Empire Life vs. iA Life Insurance

Empire Life and iA Financial Group are both solid, long-established Canadian life insurers, and neither is the “better” company in any general sense. Empire Life is a mid-sized, Ontario-based insurer with a focused lineup and a reputation for simple products and quick electronic applications. iA is one of the largest insurers in the country, with a very wide range that includes flexible term lengths, no-medical plans and individual disability coverage. Which one suits you comes down to your age, your health, the product you need and how each company prices your specific profile on the day you apply.

This comparison is for Ontario families and business owners who’ve been quoted one or both, or who’ve seen the names on a broker’s list and want to understand what actually separates them. We’ve placed coverage with both for years, and we’ll stay neutral: the point is to help you decide, not to sell you on either.

The two companies at a glance

Empire Life was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Kingston, Ontario. It’s a mid-sized insurer by Canadian standards, majority-owned by a Canadian holding company, and it focuses on individual life and health insurance, group benefits and investment products. Among brokers it’s known for a clean, uncomplicated product shelf and for being an early adopter of fully electronic applications with fast decisions on straightforward cases.

iA Financial Group (formerly Industrial Alliance) was founded in 1892 and is headquartered in Quebec City. It’s one of Canada’s largest insurance and wealth management groups, active in individual and group insurance, savings and retirement, and vehicle and home warranty products. Its individual insurance shelf is broad, and it has a particularly deep lineup in living benefits (critical illness and disability) and in plans for people who are harder to insure.

Both companies are regulated federally by OSFI, sell in Ontario under FSRA’s market-conduct rules, and are members of Assuris, the not-for-profit organisation that protects Canadian policyholders if a life insurer fails. Every licensed life insurer in Canada must belong to Assuris, so membership is a baseline, not a point of difference.

Term life insurance compared

Term is where most people first meet either insurer, and it’s where the differences are most practical.

Empire Life offers a term series with several lengths, including 10-year and 20-year options and longer terms, plus a permanent term-to-100 style product. Policies are renewable and convertible to the company’s permanent plans without new medical evidence up to a stated age. The application is designed to be completed electronically in one sitting, and healthy applicants at moderate amounts are often approved quickly with no fluids.

iA is known for a term product that lets you choose the term length from a wide range of years rather than picking from a fixed menu of 10, 20 or 30. That matters if your mortgage has 23 years left or your youngest child is 4 and you want coverage until they’re 25. iA term is also renewable and convertible, with conversion available to its participating whole life and universal life products.

Feature	Empire Life	iA Financial Group
Term lengths	Fixed menu of several lengths (10, 20 and longer) plus term-to-100	Flexible: choose a term length across a wide range of years
Renewability	Yes, to a stated age, at higher rates	Yes, to a stated age, at higher rates
Convertibility	Yes, to Empire permanent plans, without new evidence, up to a set age	Yes, to iA permanent plans, without new evidence, up to a set age
Application	Fully electronic, often fast approval on clean cases	Electronic, with tele-underwriting and simplified paths for some amounts
Multi-life and riders	Joint options and common riders available	Joint options and a broad rider menu available

Neither company’s term is systematically cheaper. Each sets its own rates by age band, amount and health class and adjusts them periodically. In our experience one insurer will be sharper for a 35-year-old buying $750,000 over 25 years and the other for a 52-year-old buying $300,000 over 10, and next year it may be reversed. That’s precisely why we quote both.

For a sense of what term costs at different ages, see life insurance cost in Ontario and our guide to 10 vs. 20 vs. 30-year term. Any premium you see there is an indicative range for a healthy non-smoker, not a quote from either insurer.

Permanent life insurance compared

Both companies offer participating whole life and universal life; this is where the philosophies differ a little more.

Empire Life’s participating whole life insurance is offered in a couple of designs aimed at different goals, generally one oriented toward long-term cash value growth and one toward a larger early death benefit for estate purposes. Dividends are declared annually from the participating account and are not guaranteed. Its universal life product offers a range of investment account options with the usual flexibility on premium and death benefit.

iA’s participating whole life is a large, long-running participating account, and the company also markets a universal life product with a broad set of investment options. Because iA is also a substantial wealth manager, its universal life and permanent products tend to draw on that side of the business.

Comparing permanent policies is not a matter of one number. Guaranteed cash values, the dividend scale history, the illustration’s assumed rate, paid-up options, premium-paying periods (10-pay, 20-pay, life-pay) and conversion privileges all matter, and the “cheaper” premium is frequently not the better policy. If you’re evaluating whole life for estate planning, our explainer on whole life insurance cash value and the comparison of participating vs. non-participating whole life cover what to look at.

No-medical and simplified options

iA has a well-known lineup of simplified and guaranteed-issue life plans for people who can’t qualify for traditional underwriting, with tiers that range from a few health questions to none, and corresponding differences in price, coverage caps and whether the benefit is deferred in the early years.

Empire Life also offers simplified paths for moderate amounts and healthy applicants within its standard products, but it’s not positioned as a specialist in hard-to-insure cases in the way iA and a handful of other insurers are.

If a health condition is the reason you’re shopping, this is a meaningful difference, though not a decisive one: several other insurers we work with also compete in the no-medical space. Our overview of no-medical-exam life insurance in Canada explains how to compare them.

Critical illness and disability insurance

Both offer critical illness insurance, but the shapes differ.

Empire Life is known for a simplified-issue critical illness product covering a short list of the most common conditions (the cancer, heart attack and stroke group) with few health questions, alongside a more comprehensive version. It’s attractive when someone wants basic protection without a full underwriting process.

iA offers fully underwritten critical illness with a broad list of covered conditions, partial payouts for certain early-stage diagnoses, return-of-premium options and child coverage. It also sells individual disability insurance, including products designed for self-employed workers and tradespeople, which Empire Life does not focus on.

If income protection for a self-employed person is the goal, iA’s disability shelf is a real advantage in the comparison. If a simple, quick critical illness policy is the goal, Empire Life’s simplified product is worth quoting.

Underwriting and service

Every insurer underwrites the same broad risk factors (age, health, family history, smoking, occupation, lifestyle), but each has its own manual and its own tolerance for particular conditions. One may rate well-controlled hypertension as standard while the other adds a small rating, and the reverse can be true for elevated BMI or a mental health history. We can’t predict the outcome from a company name; we run informal pre-screens with both underwriting desks when a health issue is in play.

On service, Empire Life’s electronic application and fast decisions on clean cases are a genuine convenience. iA’s size means more product options and a larger service infrastructure, and its living-benefits claims teams handle high volumes. Both pay claims through a standard documented process; we’ve never had a legitimate, properly disclosed claim with either company go unpaid.

Which one should you choose?

There’s no winner, but there are patterns.

Empire Life tends to suit you if:

• You want straightforward term or participating whole life and value a quick, fully electronic application.
• You’re a healthy applicant buying a moderate amount who wants a fast decision.
• You want a simple, simplified-issue critical illness policy for the most common conditions.
• You like the idea of an Ontario-headquartered insurer (a preference, not a financial factor).

iA tends to suit you if:

• You want a custom term length that matches a specific mortgage or child’s timeline.
• You have a health condition that may need a simplified or guaranteed-issue plan.
• You’re self-employed or in a trade and need individual disability insurance alongside life coverage.
• You want a comprehensive critical illness policy with early-stage partial benefits and return-of-premium options.
• You’re pairing permanent insurance with broader wealth planning.

In either case: quote both. The premium difference for your exact profile is the one that matters, not the reputation of either brand.

How Hayes can help

Hayes Family Insurance is an independent brokerage in Ottawa, licensed across Ontario, and we place business with Empire Life, iA and 30+ other Canadian insurers. We’re paid by whichever insurer issues the policy, at broadly similar rates, so we have no incentive to favour one over the other. What we can do is run your age, amount, term and health picture through both, show you the quotes side by side, and tell you honestly where each is stronger for your situation.

Compare quotes from 30+ Canadian insurers in about two minutes, free and with no obligation. Or contact us and we’ll walk through Empire Life, iA and the alternatives together. If you’re still deciding between companies more broadly, our guide to the best life insurance companies in Canada explains how we think about the whole market.