Desjardins Financial Security

The best way to understand Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Company is as the financial services arm of the Desjardins credit unions.

Desjardins Insurance Products Offered

The Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Company is a life and health insurer. It has a full range of personal insurance products, which includes auto insurance, home insurance, credit balance insurance, accident insurance, life insurance, health insurance and disability insurance.

As well as individual policies there are also group policies for both insurance and retirement savings.

All the Desjardins Financial Security products also give access to a telephone assistance program that deals with areas such as estate settlement and convalescence, which is called the GPS program.

Desjardins Life Insurance

The Desjardins group has a low cost life insurance product called savings-life insurance which covers basic areas of life insurance without the final lump sum (areas such as funeral insurance and small debts) and is linked to savings accounts to further lower costs. 50+ insurance is similar in that it does not pay out a lump sum to replace the earnings of the insured, but like traditional funeral insurance it is not linked to any savings accounts.

Desjardins Health Insurance

As well as the ordinary health insurance products a particularly innovative product is the GetWell insurance which is designed specifically to deal with the financial consequences of cancer.

Desjardins Credit Insurance

One of the niche areas that Desjardins offers is insurance on unsecured credit. The credit insurance is designed to cover loans, lines of credit and credit balances. It acts in a similar way to mortgage insurancemortgage insurance (although mortgages are not covered in this product) in that it is the lender who is repaid if the borrower defaults. This means that a borrower becomes more credit worthy. The credit insurance evolved out of the Desjardins group’s core business as a federation of credit unions that lend money.

Desjardins Savings Products

Reflecting the credit union roots of Desjardins, there are a number of savings products. These tend to be of a more complex kind than would be offered in a traditional credit union. There are guaranteed deposits, and market linked guaranteed funds including a segregated fund. Through a partner they offer a Registered Education Savings Plan.

There is also a range of retirement options from a Registered Retirement Savings Plan to a number of income funds and annuities.

Desjardins - The Personal

The Desjardins group also owns an insurance brand called The Personal. This company is separate from the Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Company. The Personal offers auto insurance and home insurance, but only to group insurers and is not open to members of the general public.

Desjardins History

The Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Company is the insurance arm of Desjardins Group which is a federation of credit unions that comprises the largest financial institution in Quebec and the sixth largest in Canada. The group was founded in 1903 in Levis, Quebec, where the head office of Desjardins Financial Security is today.

Size of Desjardins Financial

Desjardins Financial Security claims to have five million customers for its various products, although this includes its savings accounts as well as its insurance products. It employs over 3,700 people and has over $22 billion assets in administration.

Desjardins has a number of channels to the market as well as the credit unions that make up the Desjardins group. There are non-affiliated credit unions, an independent financial advisers network and the Desjardins business centre, a bilingual call centre. There is also a developed affinity program which gets business through affinity groups such as trade unions and employees of large companies.