The consummate solution for advisors’ most complicated insurance cases.
Dan Burjoski, CLU, CFP®
The tax system is a war on the business owner, which creates the opportunity to solve their tax problems by using someone else’s money.
A lifelong affinity for insurance and a 40-year career of his own in the business has given Dan an encyclopedic knowledge, unmatched in Canada, of insurance products that he explains the benefits of, but never sells.
If you are accountant, lawyer or advisor with a tax problem, I should be the first person you call.
Trusted by investment advisors, accountants and lawyers across Canada, Dan has the deepest understanding of the math and complete mastery of The Five Tools that place business with maximum success:
I love it when people say, “I don’t believe in life insurance.” Like it’s Santa or The Easter Bunny or The Great Pumpkin.
I know they aren’t saying that life insurance doesn’t exist. They are saying they don’t like it, but are being good Canadians and are trying to be polite.
My father, who was in this business from 1954 to his death in 1993, would say, “When everyone else shows up with a bill, I am the only one with a cheque.”
Sales-y, but still completely true. And that is the nature of our business. We solve problems that don’t exist yet. We address problems that no one wants to talk about.
That is what I truly love about this industry.
In my career, I have worked in sales, sales management, training, product development and for most of my career, as an independent Insurance Consultant. I own the products I sell, and I have claimed on the products I sell.
Whatever your life insurance needs, I know how to create the exact solution. Not just the product; that’s the easy part. But the structure, funding, planning and maintenance, too.
I believe that people tend to forget everything about their life insurance policy about 15 minutes after they sign a delivery receipt.
What’s more, more than half of the life insurance policies in Canada are “orphan,” meaning that no active advisor is attached to them, to service the customer who bought it or its beneficiaries.
If you are an advisor, this results in your clients having policies they don’t understand and may be poorly serviced or even neglected – accumulating loans, missing important options and renewals, not taking advantage of contractual features.
The single best place to start the life process with a client is to review their existing coverage – and this is where I can help more than most.
I have worked in the MGA side of the Canadian insurance industry since the day I started in October, 1985. This gives me a unique and unparalleled knowledge of life insurance plans from multiple carriers from the 1980s to now.
Your client has a “Gerling Global Champion”? No problem!
I know how to make the most of these plans, what to ask for to get accurate illustration, what can and should be kept, and what might be past its prime. Moreover, I can integrate this with new coverage in your client’s presentation.
Don’t know where to start with a client for life insurance?
Tell them you would like to have their current coverage reviewed by an expert. And then we take it from there.
If you can think of it, I can model it.
Whether the ownership is personal, corporate or trust, or even complex strategies like split- dollar par, financed insurance, charitable or any combination.
I can create a model that is adaptable and flexible and ACCURATELY reflects the strategy you need to implement for your client. This includes full disclaimers, stress testing and accurate tax modelling.
How does this differ from “concept software”?
Where to begin.
First, concept software views your strategy in isolation. In contrast, I will create a presentation that shows how your strategy integrates with your client’s other investments.
Second, stress testing. Showing “Current” and “Current-1” may be fine for compliance, but it does not scratch the surface to show potential risk from interest rates, tax rates or even tax changes. Concept software sells, but a proper plan with thorough stress testing also ensures viability for years to come.
Third, I am there for service, and to help when plans change.
Fourth, no bias to any insurer.
Fifth, I can include existing coverage into any model, provided an in-force illustration can be provided. For example, a client has an existing par plan with cash value, and you are proposing a new par with an Immediate Finance Arrangement. I will create a model that includes both. The whole is ALWAYS greater than the sum of the parts.
Last, you get my experience. I can help you solve problems before they start, assist with underwriting and financing and with presenting the strategy to your clients and their advisors. I am part of the entire process, including service.
Fee for all of this: 20% commission split on the application.
If you are like the majority of Canadians, the largest tax bill you will ever pay is your last one.
In Canada, we do not have an estate tax. But we have something called “deemed disposition at death.” In a nutshell, the Income Tax Act assumes that the moment before your death, you sell everything you own. Your RRSP, investments, cottage, rental properties, even your shares of your business.
This means that any tax you have been deferring in those lifelong investments becomes due.
Without proper planning, the final tax bill can get as high as 73% (!).
But here’s the good news – proper planning can reduce that to 20% or less. And you can do that within the rules laid out by CRA and without getting into aggressive planning.
On top of that, there can be complicating factors that have nothing to do with tax: mixed families, beneficiaries out of country, US persons, disabled beneficiaries, business succession and many others.
Financial tools exist to help with all of these problems:
In my career spanning five decades, there aren’t many issues I haven’t seen. Draw on my experience and my team – and together we can put a plan in place to solve problems you may not even know you have yet!
