Jacques grew up around the insurance industry and began actively participating in 2013. Since then, he has gotten a Level 2 license, won Insurance Council of BC awards in 2015 and 2020 for academic excellence in the insurance licensing courses. He educates insurance professionals through PNC Learning and as a Thought Leader at ReFrame Insurance.
In his day job as an insurance broker, he helps businesses with creative risk management solutions and strategic advice when it comes to insurance.
Accolades:
Certifications:
What does insurance really cover? Reputation, government regulation, pandemics? Learn more about uninsurable risks.
We've rounded up the top life insurance companies in the in this easy-to-read guide to help you make the right choice for you and your family.
There are lots of choices when it comes to Canadian Life Insurance Companies. Here's a complete list to help get you started.
Calculating how much homeowner's insurance you need? This handy guide will show you what you need to consider.
Hiring a contractor and renovating your home can impact your home insurance. Here's what you need to know about insurance for renovations.
Healthcare costs seem to always be climbing, but your premium doesn't have to. Find out how you can lower your health insurance rate.
As your life changes into retirement, so do your insurance needs. It pays to regularly review your insurance coverages as you enter different stages of your life from...
Lots of factors go into deciding whether you should buy an umbrella policy. Find out whether you're a good candidate for this coverage.
Running a restaurant comes with a lot of different risks. Find out what insurance you'll need to make sure your business can thrive.
P2P insurance uses decentralized networks to offer a more efficient products at better rates. Sounds complicated? It's simpler than you think. Find out how P2P insurance...
Marine coverage is one of the oldest and most complex types of insurance. Read this article to learn the basics.
Employee theft is a common problem, and many companies do too little to prevent it. Find out how you can protect against it.
Considering a career in insurance? Find out what jobs are available and what it takes to get them.
Employers have a lot to gain from offering benefits to their employees. Find out why in this article.
The insurance industry will have to adapt to self-driving cars. Find out what questions they need to answer and what it will mean for your insurance.
Generally speaking, yes, home insurance will cover snow damage.Snowy winter days can be a lot of fun for children and adults. But despite...
The short answer is yes, you can get a discount on your car insurance if you install winter tires on your vehicle.The long answer is: it...
A lot of people looking into life insurance for the first time have heard that they'll need to undergo a medical exam as part of their...
People working in the insurance industry get compensated in a variety of ways: salaries, commissions, bonuses, special incentive payments,...
Life insurance is a way to provide peace of mind and protect and provide for the insured's family when they pass away. The policy can...
Insurance is a heavily regulated industry with strict financial requirements and codes of conduct. In many areas, insurance companies are...
Not too long ago, drones were an obscure toy only for the real enthusiasts. But they've since come into their own and are becoming...
Most people understand that it is not a good idea to continue serving alcohol to a guest who is obviously drunk. For the safety of that...
Alcohol is a great social lubricant and can be an important part of a fun night with family and friends. Unfortunately, it can also be...
Talk about wearable technology changing the health insurance industry has been buzing for a long time. The discussion has really taken off...
In the eyes of an insurer, a vacant home is simply a higher risk. For example, cold weather could cause water pipes in a vacant home to...
In most parts of the world, the insurance industry is highly regulated. Strict laws apply to both insurance companies and independent...
The quick answer is yes and no. (I know. Useful, right?)Let's flesh this out a bit.Businesses are held accountable for their products....
Insurance is it's own beast, so it's easy to forget that it's really a financial product (one of the oldest on the planet, in...
Mold is something every insurance company fears. That's because mold can be toxic, hard to detect, and expensive to repair. All of this...
Insurance is an industry with hundreds of years behind it and tons and tons of financial and strict regulatory restrictions. Because of...
The buzz about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has been dominating news cycles at the end of 2017. There have been a lot of...
To understand how to save money on your car insurance, first we need to know something about how your premiums are calculated.In general,...
This is a particularly relevant topic given that cyber attacks and threats seem to pop up constantly. The big ones attract lots of media...
I was recently working with a long-time client of mine on this exact problem. He runs a medium-sized nutritional supplement manufacturing...
Backyard ice rinks are a winter tradition here in Canada. They are tremendously fun, but there are also quite a few risks involved in...
Great question. The answer depends on what type of insurance you bought. In most jurisdictions, auto insurance is typically broken down...
I think getting into the insurance industry is a great choice; it's an understated but very stable industry. Insurance is a financial...
To understand how insurance premiums are set, for health insurance or otherwise, it helps to understand the concept of risk and reward....
Nothing does more work protecting your home than your roof. It's a critical part of a house's overall structure and it's...
First of all, let me congratulate you on taking this important risk management step. Any serious loss is sure to be stressful, even when...
There are three main players in the insurance industry. You're familiar, of course, with the insurance broker or agent you meet with...
Great question. Let's start this off with an overview of what an adjuster is and does.No offense to adjusters, but they're the...
Let's start by talking going over what insurers mean by a proof of loss. The proof of loss form is a very important legal document that is...
If you're a business owner, your company faces threats from vandals, burglars, hackers, and even your own employees. If you experience...
Most people who have health or auto insurance are familiar with the idea of a deductible. But not everyone realizes there are different...
Personal liability insurance provides the insured with financial protection when they are found legally responsible for causing bodily...
We buy insurance so that we can be covered when life takes an unexpected turn. We buy it and hope we never have to use it. But when we do,...
The quick answer to this question is yes. In most cases, it is more expensive to insure an older home than a newer one. To explain why, we...
An insurance policy without a deductible can be quite appealing. But like everything else in life, if it sounds too good to be true, it...
Home insurance, as the name implies, covers policyholders in the event that their home is damaged by an insured peril. But it's really a...
Life insurance is usually a pretty straightforward product: you pay for the policy and when you die, a sum of money (the death benefit)...
Coverage for vandalism and malicious acts is automatically included in most homeowners insurance policies. And to answer your question...
I hear this question a lot as a broker. Clients call me after being involved in a car accident and wonder whether they should go through...
Great question. As an insurance agent, I deal with different variations of this issue a lot. Here's the typical scenario. A client comes to...
As I'm writing this answer, the news is filled with hurricane devastation, with the media reporting higher and higher costs for the damages...
When I first saw this question, I thought it would be a straightforward one to answer. But after doing a bit of research, I realized that...
Good question. The answer here depends on several factors, including where you work and what type of writing you do.Let's start with...
The short answer is yes. If you're driving passengers for payment – even if only part-time and through a ridesharing service...
This is a question I'm starting to get more frequently, so it's good to be able to write about it.With the advent of ridesharing services...
With automobile insurance, there are generally four categories of coverage you can buy:Third party liability – Typically mandatory....
Liability insurance for "Personal and Advertising injury" is a component built into your home insurance and featured prominently...
This is a tricky one, since commercial insurance policies vary widely from insurer to insurer with wildly differing terms. Moreover, the...
A typical homeowners insurance contains two sections:Property coveragePersonal liability coverageThe property coverage portion is further...
The quick answer is yes, it is possible to remove the named insured from an insurance policy. But first, let's talk about what a named...
There are many reasons why an insured might be denied coverage or be ineligible for a particular type of insurance. An insured might have a...
First, lets have a quick refresher on the difference between the two types of cancellations: pro rata and short rate (we'll ignore flat...
Let's first take a look at what an insuring clause is. An insuring clause is one of the most important—if not the most important—elements...
First, lets start off by talking briefly about the differences between an insurance agent and an insurance broker. The key difference is...
You can think of your insurance agent as your insurance salesperson. In general, their job is to work with you to help you understand your...
The date of inception and the effective date of the policy are terms that generally refer to the same thing. They refer to the date at...
There are a few common scenarios in which an insurance company might reevaluate a piece of business and make adjustments.Have you ever had...
First, lets start by talking about what "guaranteed insurability" is. Having a guaranteed insurability option on your insurance contract...
Let's start this off by first talking about what it means to flat cancel an insurance contract. To flat cancel an insurance contract means...
Clients who are concerned about this problem generally fall into one of two categories: building owners and tenants. The likely concern...
To put it simply, tenant improvements and betterments are all renovations that are paid for by an insured who does not own the building or...
First, let's talk a little bit about how aviation exclusions work in a life insurance context. It works in different ways depending on your...
Like the name implies, vandalism and malicious mischief (VMM) policies cover losses caused by vandalism. They are a default feature of most...
The short answer is "yes." But it depends on a few factors, like how often you use it for work, distances traveled, and the type of work...
Different insurance companies will have their own ways of calculating risk exposures and it will vary for different types of insurance....
To put it simply: no. You only need to show proof of ownership to have a valid claim. For example, if you received a gift from a friend and...
A partial loss refers to property that has been damaged but is still functional. Despite the differences between them, insurance claims on...
Let's start by going over what "vacant" means. A vacant building is one that is without regular occupants and whose former occupants have...
In general, the answer is no. However, there are situations where premiums may be higher due to factors incidentally related to a...
Insurance companies audit the businesses they insure for a variety of reasons, most of which are entirely benign so there's no need to...
There are many things that play a role in determining your car insurance premiums and some factors vary by company and jurisdiction....
To put it simply, an independent insurance agent is someone who works for you. Your independent agent will help you determine what kind of...
First, let's talk about the main difference between the two: actual cash value factors in depreciation, whereas replacement cost does not....
First, let's define subrogation: subrogation is one of the fundamental concepts in insurance and it means to "place oneself into the shoes...
Your building's ISO rating most commonly describes the type of construction used in making it. There are six ISO types for construction...
In general, your credit score has no direct effect on your insurance premiums. However, depending on your insurer, there are two...
An additional insured is a person or organization that has an insurable interest in the property being insured. In light of this, you will...
Actual Cash Value (ACV) is one of the ways insurers determine the insurance value of something (find out How Auto Insurance Companies Value...
Replacement Cost is one of the 3 methods of calculating something's value. The other two are Actual Cash Value and Book Value. Book Value...
The quick and dirty answer to this question is yes. If it is at all possible, you should explore the option of bundling all your insurance...
First off, congratulations on wanting to offer group benefits to your employees. It's a great thing to do for them and it also makes a lot...
To give you a dictionary definition, a pre-existing condition is a health condition that existed before a person's health insurance policy...
A high deductible health plan (commonly referred to as an HDHP) is a health insurance plan in which a high minimum deductible must be met...
Co-insurance in the health insurance context is a little different from, say, your regular commercial property insurance.The co-insurance...
To put it simply, flood damage, by itself, is usually not covered by your typical homeowners insurance policy. Flood, as a standalone peril...
To put it simply, living in a flood zone affects your flood insurance premiums by influencing your level of exposure to a flood-related...
Whether you need flood insurance or not depends on a few factors. It mostly has to do with the level of risk you're comfortable with taking...
This is a question I hear a lot in my professional life and I think the answer depends on your level of personal wealth and the specific...
Great question. It's a hard one to answer but one that I get on a regular basis. Many people get life insurance from a group benefit plan...
The get a sense of how whole life and term life insurance policies differ, let's look at a few key features commonly seen in each kind of...
First, let's define what key person life insurance is. Key person life insurance is a policy that businesses can buy to cover a person the...
Good question. I frequently talk to my own clients about the need for disability income insurance. Everyone knows about life insurance and...
This is a question insurance professionals hear a lot because many people are unclear about their long-term care coverage. The short answer...
This is a hard question to answer, but it's one that I get on a regular basis. Many people receive life insurance through their employer's...
This is a very good question, and one that everyone asks as soon as they learn that there is such a thing as life insurance for children....
Many people find this distinction confusing when they are first learning about life insurance. And we can hardly blame them when many...
This is a very tough question that gets asked all the time. The answer depends largely upon two factors: whether you a primary provider for...
Universal life insurance is a great product that is sort of a hybrid between whole life insurance and term life insurance. Essentially, the...
An employer's liability for injuries to employees is typically defined by the Workers' Compensation Act of your jurisdiction. This act...
This is a very common question that I get asked all the time by builders and general contractors. In general, the answer to the question is...
In short, yes, they still can. Workers Compensation is offered on a no-fault basis, meaning that the employee doesn't need to prove that...
That's a great question. Whenever you reach out to a broker or agent about getting an insurance quote and they send a number your way, we...
Umbrella insurance is an additional liability policy on top of existing insurance. It cannot be purchased as the primary policy. The...
First, let's go over what liability insurance does. Liability insurance provides financial protection when someone is found legally...
It is a rare occasion when the name of an insurance product accurately describes what the policy does. An umbrella policy does exactly what...
First of all, umbrella insurance is a type of liability insurance, which means it provides protection if you are sued or found liable for...
This is a sort of obscure line of insurance that is hardly ever discussed. So, let’s start by talking about what employee benefits are. An...
Yes, debris removal is typically automatically covered under a homeowner insurance policy (learn more about your coverage in Breaking Down...
I get this kind of question a lot in practice because many insurance buyers are confused about this – and rightly so. Homeowners insurance...
What is not covered by your homeowner insurance policy depends on the details of your specific policy. Always refer to your policy wordings...
The simple answer is: no, a homeowners insurance policy will not cover nuclear explosion because it is explicitly excluded by the wording...
In my work as an insurance salesman, I hear this question a lot. The short and easy answer to this question is a resounding yes! You will...
While the simple answer is that you should purchase a big enough limit to cover all of your property in the case of a total loss, this...
A standard home insurance policy will typically provide coverage for your jewelry, watches, gems, and furs (learn more in Breaking Down...
A coinsurance clause is a common clause in many policy forms that requires an insured to purchase a minimum amount of insurance based on a...
The short answer to this question is yes, a homeowner policy will have windstorm and hail damage coverage. However, there are some...
Unfortunately, the answer is yes.Technically, your insurance carrier can cancel your homeowner's policy at any time and for any reason....
As the name implies, rental home insurance is bought by customers who want to insurance a home they own and intend to rent out to a tenant....
Physical damage coverage on your auto insurance policy is also typically referred to as "own damage." As that name implies, it protects...
Collision and comprehensive automobile insurance coverage are part of a coverage category called "own damage coverage." As the name implies...
Good question. All the rhetoric you're probably getting from your broker or from the insurance company might make it seem like it would be...
To give you a short answer: yes, your auto insurance policy will pay even if someone else if driving your car. This, however, is subject to...
Great question. A lot of people get confused by this because there are really two or more parts to your automobile insurance policy. The...
While there is no standard time, you should file an auto insurance claim as soon as possible if you are involved in a car accident or were...
Great question. Other than collision coverage is the part of your automobile insurance policy that covers you for losses that occur as the...
The simple answer is no. They're the same coverage. But let's dive into the topic in a little bit more and talk about what no fault...
The short answer to this question is yes, your car insurance does cover you when you rent a car. However, like with most things in the...
Yes, your auto insurance policy will definitely cover a hit-and-run accident. Provided, of course, that you're not the one...
This is a great question, and it's one I get a lot in my day job as an insurance broker. The question is logical: if my homeowners...
Well, the quick and simple answer to this question is "not usually." The full answer really depends on the circumstances. Why your vehicle...
This is a good question, and I often get it while working my day job as an insurance broker (see What Is an Insurance Broker to learn more...
The term "uninsured motorist coverage" is one of those rare cases in the insurance industry where the name really does say it all. This...
This has a lot to do with the nuances and complexities involved in underwriting these two types of insurance policies. Auto Insurance...
If your business has some sort of employee benefits plan (pensions, savings, profit-sharing, or health plans), someone is in charge of...
Commercial general liability (CGL) insurance, as the name implies, covers you for some common sources of liability that you might incur...
Let's start with some basics. This is an oversimplification, but when you pay your insurance premiums, it goes into a large pool that the...
There seems to be a lot of confusion around this, since some form of it appears in personal automobile insurance and commercial auto...
To answer this question, let's go a little bit deeper into what makes up a general liability policy. A general liability policy pays...
Business income insurance (or business interruption insurance) is something a lot of people have heard of. But unlike property or liability...
