Member Spotlight: Edmund Inniss, Inniss Insurance & Associates Inc.

“Typically I say, I’m in the Insurance industry with a unique approach – life insurance doesn’t have to be death insurance.”

When you think of life insurance, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? It’s either confusion or aversion. And why is that?Perhaps it’s because most people don’t realize that life insurance actually has a laundry list of LIVING benefits for its owner. Yes, while you’re still alive! Imagine that… and who better to explain then a professional?

Introducing Edmund Inniss, founder of Inniss Insurance & Associates Inc, and resident Workhaus life insurance expert. You won’t believe his journey.

Once upon a time, Edmund owned a salon, ran a promotions company with his university cohorts, and even owned a clothing chain with plans for expansion. As a graduate studying finance, Edmund knew he could turn his chain into an empire and quickly began working on his business model. However, all that changed when Edmund took a good look at the road ahead and realized that he wanted something different.

With his financial background, Edmund chose to look into the financial services industry to see what it had to offer, and was advised to get the LLQP to get his career started (Life License Qualification Program).

“A friend of mine was doing very well as an investment advisor at the time and he told me that if I wanted to do what he was doing I’d have to get my LLQP. Fortunately he didn’t tell me what the acronym stood for.”

Imagine his surprise when he discovered that this program was part of the Canadian licensing regime for life insurance.

That’s not what he wanted. Or was it?

Off to a bumpy start with no sales training, he quickly found refuge as a call centre rep at Unity Life, which was in the process of being purchased by Foresters Financial. Edmund learned the business from the ground up, getting involved with every aspect from the client service department handling calls for policy change, to time spent in new business, a pilot project with the claims department, and even a stint in the underwriting department providing relief workflow processing during high volume. During his time with Unity, Edmund received some of the best advice regarding life insurance:

“This is a recession proof business – the business of death and taxes, and you’re the only one who has a contract that can guarantee that what they want to happen will happen, whether the client is there to see it happen or not.”

This meant that there were living benefits to life insurance that nobody was talking about. Edmund discovered that there was a way for business owners to protect their hard-earned cash from business risk and market volatility, while providing steady, dependable, tax sheltered growth consistently year after year with the power of the dividend. These contracts gave clients access to insurance company capital without interrupting the growth of their own cash inside of the tax shelter, not to mention the insurance coverage that was needed for the shareholder agreement anyway.

This was a great way for business owners to be able to buy the insurance they needed and still be able to use the money they were spending on it, especially when big money was required for some of the most beneficial strategies. What a great way to sustain wealth, especially with regards to passing it down from one generation to the next where estate tax can pose such a hefty problem.

People want to put something in and be able to get something out in return. This way they can end up much further ahead of the game. Who knew that life insurance could do that for you? Well, apparently, a couple of people did.

“Ever heard of a guy named Walt Disney? What about JC Penny? McDonalds? Ted Rogers? Jim Pattison? These are all examples of people who used their life insurance policies as leverage to expand and create wealth.”

Everything came full circle when Edmund met his business associate Matt McKillen who’s a finance specialist and mortgage broker. Their meeting was wonderfully cosmic as Edmund wrote himself a reminder on his to do list on the whiteboard in his old office saying, “Find a mortgage broker”. Next thing you know, there was a knock at the door, and Matt entered introducing himself as his new neighbour at the office. Thus began a beautiful business relationship where the two assist clients’ together along with a few other colleagues and professional associates in the legal and financial field. Together, they work with a solid group of referral partners and professionals that meet once a week to give joint seminars on the importance of their industry.

We highly recommend reaching out and getting involved to learn more about Inniss Insurance & Associates Inc.