The people you chose aren't always the people the law picks.
If you haven't written down who gets what, who decides, and who's covered, Ontario has a default answer. It was not written with your family in mind.
I'm David Marinier, an independent life insurance agent in Toronto, licensed by FSRA. I work mostly with LGBTQ+ people, chosen families, and business owners. Fifteen years in the industry, none of them spent pressuring anyone.
Doing nothing is a decision. Here's what it decides.
Most people put this off because nothing is wrong yet. That's exactly the window in which it's cheap and easy to fix. These are the three gaps I find most often.
You die without a will
Ontario applies a formula. It recognises married spouses, children, parents, siblings. A common-law partner of twenty years is not on that list, and neither is anyone else you chose.
You're off work for eight months
Not dead — sick, or injured. Income stops. Rent, mortgage, and the line of credit do not. This is the risk people underinsure most, because it doesn't feel like a catastrophe until it's month three.
The wrong name is on the form
A beneficiary designation on a policy or a plan pays out to whoever is named on it, regardless of what your will says. Old forms from an old life quietly override new intentions.
Half an hour is usually enough to tell you which of these three applies to you.
Book a callFor families and people the paperwork forgot.
Most of the standard advice quietly assumes a married couple, biological children, and a family that shows up when things go wrong. When that isn't your situation, the standard advice has gaps in it — and you usually find them at the worst possible moment.
I work from the family you actually have. That means being specific about names, documents, and designations rather than trusting a default to be generous.
Start your estate planningUnmarried partners
Common-law status carries real rights in Ontario, and real gaps. Inheritance is one of the gaps.
Chosen family
The people who'd actually show up. If you want them to inherit or to decide, they have to be named.
Two-parent, one biological
Parentage, guardianship, and insurability for children need to line up on paper.
Estranged from family
Where no instruction exists, the law reaches for relatives. Written instructions are how you stop that.
Four tools, used in whatever order your situation needs.
I'm independent, so I'm not moving a particular product. Most first meetings end with one recommendation, not four.
Term, whole, and universal
Term covers a period of exposure — a mortgage, children at home, a business loan. Permanent coverage is a different tool: it funds an estate, equalises an inheritance, or moves money tax-efficiently. Which one you need depends on what the money is for.
Segregated funds
Investment funds held inside an insurance contract. Because there's a named beneficiary, the money can pass directly to that person instead of through your estate — faster, private, and outside probate. They can also offer creditor protection, which matters if you're self-employed.
Income and illness protection
The coverage that pays while you're still here. Disability insurance replaces a portion of income if you can't work; critical illness pays a lump sum on diagnosis. If you're self-employed, there is no group plan quietly doing this for you.
Estate and legacy planning
Making sure the designations, the coverage, and your documents all point the same direction. I don't draft wills or give legal advice — that's your lawyer's work. What I do is find where the insurance side and the legal side contradict each other, and tell you plainly when you need a lawyer.
Not sure which of these you need? That's exactly what the call is for.
Get started
Fifteen years in the industry. None of it spent selling anyone something they didn't need.
I've spent my career in financial services in Toronto, and I started this practice because I kept meeting people whose plans didn't fit their lives. Not because the advice was bad, but because it assumed a shape of family that wasn't theirs.
Working independently means I'm contracted with multiple carriers rather than employed by one. Practically: I can shop the market rather than fit you to a single company's shelf. I'm paid by commission from the carrier that issues your policy, and I'll put that disclosure in writing before you apply.
Three steps, and you can stop after any of them.
A call, not a pitch
You tell me who's in your life and what you'd want to happen. I tell you which of the three gaps applies to you. No documents needed.
A written summary
What's exposed, what it would cost to close, and what I'd do first if it were me. Yours to keep whether or not you work with me.
Put it in place
Applications, underwriting, and the paperwork. I handle the carriers; you sign things. Then an annual check that it still fits.
What clients say afterwards.
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The ones people actually ask.
Not on the list? Ask me directly — I'd rather answer it than have you guess.
It changes a great deal, and this is the single most common gap I see. Ontario gives common-law partners real rights in some areas, but inheritance under an intestacy — dying without a will — is not one of them. If you want your partner to inherit, it has to be written down. A named beneficiary on a policy or a segregated fund is one of the cleanest ways to do it.
Half an hour. No cost, no product, no follow-up you didn't ask for.
Tell me a little about your situation and I'll come back within one business day with a time. If it turns out you don't need anything, I'll tell you that too.
Your details go to me and nobody else. No mailing list, no carrier gets your information before you've agreed to apply.
How I'm licensed, and how I'm paid.
You're entitled to all of this in writing before you buy anything. It's here so you don't have to ask.
Licence
Licensed as a life insurance agent in the Province of Ontario by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario.
How I'm paid
By commission from the insurance company that issues your policy, plus service commissions in later years on some products. Nothing is charged to you directly. Commission rates differ between carriers and products, and I'll disclose the specifics for anything I recommend, in writing, before you apply.
Companies I represent
I place business through PPI Solutions Inc., a managing general agent, and I'm contracted with the following insurers. I may receive compensation from any of them.
Not an exhaustive list — ask me for the full one at any time.
What I don't do
I don't hold a Financial Planner or Financial Advisor credential under Ontario's title protection rules, and I don't use those titles. I don't draft wills, powers of attorney, or trusts — that's a lawyer's work — and I don't give tax advice. Where you need one of those, I'll say so.