Are You Overpaying? How to Review Your Policy

The renewal letter arrives on a Tuesday. A family in Burnaby opens it somewhere between school pickup and dinner, sees the new number, makes a face, and sets it on the pile beside the fruit bowl. Three weeks later the payment comes out anyway. That pile is where most overpaying quietly lives.

Reviewing your coverage isn't glamorous work. But it's one of the few money jobs where an afternoon at the kitchen table can change what you pay every month for years. Here's how to do it properly, and how to tell a premium that went up for a real reason from one you're paying out of habit.

Get everything in one place first

You can't spot a gap or a duplicate until you can see it all side by side. Pull together:

• Your life insurance policy pages, including riders and any renewal or conversion dates
• Your group benefits booklet from work, with the life and disability amounts
• Your home or tenant declaration page, showing the deductible and the rebuild amount
• Any critical illness or disability contracts you hold
• A recent bank statement showing what actually leaves your account each month

Now write the annual cost beside each one and add it up. Most people are surprised by the total. They're usually more surprised that one or two items no longer match the life they're actually living.

A higher premium isn't automatically a bad deal

Before assuming you've been taken for a ride, look at the wider picture. Statistics Canada reports that from December 2019 to December 2025, homeowners' home and mortgage insurance premiums rose 45.0% and passenger vehicle insurance premiums rose 23.9%, while the all items Consumer Price Index rose 21.0% (Statistics Canada, 2026).

The same publication explains a lot of that. 2024 was the costliest year on record for extreme weather claims in Canada, with catastrophic event claims reaching $8.6 billion, and every year from 2020 to 2025 ranked among the ten costliest. Rebuilding got dearer too: the Residential Building Construction Price Index rose 69.4% between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the fourth quarter of 2025.

So part of your increase is a market story rather than a personal one. That's worth knowing, because it tells you where the real savings are and where they aren't.

Where overpaying actually hides

The leaks are rarely exotic. They cluster in a few predictable spots, and the Insurance Bureau of Canada names several of them plainly:

• Insuring the land. IBC's advice is direct: "Don't include the market price of underlying land. Insure your home for what it would cost to rebuild." Around Metro Vancouver, where land carries so much of a property's value, that one misunderstanding gets expensive fast.
• A deductible frozen in time. "When the deductible goes up, the premium goes down," IBC notes. If your savings buffer is healthier than it was five years ago, the deductible you picked back then may not be the right one now.
• Discounts nobody thought to ask about. IBC suggests asking whether you qualify for bundling, or for being mortgage free, claims free, 55 or older, or a non-smoker.
• Paying monthly on autopilot. Paying annually can help you avoid potential service or interest charges, according to IBC.
• Riders you've outgrown. Small add-ons stay on the bill long after the reason for them has passed.
• Coverage that duplicates something you already have. Group benefits, a creditor product from your lender, and a personal policy can overlap without anyone noticing.

IBC also recommends evaluating your coverage every year so the policy reflects your home's current value, including upgrades and recent renovations. That cuts both ways. Finishing a Coquitlam basement without telling your insurer can leave you underinsured, which is a costlier mistake than overpaying. Worth knowing too: how home insurance rates are set depends heavily on your neighbourhood's claims record, your own claims history, and the state of your plumbing, wiring and roof, none of which a comparison site can see.

The coverage you should think twice about cutting

Here's the part that argues against a quick switch.

Life insurance is priced partly on your health at the time you applied. A policy you bought ten years ago reflects a ten years younger you, before whatever has shown up on your chart since. Replacing it can mean giving up pricing you can't buy back, even when the new quote looks better on paper.

British Columbia takes this seriously enough to regulate it. Under the Insurance Contracts (Life Insurance Replacement) Regulation, a licensed life agent must present and review a disclosure statement with you before taking a new application intended to replace existing life insurance, and you have 20 days to withdraw that application in writing. If someone proposes a switch and no such document ever appears, slow the conversation down.

Before you take advice from any insurance broker or agent, you can also check who you're dealing with. The Insurance Council of BC publishes a directory with licence information for all current licensed insurance agents, agencies, adjusters and firms in the province, including licence status, class, and which agencies or firms they're authorized to represent. It takes about a minute.

Group life through your employer deserves the same caution. It's often the least expensive coverage on your list and the least permanent, because it generally ends when the job does.

Why an independent insurance broker sees more of the market

According to the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, 145 insurers sell life and health insurance products in Canada, and 66 of them offer life insurance products. CLHIA also reports that 83 per cent of 2024 life insurance premiums came from individual policies, most of them purchased through an agent or advisor.

One company's representative can show you one company's answer. An independent insurance broker can put several side by side and explain why they differ. When I review a policy for a family here in Burnaby, the goal isn't always a new contract. Plenty of times the honest recommendation is to keep what you have and adjust the deductible.

For context, the same CLHIA report puts average protection per insured household in British Columbia at $541,000, with a median age of 41. Treat that as a reference point, not a target. Your own number depends on your mortgage, your income, your kids, and how long anyone would need to lean on that money.

What this doesn't tell you

• The Statistics Canada figures are national price index movements. Your street, your claims history and your building's condition matter far more to your bill than any national average.
• The passenger vehicle number is a national measure. British Columbia's auto insurance market is structured differently from most provinces, so treat it as background rather than a guide to your own coverage.
• CLHIA's average household protection figure describes households that already have coverage. It is not advice on how much anyone should buy.
• No published source can tell you whether your specific policy is priced fairly. That depends on your age, health, smoking status, occupation, the amount, the term, and the underwriting you received at the time.
• Cancelling an old policy before a new one is in force can leave you with no coverage at all if the new application is declined or rated. Sequence matters more than speed.

Sources

• Statistics Canada. *Insurance in Canada: What's driving premiums higher?* Catalogue no. 11-627-M, 2026. Link
• Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association. *Canadian Life & Health Insurance Facts, 2025 Edition.* 2025. Link
• Insurance Bureau of Canada. *How to reduce your home insurance rates.* Link
• Insurance Bureau of Canada. *How home insurance rates are set.* Link
• Province of British Columbia. *Insurance Contracts (Life Insurance Replacement) Regulation,* B.C. Reg. 327/90, under the Financial Institutions Act. Link
• Insurance Council of British Columbia. *Insurance Licensee Directory.* Link

*This article summarises published rules and research for general information, is current as of August 2026, and is not personalized financial, tax or legal advice.*

If you'd like a second set of eyes on what you're already paying, book a free no-pressure call with Milo. Bring your renewal letter and your benefits booklet, we'll walk through them line by line in English or Tagalog, and if your current coverage is doing its job, that's exactly what you'll hear.