When you created Emma.ca what was your main goal?
Getting people to fall in love with their life insurance. That was the basic idea behind Emma. It sounds simple, but for us, it meant making life insurance accessible, inclusive, fast and easy to understand. The plan was to create a “2.0” version of it. We wanted to make sure everyone had access to the highest quality of advice, no matter who they are or what is their financial background or current situation.
Being in the insurance business, we quickly realized young families were the ones who needed us the most, so we built our platform from the ground-up with their needs and preferences in mind.
Ideally, when do you believe Canadians should get life insurance?
ASAP! Most people don’t know how expensive funeral costs can be. Moreover, insurance prices increase with age, so it’s a good idea to get at least minimal coverage with life insurance to make sure your debts and funeral expenses are taken care of as soon as possible.
As for bigger amounts of life insurance, your needs will determine the perfect moment to get one. Key events like moving in with your partner, having kids or buying a house will generally create life insurance needs and thus lead to the purchase of life insurance.
Many people don’t believe in life insurance, why do you think life insurance is important?
For most of us, life insurance is about one thing and one thing only: Making sure our loved ones will be financially taken care of and have what they need in the event of our death. That’s it.
As said earlier, death comes with funeral expenses, and some debts need to be taken into account. Your kids, partner and sometimes parents might also be financially dependent on you, so life insurance can replace your salary and make sure everyone is ok if something happens. When we do the math, we realize how important it really is.
What affects the cost of life insurance?
Life insurance costs are determined by factoring different elements, mainly:
- Coverage duration
- Coverage amount
- Medical and general health conditions
- Age
- Sex
- Smoker status
Most life insurance providers require you to provide your medical history, what medical documents do Emma’s applicants need to provide?
With Emma’s life insurance, our exclusive product, we never have to ask for medical documents. This is a win for both our clients and us because it makes the process much simpler. However, we do ask simple health and general lifestyle questions to determine the eligibility of our clients.
What benefits do you provide that other life insurance providers don’t?
In terms of pure “life insurance products”, we’re offering the same benefits as any other life insurance companies in Canada or brokers. And we’re proud of it!
The real benefit is in how we’re offering it. We offer free, on-demand access to a professional advisor, whenever our clients need it and for however long they want it. Our platform is also the fastest and safest way to buy life insurance 100% online and instantly be protected. No need to schedule a phone call, do medical exams, exchange dozens of emails and wait 4-6 weeks to know if you’re approved.
How is Emma different than other online comparators?
Most comparators are putting prices in the spotlight, and they’re doing a great job at it. On the other hand, what we’re doing at Emma is focusing on the advice. We want to help, educate and give advice to our clients. At the end of the day, we compare prices with most of our clients, but we’re always doing it in our live chat while giving explanations along the way. This also ensures our clients are not wasting time comparing prices for products they don’t need.
Also, we’re a family driven company. That’s why we decided to help young parents with resources and tools. Our most popular is our Baby Names Finder, check it out!
Can you tell us a little bit about your commitment to providing life insurance that is “Non-Discriminating for Women”
Traditionally, medical conditions such as weight gain, post-partum depression and gestational diabetes as well as being absent from work are treated as “red flags” by insurers. That means being a pregnant woman is a “bad” thing, as you would’ve probably checked one or more of these boxes.
With our Emma life insurance, we had the opportunity to change things up a bit and treat a pregnant woman like a pregnant woman, not like someone in bad shape or with a preexisting medical condition. This is how we managed to be non-discriminating towards women and more precisely young mothers, making sure they have access to the insurance they need and deserve.
Have you seen changes in the life insurance industry in Canada? (ie. are more Canadians buying life insurance, or are more younger Canadians buying insurance, etc)
There have been lots of changes in regulations in the past couple of years, mainly about transparency and communications between insurance providers and clients. These changes brought a more positive vibe around life insurance in general, which is great.
We see more and more young Canadians being curious about their financial situation, including insurance, investments and budgeting. Financial education and getting sound advice is now a top priority for them. Rather than just buying the best products, they also want to understand why and how, and we’re happy to encourage this trend.
