Insurance Broker in London: Compare & Save

To be clear from the first line: this page is about London, Ontario, the Forest City on the Thames, not the one in England. If you are searching for an insurance broker in London, Ontario, the plain answer is that an independent broker compares life, critical illness, disability, health and dental and travel insurance from many insurers, and the insurer you choose pays the broker, so the advice costs you nothing and the premium is the same as buying direct.

I founded Hayes Family Insurance in Ottawa in 1996. We are licensed for all of Ontario and work with London households by phone, video and e-signature, comparing 30+ Canadian insurers at the same national prices a broker on Richmond Street or in Byron would quote.

This page is for anyone in London and the surrounding area, from Old North, Wortley Village and Old East Village to Masonville, Westmount, Oakridge, White Oaks, Hyde Park and Lambeth, and the smaller communities around it, who wants a clear account of what a broker does and how to choose one.

London is an insurance town, and why that doesn’t change your rate

London has one of the longest insurance histories in the country. One of Canada’s largest life insurers has had a major presence here for well over a century, and a great many Londoners have worked in the industry or know someone who has. It’s a fair question whether being close to a head office earns any advantage.

It doesn’t. Life insurance in Canada is priced nationally by each company, on age, health, smoking status, coverage amount and, for disability, occupation. A resident of Westmount pays the same as a resident of Thunder Bay for the same policy from the same insurer. The only way to pay less for the same coverage is to find the insurer whose pricing suits your profile, and that requires comparing many of them. That is the whole case for an independent broker, and it’s as true in London as anywhere.

What a broker does that a single insurer can’t

A captive agent represents one company. An insurer’s website sells one company’s products with no advice. An independent broker holds contracts with many companies, and the work goes in this order:

1. Needs analysis. How much coverage, for how long, and which products. This comes before any product name.
2. Market comparison. The same applicant can be quoted 30% or more apart by different insurers, because each treats build, blood pressure, family history, cannabis use and occupation differently.
3. Recommendation, with reasons you can understand and challenge.
4. Application and underwriting. Including knowing which insurer to approach when there is a health history, so you don’t collect a decline that other companies then ask about.
5. Delivery and follow-through. Beneficiary changes, coverage increases, conversion before a term ends, and claims.

The premium is identical through any channel. What you receive from a broker, at no charge, is items one through five. We set out the trade-offs, including when direct is a sensible choice, in insurance broker vs. buying direct.

Coverage London households ask about

London’s economy is anchored by health care, with two large hospital systems; by the university and the college; by manufacturing, including automotive parts and food processing along the 401 and 402 corridors; and by the agricultural region that surrounds the city. The city has also drawn buyers from the GTA in recent years who found it more attainable. Each group tends to arrive with a different gap.

Coverage	Who in London typically needs it	The gap it fills
Term life	Families in Hyde Park, Summerside or Lambeth with a mortgage and children; each earner in a dual-income home	Group life is often 1–2× salary and ends when you leave the job
Critical illness	Hospital and university staff with good group life but no cushion for a cancer, heart attack or stroke	Pays a tax-free lump sum after diagnosis and a survival period, commonly 30 days
Disability	Farmers, self-employed tradespeople, contractors, physicians in private practice	Replaces 60–70% of income when there is no group plan, or when the group plan narrows to “any occupation”
Health and dental	Retirees who lost group benefits, self-employed families, students without a plan	OHIP does not cover most prescriptions outside hospital, dental or paramedical care
Travel	Snowbirds, students studying abroad, families hosting parents from overseas	OHIP pays very little out of country; visitors have no OHIP at all

For the life insurance piece specifically, including how London’s housing market shapes coverage amounts, see our page on life insurance in London, Ontario. Farmers in the surrounding counties have their own considerations, from seasonal income to succession, covered in life insurance for farmers. And for those who have just retired from a hospital or university plan, health and dental insurance for retirees in Ontario explains the replacement options.

How to vet a broker, including the FSRA check

After nearly three decades in this business, here is what I would look for if I were a client.

Count the insurers. Ask how many companies the broker holds contracts with and whether they’ll show you several quotes together. One or two means a captive arrangement, whatever the business card says.

Notice the order of the conversation. If a product is recommended before anyone has asked about your mortgage, income, dependants, existing coverage and health, the advice is backwards.

Ask about compensation. Ontario advisors must disclose that insurers pay them. Permanent insurance pays more commission than term. A good broker recommends term when term is right and says so plainly.

Ask about breadth. A broker who handles only life insurance cannot tell you whether disability or critical illness is the larger risk, and for a self-employed Londoner it often is.

Ask about your profile. A health condition, a hazardous occupation, a previous decline: what have they placed before, and where?

Verify the licence. Every person selling life and health insurance in Ontario, independent or captive, must hold a licence from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario. FSRA’s website has a free public registry. Search the advisor’s name, confirm the life and accident and sickness licence is active, and check for conditions. It takes a minute. My name, my son Cameron’s and Alex Diakun’s are all there.

How remote service from Ottawa works

We do not have a London office and I won’t dress it up. Here is what working with us looks like from London.

A first call, by phone or video, of 15 to 30 minutes. A written comparison from 30+ insurers, with our recommendation and the reasoning. An application completed by phone or online and signed electronically, which every insurer we represent accepts. If a medical is required, a paramedical nurse visits your home in London at a time you choose. The policy arrives electronically and we walk through it together. Afterward, you call the same number you called on day one.

Insurance is licensed by province and priced by insurer. A London office cannot obtain a different product or a different rate. The only thing you forgo is sitting across a desk, and if that matters to you, choose someone local and check them on FSRA first.

Indicative costs

Illustrative monthly premiums for a healthy non-smoker. These are ranges, not quotes; your rate depends on age, health, smoking status, coverage amount and insurer.

Age	$500,000 20-year term life	$100,000 20-year critical illness
30	roughly $22–$30	roughly $25–$45
40	roughly $32–$48	roughly $45–$80
50	roughly $70–$110	roughly $90–$160

Disability pricing depends on occupation class and benefit design; health and dental on plan level and family size. We quote both individually.

Next step

Whether you’re a nurse in Old North, a farmer outside Strathroy, or a family that moved from the GTA to Hyde Park with a fresh mortgage, the first step is the same: a short conversation about what you need, then a comparison across the market. Free, no obligation.

Compare quotes from 30+ Canadian insurers in about two minutes, or contact us to arrange a call.