Whole life insurance recorded the strongest growth in sales by number of policies sold, as revealed by Insurance Portal on June 4th, 2026, based on data compiled by LIMRA and updated for our publication.
Compared with 2024, the number of whole life insurance policies sold in 2025 increased by 5.3%, rising from 217,068 to 228,672 policies over the period.
This growth compares favorably with that of term life insurance policies sold in 2025, which increased by 3.9% over 2024, from 352,107 to 365,832 policies year over year.
Universal life insurance policy sales grew by 2.8% in 2025. Between 2024 and 2025, sales increased from 111,708 to 114,841 policies.
Whole life insurance is the only one of the three major categories of individual life insurance to have posted an increase in policy sales every year over the past four years.
Two distinct products
In its data, LIMRA does not distinguish participating whole life insurance from non-participating whole life insurance. These are, however, two distinct products.
Each type occupies a separate segment of the Canadian market. Sixteen insurers offer some form of whole life insurance. According to data compiled by InsuranceINTEL, the insurance product information centre operated by Insurance Journal Publishing Group.
Five insurers offer both participating and non-participating products: Assumption Life, Desjardins Insurance, Empire Life, iA Financial Group, and Sun Life.
Seven insurers offer only participating whole life insurance, including Canada Life, Co-operators Life, Equitable, Manulife, RBC Insurance, Serenia Life, and Wawanesa Life.
Four insurers offer only non-participating whole life insurance, namely Beneva, BMO Insurance, Foresters Financial, and UV Insurance.
It should be noted that neither Serenia Life nor Wawanesa Life markets individual insurance products in Quebec. According to the register of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), Wawanesa is authorized to operate in Quebec only in property and casualty insurance and claims adjustment.
Participating whole life insurance
Twelve insurers offer participating whole life insurance, as highlighted in the comparison chart prepared for Insurance Portal by InsuranceINTEL.
Canada Life stands out by offering two products: Achiever and My Par Gift. Achiever is available in five versions: Balanced Achiever, Estate Achiever Plus and Select, Wealth Achiever Plus and Select. My Par Gift is designed for the planned giving market. A more in-depth review of the InsuranceINTEL database shows that it is a single-premium insurance product designed for charitable giving, with the premium payment potentially creating a charitable legacy upon the insured’s death.
As its name suggests, participating whole life insurance includes a participating account managed by the insurer. The account is credited based on the insurer’s dividend scale interest rate. In addition to dividends, the account reflects other factors such as investment performance, mortality gains, and expenses. Insurers review this scale annually and may decide to maintain or adjust it.
Several insurers have recently announced their dividend interest scales for the current year. Among them, Equitable stated that it will maintain its dividend interest scale at 6.4% effective July 1, 2026.
Desjardins Insurance also announced that it will maintain its dividend interest scale at 6.3% effective July 1, noting that the decision reflects the sustained performance of its participating account.
Sun Life and Foresters Financial each maintained their dividend interest scales at 6.25%, effective April 1 and May 1 respectively. Foresters noted that it has maintained this level for the second consecutive year.
Cash surrender values are a common feature of all whole life insurance products. After a few years, these values begin to accumulate. Three insurers distinguish themselves by offering cash surrender values after the first policy anniversary. This is the case for Canada Life, with both Achiever My Par Gift; The same applies to RBC Insurance with its RBC Growth Insurance Plus product and to Sun Life with Sun Par Accumulator II.
Non-participating whole life insurance
According to the chart prepared by InsuranceINTEL, nine insurers offer non-participating whole life insurance products. BMO Insurance, iA Financial Group, and UV Insurance each offer two products.
The second non-participating whole life product listed by iA Financial Group, Legacy, is designed to address estate planning needs or provide short-term liquidity, for example to business owners. A minimum face amount of $1 million is required. The policy also includes an investment account.
BMO Insurance chose to include its Term 100 product alongside its traditional whole life insurance products in the non-participating whole life comparison chart. It is not alone in doing so: Empire Life also provided InsuranceINTEL with information on both its non-participating whole life products Solution 100 and Term to 100.
In its July 4, 2025 edition, Insurance Portal examined the permanent insurance status that insurers attribute to T100 products. Several insurers classify them as non-participating whole life insurance. For example, Sun Life considers T100 to be a form of non-participating whole life insurance. According to the insurer, T100 differs from traditional non-participating whole life policies in that it does not include any cash surrender value.
Cash surrender values are also a distinguishing feature of non-participating whole life insurance products. BMO Insurance stands out by offering cash surrender values beginning in the first policy year under its Whole Life Plan product, in both the Accelerated Wealth and Estate Protector versions.
