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March 25, 2020

COVID-19: Adjustments to our individual insurance and investment processes (update)

SSQ Insurance is closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation. Since we are committed to developing your business with us and in order to meet your current needs as adequately as possible, we have decided to make the following adjustments, effective immediately, to some of our standard processes to make your job easier:

Individual insurance and investment 

Electronic Signature 

In addition to scanned handwritten signatures, we will now accept electronic signatures from the following applications: DocuSign, Adobe Sign and Onespan.

These signatures will be accepted on our insurance and investment documents, with the exception of change of beneficiary forms and changes of owners of life insurance policies. 

Individual insurance 

Suspension of paramedical service orders at clients’ homes and relaxing of underwriting requirements 

Paramedical Service COVID-19 Precautions

In the current context, the safety and health of our clients is a priority more than ever. Given that the paramedical service providers are no longer taking appointments and considering the increase in security measures communicated by the Public Health Agency of Canada, SSQ Insurance decided to suspend all paramedical exam services at clients’ homes, for the time being. 

Relaxing of underwriting requirements – pending business

For now, in order to allow us to deal with the majority of pending cases as efficiently as possible, SSQ Insurance is temporarily relaxing its underwriting requirements on these pending cases.

We will start to treat them on a case by case basis. Instructions on each case will be communicated in LifeSuite as the files are processed.

Please note that in the meantime, a paramedical telephone service will be set up. In some cases, you will be able to complete the questionnaire yourself or use this service. Instructions via LifeSuite will be communicated to you.

Relaxing of underwriting requirements – new business

Regarding new business, we will communicate in the next few days how the underwriting requirements will be modified. Stay tuned for all the details. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please reach out to your SSQ Insurance representative.

Investments

Given that most of our employees are now teleworking, the following adjustments are required to ensure their safety, maintain our operations and be ready in the event that postal services become downgraded or cease altogether. 

Requests and new applications

Please submit all requests (new applications, transactions, modifications) via our secure website. Please note that we will be accepting new applications with handwritten signatures that are scanned and sent via our secure website. However, make sure all handwritten text and signatures remain legible once scanned.  There is no need to send us the originals, we simply ask that you keep them in your files. 

Note that we will now accept electronic signatures from the following applications: DocuSign, Adobe Sign and Onespan. 

New contributions

Please make your new contributions in a single preauthorized payment. Simply complete and send us the FRA1394A Pre-authorized Transaction Program form along with a personalized cheque specimen via our secure website.

You can also transfer funds via your financial institution’s website. Select SSQ Insurance - Investment and enter your 8-digit application number.  

External transfers to another institution

We recommend limiting external transfers to other institutions as much as possible. We cannot guarantee processing times or be held responsible for postal service delays caused by the current situation. Additional delays should also be expected between the time of withdrawal from SSQ Insurance and the time of deposit at another institution, and vice versa.

Redemptions

Please send us your redemption requests via our secure website. Be sure to include a cheque specimen as these payments will be made by direct deposit from now on.  We will no longer be issuing cheques.

The documents required to process death benefits may be submitted via our secure website. A cheque specimen for each beneficiary will be required so that the benefits can be paid via direct deposit.

RRIF/LIF payments (no change)

All beneficiaries are currently receiving their pension benefits by direct deposit, except Canadian non-residents. They will be receiving their benefits as per usual processing times.  

Transaction statements (daily)

Daily statements of transaction will no longer be mailed. All transaction information is currently available on our secure website and all statements are archived there. If you are unfamiliar where to find this, we invite you to contact your SSQ Insurance representative who will be happy to review where to find this information on the secure website. 

Thank you for your understanding and collaboration. 

We will keep you informed as the situation at SSQ Insurance progresses.

Please contact your SSQ Insurance representative for questions or comments. Despite the fact that our sales teams are currently working from home in an effort to protect our collective health, they are still totally dedicated and ready to serve you with utmost diligence and professionalism.

Your needs and those of your customers are our top priorities.