If you are looking through SSQ life insurance reviews then you know there are LOTS of life insurance companies out there…
…with LOTS of products!
To be honest, most people have better things to do than look through the internet and review pages of technical information about products, rates, and financial ratings.
The thing is, knowing this information is integral to saving money.
Which is why a call to Policy Architects can save you thousands of dollars and a big headache.
Quick note before we dive in: SSQ Insurance merged with La Capitale in 2023, and both companies now operate under a new name… Beneva. If you already own an SSQ policy, nothing changes for you; your coverage, claims, and payments continue as normal. But if you’re shopping for a new policy today, you’ll be buying it under the Beneva name, not SSQ. We’ll cover what that means for you as we go.
So let’s check out SSQ life insurance, now Beneva, to see if it’s a carrier you should consider for your unique needs.
A Few Words About SSQ Life Insurance Reviews
SSQ was initially launched as a social justice project by Dr. Jacques Tremblay, who was concerned about the inability of Quebec’s working class to afford medical care. In 1944, the Cooperative de Sante du Quebec was established, providing medical care to its members. The name was later changed to Les Services de Sante du Quebec, or SSQ, in 1945.
In the 1950s, SSQ shifted its focus to business development and customer service. They diversified their offerings to include life and disability insurance. In 1974, SSQ became a mutual life insurance company and expanded into the loan and real estate markets in subsequent years.
In 2000, SSQ agreed to its first pan-Canadian group to expand its reach. To achieve this goal, they acquired businesses and, in 2018, rebranded as SSQ Insurance.
SSQ had an excellent reputation and was named one of Canada’s 50 best-managed companies in 2003. They also launched the Health InSight program to help customers improve their health and save money… a program that’s still part of the group offering today under the Beneva name.
In 2020, SSQ announced it would merge with fellow Quebec mutual insurer La Capitale, and by 2023 the two companies had fully combined into a single entity: Beneva. Today, Beneva is the largest mutual insurance company in Canada, with more than 3.5 million members and $27+ billion in assets — carrying SSQ’s mutualist roots forward under a new name.
SSQ Life Insurance Reviews: Financial Rating
The life insurance industry is highly regulated to ensure honesty. As a result, financial rating companies like Standard & Poor’s and AM Best have emerged.
These companies assess the stability of insurers and provide a grade that represents confidence. This information helps you make an informed decision about which life insurance company to choose.
For example, if you’re considering a policy underwritten by SSQ, now Beneva, you’ll be pleased to know AM Best upgraded its rating from A- to A (Excellent) back in 2019, and has reaffirmed that A rating every year since, most recently in 2022. That’s a strong, stable track record, and it now applies to the combined strength of Beneva as a whole, which holds over $27 billion in assets as the largest mutual insurance company in Canada.
SSQ Online Reviews
Life insurance reviews can be unreliable.
Even though I look at them, I don’t give them too much importance. I find them to be inaccurate due to various factors. Firstly, people making a claim are often under stress, which can affect the accuracy of their report.
Secondly, life insurance companies offer many other products, and complaints about other products can sometimes be mistaken for complaints about life insurance claims. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that the complaints you read are about the right product.
Lastly, anyone can complain, and it’s hard to know the reviewer’s credibility. Are they genuine customers with legitimate complaints, or are they trolls or fake reviewers? You can’t know for sure. With that said, let’s look at what people are saying about SSQ (now Beneva) lately.
Beneva Reviews: Trustpilot
Beneva currently holds a “Bad” rating on Trustpilot, at 1.4 out of 5 stars from over 250 reviews. As expected, most of the complaints are about long wait times and difficulty reaching customer service. Several reviewers specifically mention being transitioned over from SSQ or La Capitale and finding the post-merger experience frustrating, particularly around claims and account access.
Insureye Reviews
Insureye reviews for Beneva echo the same themes… slow response times, difficulty resolving claims, and general accessibility complaints. As with SSQ before it, most of what’s being flagged is customer service friction rather than product quality itself.
SSQ Life Insurance Reviews: Products
Life insurance is an excellent financial tool for various purposes, such as income replacement, estate planning, and final expense coverage. There are two primary types of life insurance: term and permanent insurance. Most people purchase coverage for income replacement; term insurance works best for this purpose. It is temporary coverage for a specific period when you feel most vulnerable. Since there is no guarantee that your beneficiary will receive a payout, term insurance costs substantially less than permanent insurance.
Permanent insurance, on the other hand, covers you until the day you die, so your loved ones are guaranteed to receive a payout as long as you pay your premiums. This type of policy is much more complex. Besides the cost and the guaranteed payout, the cash value component is one of the main differences between term and permanent coverage.
If you are considering permanent coverage, it is highly recommended that you speak to an independent life insurance agent before buying it. Many different products include investment options, so it is essential to understand what you are buying and how it works.
Let’s take a look at the life insurance products offered by SSQ, now sold under the Beneva name.
My view is that term life is protection against premature death, while permanent life is protection against mature death — when people in advanced age may encounter unexpected financial calamities, such as the loss of life savings due to market conditions, or exorbitant medical bills caused by health conditions that were never anticipated.
Financial Advisor Magazine — Is Permanent Life Insurance Too Expensive?
Term Plus (Beneva, formerly SSQ)
- Coverage up to $10,000,000
- Available terms: 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 years
- Coverage renewable every 5 years after the initial term
- Convertible to permanent life insurance with no medical exam required, up to age 70
- Insurability benefit: You may increase coverage by 25% (up to $100K) without new medical evidence
- Extreme disability benefit: You may receive up to $250K of your benefit in advance in the event of a prolonged extreme disability
Options:
- Total disability coverage: Receive a monthly payment to cover debts while you are disabled
- Critical illness coverage: Covers cancer, heart attack and stroke, receive a lump sum benefit to help you focus on recovery
- Life insurance for children
- Waiver of premium in case of disability
- Accidental death and dismemberment
- Fracture benefit
- Decreasing term option available, ideal for covering a mortgage or loan balance as it pays down over time
Permanent Life Insurance (Beneva, formerly SSQ)
All of Beneva’s whole-life policies (Whole Life 20 and Whole Life 100) have the following benefits:
- Premiums payable for 20 years or until age 100
- Guaranteed premiums and payouts
- Guaranteed cash values that build over the life of the policy
- Reduced paid-up protection (no further payments required as of the 10th policy anniversary)
- Extreme disability benefit: Receive 50% of the life insurance value if you have an extreme disability
Note: Term 100 does not include cash value or reduced paid-up protection — only Enhanced Term 100 does.
Options:
- Critical illness rider available for the three most common illnesses (cancer, heart attack, stroke)
- Child rider: adds term coverage for children until age 25
- Waiver of premium in case of total disability
- Accidental death & dismemberment
- Benefit in case of fracture
Whole Life 20
For families building a lasting legacy. Premiums are paid off after 20 years, so the policy remains in force for life with no further payments. Ideal for passing on to children or grandchildren, who can access the policy’s cash value for their own needs.
- Individual coverage
- Cash Value
Term 100
- Works well for families
- Individual, Multi-Life, Joint First to Die and Joint Last to Die
SSQ Critical Illness Insurance
Critical illness insurance can cover the cost of replacing indispensable people who are out of work for extended periods on medical or disability leave, while buy-sell agreements provide insurance when a partner in a business dies or becomes incapacitated for an extended period.
“It’s all part of a bigger conversation,” he says, starting with an awareness that certain people are assets to the business that will have to be replaced — and pose a detriment to the company — if they are absent. “It’s an important element of ‘what if?’ planning.”
The Globe and Mail — How to Protect Your Business From Upheaval if the Owner Suddenly Dies
Basic Critical Illness Insurance (Beneva, formerly SSQ)
This policy covers cancer, heart attack, and stroke, the three most common critical illnesses.
- Available in 10-year or 20-year term, or as permanent coverage to age 75 or age 100
- Built-in supplementary benefit… additional payment of up to 10% of the coverage amount (up to $50K) if you’re diagnosed with skin cancer, coronary angioplasty, breast cancer, or prostate cancer
- Assistance benefit, including medical referral, unlimited psychological support, medical assistance, and convalescence assistance
Enhanced Critical Illness Insurance (Beneva, formerly SSQ)
This policy covers 25 conditions, including: Alzheimer’s disease, aortic surgery, aplastic anemia, bacterial meningitis, benign brain tumour, blindness, cancer, coma, coronary artery bypass surgery, deafness, heart attack, heart valve replacement, kidney failure, loss of independent existence, loss of limbs, loss of speech, major organ failure on waiting list, major organ transplant, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis, occupational HIV infection, paralysis, Parkinson’s disease and specified atypical Parkinsonian disorders, severe burns, stroke
- Available in 10-year or 20-year term, or as permanent coverage to age 75 or age 100
- Built-in supplementary benefit, additional payment of up to 10% of the coverage amount (up to $50K) if you’re diagnosed with skin cancer, coronary angioplasty, breast cancer, or prostate cancer
- Assistance benefit, including medical referral, unlimited psychological support, medical assistance, and convalescence assistance
Enhanced Childhood Critical Illness Insurance (Beneva, formerly SSQ)
This childhood policy covers you for the 25 conditions listed above in the Enhanced plan, plus four additional childhood-specific illnesses: autism, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and type 1 diabetes.
- Available in 10-year or 20-year term, or as permanent coverage to age 75 or age 100
- Built-in supplementary benefit, additional payment of up to 10% of the coverage amount (up to $50K) if you’re diagnosed with skin cancer, coronary angioplasty, breast cancer, or prostate cancer
- Assistance benefit, including medical referral, unlimited psychological support, medical assistance, and convalescence assistance
SSQ Life Insurance Reviews: Are They Still a Good Life Insurance Company? Here's What Changed
So where does that leave you if you’ve been searching for SSQ life insurance reviews and just found out SSQ doesn’t exist anymore?
Honestly, not in a bad spot. The strengths that made SSQ worth considering in the first place. A strong AM Best rating, a genuinely flexible product lineup, and a no-medical conversion option most carriers don’t offer, all carried over intact to Beneva. What didn’t carry over as cleanly is the customer service experience. I’ve seen enough reviews now, across Trustpilot and other platforms, to say plainly: if you already have a policy with Beneva, expect long hold times if you ever need to call in. That’s not a reason to panic about your coverage, but it is something to know going in.
Is Beneva Life Insurance Right for You?
Is Beneva life insurance the right choice for you? It depends on what you’re optimizing for. If you want a mutual insurer with real financial depth and nearly a century of history behind it, SSQ’s roots go back to 1944. Beneva checks that box better than most of the newer, flashier online-only carriers. If what you actually want is a fast, fully self-serve digital quote with zero phone calls, Beneva isn’t built for that; you’ll be working with an advisor. That’s exactly where a call to Policy Architects becomes useful. I can walk you through how Beneva’s products stack up against everyone else’s before you commit to anything.
SSQ Life Insurance Reviews to Beneva: Your Questions Answered
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Beneva is a strong, financially stable insurer, but it's rarely the right fit for everyone. As an independent brokerage, we compare rates and coverage across Canada's top carriers so you get the policy that actually fits your needs — not just the one you happened to search for.
