What each LLQP certification covers

This is the foundation module, and the material in it comes up again throughout the program. A lot of it is about working out how much life insurance a client actually needs. That means looking at their finances and family situation, taking account of any coverage already in place, and recognizing business needs such as funding a buy-sell agreement or insuring a key employee.

The main focus is the products. The module explains how term, whole life, Term-100, universal life and group life differ from one another, what riders add to a policy, and how each type is taxed. It also follows what happens to a policy after it's sold: how insurers make underwriting decisions, how a recommendation is presented to a client, how coverage is reviewed and changed as the client's life changes, and how a death claim is paid.

Life insurance pays out when someone dies. A&S pays out while they're still alive, so this module is about protecting a client's income and health rather than their estate.

It covers disability insurance, critical illness, long-term care, and extended health and dental coverage, both for individuals and through group plans, along with the coverage businesses need. Most clients already have some protection through work, so much of the module is about understanding what they have and finding what's missing. Two contracts can look the same and pay out very differently, so comparing the wording closely is an important skill here. The module also explains how these products are underwritten and what the advisor's role is when a client makes a claim.

This is the investing and retirement side of the life licence, where insurance work overlaps with wealth management.

Much of the module is about seeing a client's whole retirement picture: government pensions, workplace plans, locked-in money, and registered and non-registered savings, alongside what the client wants to achieve and how much risk they're comfortable with. It then looks closely at segregated funds: how they work, how they're regulated, what the maturity and death benefit guarantees are really worth, what the fees cost, and how they compare with mutual funds and other options. Annuities get the same attention: the different types available, how they're taxed, how they're used in estate planning, and what determines the size of the payments. The module covers the drawbacks of these products as well as the benefits, and includes tax-efficient ways to withdraw money and how group retirement plans work.

This is the ethics module for candidates outside Quebec, and it covers more than the name suggests: about half of it is insurance contract law.

That part explains how a contract is created and how it ends, what its clauses mean, how beneficiaries are named, how money is paid out when someone dies, and when insurance money is protected from creditors. These rules are covered for life insurance, A&S, and segregated fund and annuity contracts.

The rest of the module deals with the rules advisors work under: who regulates the industry and protects consumers, what licensing requires, what must be disclosed and documented, which practices are not allowed, how client complaints are handled, and the duties owed to every client.

Quebec's insurance law comes from a different source than the rest of Canada's, and this module teaches that law. It's based on the Civil Code of Quebec, along with the Distribution Act, privacy legislation, and Quebec's own public insurance and pension plans.

The topics are similar to the Common Law module: who the parties to a contract are, how contracts are formed and ended, what the clauses mean, how beneficiaries are named, when money is protected from creditors, and how claims are made on each type of product. The rules themselves, though, are Quebec's.

The module also sets out what's expected of a representative: the Code of Ethics and the duties that come with it, what certification requires, the obligations of firms and financial planners, and the organizations that protect consumers and oversee the profession.