest conversations for people to have with their loved ones are about finances and estate planning. As well, almost 50% of Canadians don't have a will, making it even more important to find ways to help simplify settling your estate for your loved ones.
Finding the right product that can provide growth potential, a level of financial certainty with guarantees, as well as cost effective and efficient estate planning benefits can be a challenge.
Sun GIF Solutions Estate Series could be the product to help with its wide variety of funds and fund categories to choose from. It can help you grow your portfolio, as well as offer an extra layer of security with its 100% death benefit guarantee that can automatically reset each year up to age 80.
The automatic annual resets ensure that you won't lose any of your principal investment should you die while also locking in any potential market growth.
So how does that work exactly? Let's assume Doug deposits $200,000 into the Estate Series. At the end of year one, his market value has grown to $210,000. On the one-year anniversary, the death benefit guarantee will then automatically reset and lock in at $210,000.
At the end of year two, his market value has gone to $220,000, resulting in the death benefit guarantee resetting to $220,000. But what happens if markets should decline?
For example, if at the end of year three, the market value has declined from the last reset of $220,000 to $216,000, the death benefit guarantee will not decrease, but will remain at $220,000.
The death benefit guarantee reset value is always the higher of the last reset or the current market value. Ensuring your loved ones will get the legacy you want to leave for them.
But some of the most important benefits within your Sun GIF Solutions contract, including Estate Series, are the cost efficiencies and simplicity when it comes to estate planning and the distribution of the assets.
The proceeds of your Sun GIF Solutions Segregated Fund Contract can bypass the sometimes lengthy, expensive and public probate process. By bypassing probate, you avoid the fees commonly associated with it and save your loved ones those additional expenditures.
Those fees can include the probate fees themselves, ranging from approximately 0% to 1.5% of the estate value, depending on the province. The executor fees that can be paid to the executor of the estate for managing its settlement and any legal administration or accounting fees that can be associated with settling the overall estate.
And because Sun GIF Solutions Estate Series is a Segregated Fund Contract, you are able to name beneficiaries. This means that upon your death, loved ones receive the proceeds privately as well as quickly.
The settlement of an estate through probate can often take months to potentially years to complete, and once completed, the details are available in the public domain.
The distributing of proceeds from a Segregated Fund Contract remains private and can take only a few weeks, putting money in the hands of your loved ones sooner.
This can help to lessen some of the stress often associated with estate settlement with its annual death benefit guarantee resets and its cost-efficient estate planning benefits.
A Sun GIF Solutions Estate Series Segregated Fund Contract can allow you to grow and protect the legacy you want to leave behind.
If you think Sun GIF Solutions Estate Series could be the right product for you and your estate planning needs or want to learn more about Segregated Fund Contracts, visit sunlifeglobalinvestments.com or talk to your advisor for more information.