For many Canadians, free time isn’t spent sitting still—it’s spent chasing adrenaline. From scuba diving off the West Coast to skydiving over the Prairies, high-risk hobbies are a big part of how people live their lives.

When it comes to life insurance in Canada, however, insurers look at these activities very differently. What feels controlled and well-trained to you is evaluated through statistics, claims history, and underwriting guidelines.

If you participate in what insurers call hazardous hobbies or hazardous avocations, you may be wondering:

Can I still qualify for life insurance?
Will my premiums be higher?
Should I expect exclusions or declines?

The short answer is: most dangerous hobbies are still insurable in Canada. The key is understanding how insurers assess risk—and choosing the right company from the start.

This is the ultimate guide for saving on life insurance.

Here, you will find a massive list of 87 simple tips to maximize your insurance dollars, leaving you more money in your pocket.

So don’t buy life insurance until you read this. It could end up saving you thousands of dollars over the life of the policy.

A few posts back we reviewed Manulife’s Synergy, a 3-in-1 solution that encompasses life, critical illness and disability insurance. While it’s a simple product that covers the major risks in life, there isn’t much customization associated with it. Every Synergy policy must be comprised of the three types of insurance, with no way of mixing and matching the type of protection you want. That doesn’t mean there is no product with more customization available. Humania, a company based in Quebec, came up with a solution that satisfies all your customization needs by allowing you to mix and match to your heart’s content. The product is called P.A.G.E., and it’s short for ‘Protection for the entire family, Affordable rates, Global coverage, Easy application.’

Are you a smoker who wants to kick the habit? Chances are, if you currently smoke, that thought has crossed your mind. Besides the health benefit of quitting, there are also financial incentives. The obvious one is saving the money you used to spend on cigarettes. According to Preet Banerjee’s new book, Stop Over-Thinking Your Money, a teenager who pays $9 for a pack of cigarettes would have amassed over $375,000 if he instead would have directed the money to an investment yielding 3%. Now, Foresters has another financial incentive for you to quit smoking. In this week’s product review, we will look at Foresters’ Familylife participating whole life insurance product and its automatically included rider – Quit Smoking Incentive Plan. Chances are you haven’t heard of Familylife before. That’s because it launched in April of 2013, so it’s a brand new product in the insurance industry, and it’s one of a kind in the Canadian marketplace.

Last week in our product review series we talked about Desjardins’ Life and LTC Advance, a permanent life insurance policy with a monthly long-term care benefit. While most of the product reviews we’ve done so far involved multiple benefits under one policy, there are some that only serves one purpose. One such product is Assumption Life’s FlexOptions. What is FlexOptions and who is it designed for? Let’s get into the features and pricing so you can decide if it’s the right product for you.

Last week we talked about Manulife Synergy, a combination insurance that incorporates life, disability and critical illness insurance. As part of a series reviewing insurance products from Canadian insurance companies, this week we will focus on Desjardins Life with Long-Term Care Advance. Don’t be put off by its long name, as it may be just the right product for you. As implied, its a type of combination insurance that incorporates life and long-term care insurance. We’ll begin by summarizing some of its features.