Insurance is an important consideration when it comes to any real estate purchase, so I’ve interviewed my favorite insurance broker, Joel Cadesky, to help you understand the ins and outs of purchasing insurance to protect your new home. He’s been my personal insurance broker for over a decade and I trust his advice on all things insurance.

This post was created from an interview in my YouTube series, Mississauga in a Minute, and has been edited for length and clarity.

Joel, tell us a little bit about your history in the business.

I started in 1978, selling life insurance for Crown Life. Then, in 1982, a private insurance brokerage asked me to start up their life division, so I started with them and continued from there. I have been with several other companies over the years, but here I am 41 years later, still doing basically what I did when I started with Crown Life.

Service is the key to my business. Everybody wants the best rates, we understand that, but if you don't have the service from a qualified broker, those cheap rates are not worth the frustration when you need servicing. And sometimes, the best rate isn’t necessarily the best price – it might be the right thing for a year or two, but over a long period of time, things change and your insurance needs will change as well.

What is the difference between an insurance agent and an insurance broker?

When I started with Crown Life, I was a Crown Life agent, which meant if you said you'd like to have Metropolitan Life, Transamerica Life, Sun Life, the answer was no because I couldn’t deal with them; I had to deal with Crown Life only. It’s no different from if you went to a Ford dealer and you wanted to buy a Chrysler product. The gentleman would say, "I can only sell you Ford."

When I went to the General Agency in 1982, I became a full-fledged broker, which meant I could sell any product from any company. Since then I've been licensed across all of the boards and I'm able to sell any product to any person.

A broker can do the shopping around for us, essentially.

With the advent of technology, once I put in your search criteria, I can get 25 companies in Canada with that product. In less than two minutes, I can shop the market to get options for you. I can do it via mobile, too; there’s no need for hand delivering or faxing of forms. This gives me the chance to focus on customer service and differentiate myself from other brokers – I’ve been doing this so long that I can help you in insurance areas you didn’t even know existed. I also see a lot of people in person still and many in this new generation of brokers do not do that.

The best part is I don't charge any more than the average broker because we all get the same rates. That's the one thing about the Canadian Ontario system for life insurance, everybody gets the exact same rates. Now you have to decide who you want to deal with - who will give you the best value, because I can't get you a price cheaper than any other broker for the same amount of insurance. You want somebody who's available; you want somebody who's going to come and see you. I've been everywhere, all over Ontario. I find that brokers in many communities don't even go out to see clients or prospective clients. They do everything by phone or Internet. I'll drive there, I'll meet with them, and if they want to continue doing business with me, I'll go back again.

What insurance products do you specialize in?

I specialize in life insurance, mortgage insurance, disability insurance, anything. When I started with Crown Life, I got really hooked on small groups, so I like to do health and dental benefits for small companies and husband and wife teams. I love helping clients out, the employees and owners, but the other thing is I find that other insurance brokers aren't servicing their clients properly. They can deal with small groups, but not what I call “tiny groups.”

What are your best products for homeowners?

Well, homeowners are going to take on mortgages. As you well know, some of them are fairly substantial and today, a half million dollar mortgage isn't considered substantial anymore; it’s more of the norm. If you’re taking that on, and the husband and wife pair especially, if you pass away before you pay off the mortgage, somebody's still going to have to pay off the mortgage.

The way to make sure you’re covered is you get the insurance company to pay it off. It's called mortgage insurance. But I want to explain that it's actually the same product as life insurance. People come to me and say, "I've got life insurance, I want mortgage insurance for my house." No, you have life insurance, which could be used for your mortgage.

The key factor is where you buy it from because there are a lot of reasons to not utilize a financial institution, but to instead go to a broker like me who can provide the service and the advice. This is very important because we have no allegiance to any bank or any insurance company.

I can give them advice that’s not only unbiased, but sometimes I give advice where people reply, "I didn't know that. I wasn't told that," because when they sign up to take on that mortgage, a lot of times they'll buy the insurance at the same time. The person who's giving the advice hasn’t been in the business like I have for 41 years and giving advice on that product isn’t really his forte - it’s not what he does day in and day out for years on end. This is a huge pitfall that you really want to avoid.

Insurability and transferability are the other issues to consider because if you purchase your life insurance from a financial institution and three years later, change the financial institution, you lose your benefit. You have to start over again. But what happens in the meantime if you become uninsurable – you get cancer, diabetes. With a broker, we don't care. You can change your financial institution 365 times a year. Don't even have to call me.

Any other major pitfalls we should look out for?

The big one is the transferability if you change financial institutions, which I touched on above. The other one is, which I always say to people, "I provide service." I can tell you I'm very proud that in my 41 years, every single death claim check has always been personally delivered. I’ve even delivered one in a snow storm!

After 41 years in the business, what keeps you motivated to keep going out and doing what you do?

Number one is the people I deal with…we have fun! Even when we're doing business together, it's fun, so I have a great time. To me, every day I get up, I look at my calendar, I see what's going, I smile, we go out, I do things, I do a lot of extra service that is fun.

Number two is that my mind is always active because this insurance business is evolving every single day. Just two days ago, an insurance company sent us something saying, “Here's a product we're changing.” It keeps the mind active.

Number three, I think it's my colleagues and people in the industry. They're fine people, they're great people. We go to conventions, we go to seminars, we have to get our continuing education credits like you do, and you meet people and you see the same people and you have fun. I think that's part of it.

The other thing is that sometimes it's a double-edged sword for me. It's bittersweet when I deliver a claim check for a critical illness or a death claim, because you know that somebody's had some tragedy. But on the other hand, it's positive, because we set a goal so many years ago and now I'm delivering on my promise: Here's the money. I'm giving you a check, not an excuse why I can't pay. That's very, very important. I've driven all over Ontario with death claim checks, not just Toronto. I deal all over Ontario.

If someone is looking for some insurance information, how can we get ahold of you?

Best thing is to call my cell. My cell is on seven days a week. I only turn it off at 11 o'clock at night and then back on the next morning at 7. You can call me weekends, nights. My clients will phone me on weekends because when they phone, they're not asking about the Leafs or the Blue Jays. They're phoning because something's happened in their life.
 
If you're looking for any insurance information whatsoever, Joel Cadesky is your guy. Make sure you reach out if you have any questions or give me a shout and I can connect you. You can reach him at (416) 414-0309.