Why the insurance experience matters more now
IN Partnership with
Co-operators’ David Forestell on how changing expectations around access, advice, and personalization are influencing the way Canadians engage with life insurance
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DEATH, DISABILITY, or other serious loss may be impossible to predict, but its financial consequences do not have to be absorbed all at once. Insurance exists to make the financially unmanageable manageable: a relatively small, planned cost today can protect against a much larger one later.
Canadians still see the value of protection, but they are less willing to work around a complicated process to get it. They expect life insurance to fit more naturally into the way they already manage their finances.
That basic proposition has not changed, but the customer has different expectations in how they engage with life insurance protection.
“The old model where a salesperson on a bike might go door
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“The days of a one-size-fits-all life insurance program are gone by the wayside. Canadians are reaching life’s milestones on very different timelines. Our job is to meet Canadians with the right advice, technology, and solutions to support their needs”
David Forestell,
Co-operators
to door to sell policies is gone,” says David Forestell, vice president of group markets distribution at Co-operators. “It’s a completely different world. So we really need to figure out how best to make it fit for them.”
“Clients today expect the life insurance journey to be different than what it was in the past. They want better access to advisors and information, clearer explanations, and solutions that fit more naturally into their lives.”
For insurers, personalization is less about offering more variations of the same product and more about understanding the obligations a particular client is currently carrying.
At Co-operators, that has meant widening the number of ways in rather than picking one. Since they offer multiple distribution channels, clients can choose how they purchase coverage. In practice, that means the company’s exclusive advisor force, managing general agents, and a digital experience, with clients choosing the route that suits them.
Giving clients more ways to buy coverage is only one part of the response. Their expectations are also influencing the technology behind the process, the role of the advisor, and how closely a solution is tailored to an individual financial life.
Milestones on a different schedule The moments traditionally used to prompt an insurance conversation are no longer arriving on anything resembling a standard timetable. Forestell says this shift has undone the standard product logic.
“The days of a one-size-fits-all life insurance program are gone by the wayside,” he says. “Canadians are reaching life’s milestones on very different timelines, whether that’s buying a home, starting a family, or supporting aging parents. People are following increasingly unique financial journeys, and our job is to meet them where they are, with the right advice, technology, and solutions to support their needs.”
That leads to an oft-used industry term. For Forestell, “holistic” means starting with risk exposure rather than product.
Why the gap stays open Financial security for Canadians is the stated goal, but a large share of the country is not there yet.
According to the 2023 Canadian Insurance Barometer Study conducted by LIMRA and Life Happens,
31 percent of Canadian adults, roughly 8.4 million people, say they need life insurance or need more of it. The same research found that 4 in ten Canadians say their families would face financial hardship within six months if the primary wage earner died unexpectedly.
Forestell points to three reasons the gap persists.
That is what preserves the role. “There is a key need for those advisors to support that discussion and help people walk through what are their risks, and what do they need to be covered in the unlikely event of a catastrophe.”
Industry research points the same way. In LIMRA’s Insurance Barometer Study, cited in a 2025 Canadian Reinsurance Conference panel summary published by RGA, 46 percentof respondents said they would research life insurance online but ultimately buy in person, a pattern that favours hybrid models over purely digital ones.
Clients may also want an outside view of their situation, particularly when their own biases or blind spots make decisions harder. An advisor can help surface risks they have missed and clarify what matters most.
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“We need to make life insurance more accessible, more personalized, and integrated into their broader financial decisions. I think that’s critical. If we can do that, more Canadians will have the protection they need”
David Forestell,
Co-operators
“What are the risks that you’re exposed to, whether it be your home, your car, your retirement income, your loss of employment, your loss of life, something to do with your children?” he asks. “What are the major events that could happen in your lifetime that could cause a financial challenge? And then what insurance do you put in place to make sure you’re covered in the unlikely event of one of those occurring?”
A household carrying a larger mortgage later in life, for instance, may also be saving aggressively for retirement while helping an adult child or parent. The appropriate life insurance decision is difficult to make sensibly without seeing those competing obligations.
The breadth of the shelf is what makes that conversation possible, he says, with property and casualty coverage sitting alongside life and wealth in a single plan versus separate transactions. That broader view matters because when protection feels disconnected from the rest of a household’s finances, it is easier to postpone or overlook.
Published September 21, 2026
Choice in how they research and purchase coverage
Information they can understand without unnecessary complexity
Digital tools that reduce friction in the process
Advice when financial decisions become more involved
Coverage that reflects individual responsibilities and life stages
What clients now expect from life insurance
Tailored solutions designed around different financial needs and life stages
A range of plans and coverage options rather than a single standard approach
Critical illness coverage that can sit alongside broader protection needs
Access to expert advice for clients
who want help understanding their
risks and options
How Co-operators builds around individual needs
The first is complexity, which “continues to be a challenge.” The second is cost: “inflation, the rising cost pressures that individuals feel that they have.” The third is deferral. People treat coverage as a decision for later. “It’s not viewed as an urgent thing,” he says of the mindset. “It’s something they don’t believe they need today.”
“There’s a huge opportunity for the industry to have more meaningful conversations, provide useful information, and streamline the process for individuals,” he says, “while giving them advice that builds confidence and helps them understand which products fit their needs at different stages of life.”
Co-operators has invested in technology across research, illustrations, and the application process, with the aim of
giving clients more straightforward information and helping advisors move cases through more efficiently.
As access changes, advice becomes even more important Forestell does not see technology making the advisor redundant. Clients increasingly expect to research products on their own, use digital tools, and move through parts of the process independently. But as financial situations become more complex, clients may be more willing to rely on an advisor they believe has the expertise to help them avoid costly mistakes.
“Life insurance is a product that is sold, not bought,” he says. “It’s not a mandatory product that clients are required to have. Home insurance, for example, you may need for your mortgage. Life insurance, however, is something you should have, while many do not.”
Telling somebody that life insurance exists is easy, but helping them decide whether a premium fits alongside their other financial priorities requires judgement.
Measuring success For all the industry’s investment in technology, distribution, and product development, Forestell’s way of judging success is pretty straightforward.
“If we can reduce the uninsured or underinsured population, that is success,” he says.
That keeps the focus on the outcome rather than the process. Faster applications, more digital options, and greater advisor efficiency can all make insurance more accessible, but the larger question is whether these improvements result in more Canadians having the protection they need.
“We need to make life insurance more accessible, more personalized, and integrated into their broader financial decisions,” Forestell says. “I think that’s critical. If we can do that, more Canadians will have the protection they need.”
For Forestell, simplicity is part of getting there. If complexity and competing financial pressures are among the reasons people put off coverage, reducing the work involved in understanding and obtaining coverage can make it more likely that clients follow through.
But he also wants life insurance considered earlier and alongside the rest of a household’s finances, rather than dealt with separately after a particular milestone.
“Holistic financial advice and incorporating life insurance into financial plans will be critical for Canadians,” he says. “It is something that is not top of mind by many individuals, but it’s something that should be.”