“Too Young, Too Successful, Too Misguided?” — A Chat About Life Insurance With a New Dad

I had a conversation yesterday with a business owner in his early 30s. Smart guy. Company’s doing well. Growing fast. He’s a new dad — one-year-old at home.

And somewhere between telling me about his expanding team and sleepless nights, he casually dropped this line:

“I don’t really believe in life insurance.”

I’ve heard that before — usually from someone who’s healthy, young, making money, and (understandably) focused on growth. But here’s the thing: life insurance isn’t about you. It’s about who’s waiting for you at home.

When I asked him what would happen if he didn’t come home tomorrow, he paused. Not because he hadn’t thought about it — but because the reality of it was uncomfortable. And that’s exactly why we should talk about it.

Here’s a hard truth: Being “too successful” to need life insurance is like saying your house is too big to buy smoke detectors.

Now, he’s not dumb — not even close.

But he had some misconceptions that are super common:

• Thought RRSPs were low-growth, locked-in accounts (he was confusing them with GICs).

• Didn’t know corporations could fund insurance and get major tax breaks.

• Believed “you’re gonna pay tax anyway, so why not now?” — without realizing how growth and deferral actually work for you.

  
  

It wasn’t a lack of intelligence. It was a lack of information. And that’s where this series begins — not with judgment, but with real talk.

Because sometimes, you don’t have to die to win with life insurance. It can be a tax-efficient way to grow wealth inside your business. It can protect your family, yes — but it can also protect your retirement plan, your business succession, and your legacy.

All while you’re very much alive.

This post isn’t here to sell you something.

It’s just a conversation — one dad to another, one business owner to another — about how we protect the things we love most when life’s good and we think we’re invincible.

More on this soon.

—Liam