ScotiaLife - Reviews?

The_Honourable · Postby **The_Honourable** » September 14th, 2014, 12:08 am

Hello Tuners,

So Scotiabank was pushing their investment vehicle Scotialife on me recently and I told them that I would think about it. I know it has been in existence for a decade and the products under scotialife are not insured by the Deposit Insurance Corporation. Scotialife have 2 products under them:

ScotiaSecure - A savings plan that combines with life insurance.

ScotiaSelect - Retirement Fund with guaranteed life insurance coverage.

Does anybody have any reviews on this Scotialife product? any catches? performance over the years?

Thanks!

Bacon · Postby **Bacon** » September 14th, 2014, 1:33 am

Avoid

nismaniac · Postby **nismaniac** » September 14th, 2014, 5:27 am

I'm a former employee and I was not convinced this was a product geared at customer savings rather it was more for profits for SL. I cannot understand why a % of each monthly contribution has to go for administration of the fund and penalties for withdrawing money before 5 yrs. It is worse if you make a lumpsum payment, eg. initial deposit of 20000.00 and they take 2.5%...you lose before you start gaining ( after 5 yrs). I wouldn't say avoid because all insurance companies do the exact same thing.
My advice is to go to UTC. please note that I left SB 8 yrs ago so things with Slife may have been changed.

j.o.e · Postby **j.o.e** » September 14th, 2014, 8:01 am

I would suggest an insurance company do your insurance, an investment company do your investment and leave banking to your bank.
These one stop products are designed to to make larger profits with higher costs while touting convenience and less hassle as the marketing.

IvanTerrors · Postby **IvanTerrors** » September 14th, 2014, 9:00 am

More plzzz

Dj_Bee · Postby **Dj_Bee** » September 14th, 2014, 9:06 am

I was approached by a representative in the bank Friday concerning this same thing. It's of interest to me as I don't have any savings plan or insurance, the woman pushed for me to make an appointment, so I'll let you guys know more when I go in next week

telfer · Postby **telfer** » September 14th, 2014, 9:14 am

This scotia life is a waste of time I started it and u have a 10 day period to cancel and I did. This suppose to be a savings plan but if u agree for a 200 monthly payment and u get a little extra and u want to put it in the savings u have to pay 2% of the money u putting in which makes no sense so the very smart people at scotia says if u want to put extra in save up all a make a lump sum and pay 2% on that ......... Idots!!!

Kenjo · Postby **Kenjo** » September 14th, 2014, 9:26 am

Anyone knows where there are any excel sheet type comparisons on all these health insurances and retirement funds? It only so much the general public can compare these things and once you have. Good enough insurance sales person in front of you they can sell that ice to us Alaskans

Dj_Bee · Postby **Dj_Bee** » September 14th, 2014, 9:27 am

telfer wrote:This scotia life is a waste of time I started it and u have a 10 day period to cancel and I did. This suppose to be a savings plan but if u agree for a 200 monthly payment and u get a little extra and u want to put it in the savings u have to pay 2% of the money u putting in which makes no sense so the very smart people at scotia says if u want to put extra in save up all a make a lump sum and pay 2% on that ......... Idots!!!

Scrap that appointment, my money's good where it is :shock:

The_Honourable · Postby **The_Honourable** » September 14th, 2014, 2:31 pm

nismaniac wrote:I'm a former employee and I was not convinced this was a product geared at customer savings rather it was more for profits for SL. I cannot understand why a % of each monthly contribution has to go for administration of the fund and penalties for withdrawing money before 5 yrs. It is worse if you make a lumpsum payment, eg. initial deposit of 20000.00 and they take 2.5%...you lose before you start gaining ( after 5 yrs). I wouldn't say avoid because all insurance companies do the exact same thing.
My advice is to go to UTC. please note that I left SB 8 yrs ago so things with Slife may have been changed.

Agreed. They probably did make some changes especially after the crash of 08 which affected us here in 09 to attract customers but i'm sure the endgame is still there... profits for SL.

Dj_Bee wrote:
telfer wrote:This scotia life is a waste of time I started it and u have a 10 day period to cancel and I did. This suppose to be a savings plan but if u agree for a 200 monthly payment and u get a little extra and u want to put it in the savings u have to pay 2% of the money u putting in which makes no sense so the very smart people at scotia says if u want to put extra in save up all a make a lump sum and pay 2% on that ......... Idots!!!

Scrap that appointment, my money's good where it is

WHAT!?

So hold up. Let's say i put in a monthly payment of $2000 which is the minimum to keep the plan alive but then one month i decide to put in $3000. They charging you 2% on the $3000 or on the $1000 extra you put in? anyway you take it I agree, it's stupid.

And if you put in a lumpsum, as nismaniac said, admin fees one time.

DJ_Bee, still go in because they will do the excel spreadsheet product illustration that Kenjo was mentioning. When they give you a copy, you can scan it and post it here. I would be doing the same.

ronsin1 · Postby **ronsin1** » September 14th, 2014, 2:50 pm

I took it last year and the reason I did was because I took my mortgage with them and did not want to use my existing policies from other companies and no they did not approach me I asked for it

Kenjo · Postby **Kenjo** » September 14th, 2014, 2:55 pm

Scotia is such an Americanized bank at least compared to RBC , they alwAys have some offer that they are calling for. RBC won't even fart on customers