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By Jason Heath, CFP on September 4, 2025
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

By Jason Heath, CFP on September 4, 2025
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Employees often have group insurance coverage at work, but people who work for themselves need to make sure they are covered with the right kinds of insurance.

A common feature of employee benefit plans in Canada is insurance coverage. The types and amounts of insurance vary, and employees should consider their personal situation to determine if they need additional coverage beyond their group plan—as they often do.

If you are self-employed, the onus for insurance coverage is squarely on you. If you are considering self-employment or are already self-employed, consider whether the following types of insurance apply to you.

If you have a spouse and/or children who rely on your income, you should probably have life insurance. It could replace that income if you were to die, protecting your family from financial hardship.

You need enough life insurance to cover your financial obligations—such as a mortgage and personal debt—and provide sufficient care for your dependents.

Although a family’s expenses could decrease if someone died, most households have lots of fixed expenses like rent, mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, utilities, children’s expenses, and other costs that do not change if there is one less family member. In some cases, a family’s expenses could even increase to account for additional help like a nanny for little ones or other help around the house.

A business owner may also consider life insurance to provide cash for their business to keep operating. If the business’s value could be impaired by their death, a life insurance policy paid for and owned by the business could provide the funds to hire a replacement or shore up cash flow.

Some business partners agree to have life insurance on each other. This coverage can provide funds for the survivor(s) to buy the deceased partner’s share of the business from their family.

When you buy life insurance, you can buy term life insurance that covers you for a certain number of years, or you can get permanent life insurance that is notionally meant to keep forever. Permanent insurance contains an investment component, whether it’s whole life or universal life insurance. Premiums tend to be higher for permanent coverage since the risk of death rises with age. But term insurance generally has a renewal feature, whereby you can renew at progressively higher premiums for........

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