Life and health insurance industry welcomes new national financial literacy strategy

TORONTO, June 9, 2015 /CNW/ - The Canadian life and health insurance industry congratulates Minister of State (Finance) Kevin Sorenson and Financial Literacy Leader Jane Rooney on today's launch of a national financial literacy strategy.

"This is a significant achievement and will serve as a rallying cry for public and private sectors to work together towards a common goal -- giving Canadians the knowledge, skills and confidence to make responsible financial decisions," says Frank Swedlove, President and CEO of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance  Association (CLHIA).

The life and health insurance industry strongly supports the view that basic financial literacy is an essential life skill and is proud to have been part of the process in developing the strategy. The strategy was driven by recommendations developed by the national Financial Literacy Task Force that was chaired by Donald Stewart, former CEO of Sun Life Financial.

"As an industry, we not only support the overarching objectives of the strategy, but we are also committed to building financial literacy through clear communication initiatives that improve the readability of insurance documents and through financial education materials that engage consumers," notes Leslie Byrnes, CLHIA's Vice President, Distribution and Pensions, who sits as a member of the National Steering Committee on Financial Literacy.

CLHIA's "Ready, Set, Life" financial literacy web page includes consumer education materials about life and health insurance products, as well as a glossary of insurance terminology, and a tool called "The Virtual Shoebox Guide" for recording personal and family financial documents.  A wide range of tools, calculators, videos, gamification and mobile applications can also be found on the websites of life and health insurance companies.

About the CLHIA

Established in 1894, the CLHIA is a voluntary association whose member companies account for 99 per cent of Canada's life and health insurance business. The industry provides a wide range of financial security products such as life insurance, annuities (including RRSPs, RRIFs and pensions) and supplementary health insurance to 28 million Canadians. It also holds more than $720 billion of assets in Canada and employs 155,000 Canadians.

SOURCE Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association Inc.

Related Links

http://www.clhia.ca