By city

Infinite Banking in Windsor

Windsor is the only major Canadian city that looks north to the United States, and thousands of its residents cross that river to work. That single fact makes this page different from every other in this series, because here the difference between Canadian and American rules is not academic.

Canada's southernmost city, and the only one that looks north to Detroit

Windsor sits at the very bottom of Canada, further south than parts of northern California, and it is the only major Canadian city where you look across the water and see the United States to the north. Point Pelee, the southernmost point of mainland Canada, is a short drive away. The Ambassador Bridge above the Detroit River carries more trade than any other land crossing on the continent.

That geography is not a travel note here. It is the reason this page has to do something the others do not.

The two systems do not agree, and here it matters

Almost every book, video and seminar on this strategy was produced in the United States. In most Canadian cities that is an inconvenience. In Windsor it is a live risk, because a great many households have direct American exposure: a spouse who works in Michigan, a US citizen in the family, property or accounts across the river, or a career built partly on each side.

The differences are the kind that produce a confident wrong answer rather than an obvious one. Canada has no estate tax but does have a deemed disposition at death, taxing the accrued gain on capital property in the final return. The exempt policy test under the Income Tax Act regulations has no American equivalent in the same form, and it is what keeps growth inside a Canadian contract from being taxed annually. A policy loan interacts with adjusted cost basis under section 148, and a loan can itself be a disposition depending on the calculation for that transaction. Deposit insurance from CDIC does not apply to an insurance contract at all; policyholder protection here comes from Assuris, within published limits.

And one that belongs to Windsor specifically. If anyone in the household is a US person for tax purposes, whether by citizenship, green card or the substantial presence test, an insurance contract raises reporting questions that a Canadian-only practitioner may not have met before. That is not a reason to avoid the strategy. It is a reason to ask directly whether the person advising you has handled cross-border situations, and to keep asking until you get a straight answer.

Manufacturing, and what a cyclical wage does to a thirty-year premium

Windsor's automotive and tool-and-die history is well known, and the sector has been through more cycles than most. That produces a specific pattern: strong earning years, then layoffs or retooling shutdowns, then recovery.

This strategy handles that badly, and it deserves the detail. Premiums sized against a strong year will meet a lean one. Cash surrender value stays below cumulative premiums for many years, often more than a decade, so an early exit is a loss. If the contract draws an automatic premium loan against cash value to stay in force, that is a real loan with real interest owed to the insurer, not a courtesy; it grows quietly and compounds at the policy anniversary. The practical answer is to size the base premium against your worst plausible year and put strong-year capacity into paid-up additions, because in most contracts the base premium is the binding obligation and additional deposits are the flexible part.

Where a workplace pension exists, and many here have one, half the usual argument does not apply: a defined benefit plan already provides income that does not run out and does not depend on markets. What remains is access, because a pension is not collateral, and the survivor question, which depends on reading your own plan.

Ontario rules and where it does not fit

Insurance in Ontario is supervised by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, and a professional here holds the licence of a Life and Accident & Sickness Insurance Agent. Under the Financial Professionals Title Protection Act nobody may use the title Financial Planner or Financial Advisor without an approved credential, and a life insurance licence alone qualifies for neither. Note that an American adviser, however competent, cannot serve you here: insurance is regulated provincially and follows where you live, not where you work.

A household in a lean stretch, without an emergency reserve, or carrying high-interest consumer debt should deal with those first. Nothing on this page is advice. No assessment has been made of anyone reading it, and the author is not a neutral party: he is licensed to sell the contracts this strategy uses and is paid a commission when one is placed. If there is any American connection in your household, say so in the first meeting rather than the last.