It’s Always The Right Time To Get Insured

“The best time to get insurance is between two o’clock and 4:30 in the afternoon. There is no good time to buy insurance, but there is always no good time not to buy insurance. Whether you buy an insurance policy on a newborn, whether you purchase an insurance policy in your mid teens, early 20s, when you have your business, when you get married, when you buy the house, it doesn’t really matter. What’s important is that you have the discussion with a financial security planner to make sure that the proper programs are in place, and I stress the word proper programs are in place that fit the needs at the time.”

Victor Levee recently filmed this video with Make It Montreal, a storytelling platform geared towards Montreal’s business community and produced by local content strategy house Cat Around Films. The full set of clips can be found on Make It Montreal’s YouTube channel.

Inter-Generational Wealth Transfer

“When you talk about insurance or financial security planning, the important thing is to understand what role the insurance product needs to play. But there’s an overall understanding of insurance that everyone should have. There is a perspective that everyone should hold when it comes to life insurance and financial security planning, and that is the fact that if you walk out the door unexpectedly, dollars have to walk in the door. Now, it really doesn’t matter at what stage you are in life, there still is that fundamental principle of principle breadwinner or winners not there, dollars have to be there.

When you start to talk about the financial security planning tools as wealth creators, it can be obvious, and it can be not so obvious, and to my point of always knowing that the insurance is in place means that you can move forward with a great deal of confidence, means that in the event that something happens, you’re going to have dollars there to replace that confidence that unfortunately leaves when you leave.

The other aspect of life insurance as a wealth creator is that it is an enormously powerful financial tool to transfer wealth from one generation to the next. We call that inter generational wealth transfer. It is a highly tax effective tool, as a matter of fact, it is the most tax effective tool to transfer generational wealth, Dad to children, Mom to children.

Inter spousal is one level, but we can get into that kind of a sophisticated discussion when we’re talking to our clients. But there is a huge world out there that doesn’t understand how simple the use of a life insurance policy can be to create massive wealth for the current and next generation.”

Victor Levee recently filmed this video with Make It Montreal, a storytelling platform geared towards Montreal’s business community and produced by local content strategy house Cat Around Films. The full set of clips can be found on Make It Montreal’s YouTube channel.

The Stigma Of Life Insurance

“One of the challenges about selling the products that I sell and offering the services that I offer is that there is a stigma associated with the discussion on life insurance. Because at the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to. So what I’ve been able to evolve over the years is the skill sets necessary to have people understand the importance of having crucial conversations.

Crucial conversations are extremely uncomfortable to have, and what we do is we go through a process, a step by step process so that people begin to realize the importance of looking at these financial security products at any level, personal, corporate, it really doesn’t matter, it is getting them to the point where they understand what they have to talk about, and then talking about it.”

Victor Levee recently filmed this video with Make It Montreal, a storytelling platform geared towards Montreal’s business community and produced by local content strategy house Cat Around Films. The full set of clips can be found on Make It Montreal’s YouTube channel.

Looking At Life Insurance In A Better Light

“One of the things that I’ve learned over the years is that the financial security products that I sell are often not well received because of the image that they have. But if you back that up, turn it around a little bit, and understand that there are so many dynamic, risk-taking Montrealers, and so many unbelievably driven entrepreneurs, what do these people have in common, if you will? Is confidence, they have confidence, and if they don’t have confidence, they can’t do the things that they do.

There are so many success stories in this province as a result of confidence, what insurance does is it guarantees that they can move forward with absolute confidence, because heaven forbid should something happen that does not allow them to continue to move forward, there will be dollars in place that will allow them and their businesses, or the successors of their business to continue.

So the insurance products actually fit better in the Montreal environment than a lot of other areas once people get their heads around the fact that your confidence is now insured, move forward, go take those risks, build those businesses, support those communities.”

Victor Levee recently filmed this video with Make It Montreal, a storytelling platform geared towards Montreal’s business community and produced by local content strategy house Cat Around Films. The full set of clips can be found on Make It Montreal’s YouTube channel.

Understanding How To Communicate Insurance

“Being a lifetime Montrealer gives me the insights and the privileges to be able to understand the pulse and the beat of what makes them entrepreneurs, what makes them tick. So the programs that I present are the same, it’s the communication that’s adapted so that we all understand the importance of the products, and whether or not they fit.

It’s very important for people to understand that there is a difference between finding a solution and selling a product. And those of us who do it well find solutions, and we related those solutions to the various target markets that we’re talking to.”

Victor Levee recently filmed this video with Make It Montreal, a storytelling platform geared towards Montreal’s business community and produced by local content strategy house Cat Around Films. The full set of clips can be found on Make It Montreal’s YouTube channel.

The Insurance Product Is Misunderstood

“The insurance product is really misunderstood in a lot of ways. I’m not sure that it’s as misunderstood as it is taboo, because no one really wants to talk about death, and that makes it a difficult subject to approach.

One of the challenges in Montreal that I have noticed over the 40 years that I’ve been practicing is the fact that there is a very different discussion depending upon who you are talking to, and about which product you are discussing with that individual. So it becomes a bit challenging, initially, particularly for people who are younger in my business.

I have the advantage of having experience of broad spectrum of discussions with different ethnicities, and as a result of that, the discussion is easier to have, but there is no question that the most important message that I can communicate to anybody that I’m talking to is that the product is exactly the same, it’s just a question of making sure that it fits not only their need, but their values, and that’s where the difference comes in, it’s the values, what’s important to them, what floats their boats?”

Victor Levee recently filmed this video with Make It Montreal, a storytelling platform geared towards Montreal’s business community and produced by local content strategy house Cat Around Films. The full set of clips can be found on Make It Montreal’s YouTube channel.

The Domino Effect Of Life Insurance

“There is a very unique aspect to the products that I sell, whether they be owned personally or corporately, and that is the fact that every single time a product is put into place, it is designed to protect someone’s financial security.

There is a massive medium or long term impact to the community in general. If you take, for example, an entrepreneur who has the foresight to purchase adequate amounts of insurance on his or her life to protect the company in the event that he should pass away before his time, or her time, what happens to that company if the entrepreneurs have not been responsible and forward-thinking enough to put a product into place that is designed to keep that company alive? There could be 50, 100, 250 people that lose their jobs as a result of that.

That is a very important but often not discussed aspect of what I do, and I do that primarily in the Montreal region. I have no clue as to how many multiple millions of dollars of financial security planning products I have put on the books over the last 40 years, but I do know that when those products deliver on the promises that ultimately they will, I have seen the domino effect on the community. I have seen wives and husbands thank me for at least taking care of the financial aspect of the difficult times that they’re going through. But equally important, and perhaps even more impactful than that, I have seen people and had people come up to me and thank me for taking care of the business so that they still have a job to be able to provide for their families.

People don’t realize how important that aspect of what I do is, and I think the fact that I’m a Montrealer, and I think the fact that I was born here gives me a little bit more passion and inspiration to really try and do the best that I possibly can for Montreal and for the entrepreneurs that are here.”

Victor Levee recently filmed this video with Make It Montreal, a storytelling platform geared towards Montreal’s business community and produced by local content strategy house Cat Around Films. The full set of clips can be found on Make It Montreal’s YouTube channel.

Ensuring Business Continuity

“One specific aspect of what I do is work with entrepreneurs who are concerned about business continuity. Business continuity is simply the ability to accurately, properly, and objectively understand the importance of putting programs into place that will allow their businesses to continue.

That being said, if you use a numbers example of a business that’s worth $10 million and you have two partners, well, at the end of the day, if one of those partners dies, there’s five million dollars of money that needs to walk into the company in order for the shares to be bought out.

That’s a very simplistic example, but it’s much more than just that, because the partners are taken care of, they’ve recognized their responsibilities to each other, but what they don’t think about, and what I ask them to think about is the fact that that same dollars that are being generated are also providing them with the necessary funding so that that business can continue for the 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 people that work there. The implications of this are huge, much bigger than the very central focus, which is a buy-sell agreement, and funding that buy-sell agreement. That’s a privilege that I hold very dear, because I’m able to talk to people at that level, I’m making them understand what really matters when they take a courageous step like that.”

Victor Levee recently filmed this video with Make It Montreal, a storytelling platform geared towards Montreal’s business community and produced by local content strategy house Cat Around Films. The full set of clips can be found on Make It Montreal’s YouTube channel.