Empire Life review
Participating whole life & fast simplified issue
Our rating · #6 of 10 for life insurance
At a glance
The bottom line
Empire Life is a well-capitalized mid-size insurer with the best DBRS rating of its tier (A-high) and a strong digital/simplified-issue reputation — competitively priced term (roughly $22–$32/month for a healthy 30-year-old on $500K, 20-year), participating whole life, and a guaranteed-acceptance option. Its main gap is that it no longer offers universal life, and it’s advisor-only with no online direct purchase.
- Participating whole life & fast simplified issue
- No universal life (phased out)
The expert assessment
How our analysts score Empire Life’s life insurance — 82.8/100 across six weighted pillars.
Financial Strength and Issuer ratings of A (high), stable trend. AM Best withdrew its ratings in May 2021 at Empire Life’s request after affirming A (Excellent) — any AM Best grade you see quoted for Empire Life today is stale.
Source: https://www.empire.ca/about-us/ratings
What experts like
- A (high) DBRS financial strength, stable trend
- Competitive term + strong participating whole life
- Term runs to a paid-up anniversary near age 100 rather than simply ending
- Conversion to permanent stays open to age 75 — unusually late
Watch-outs
- No universal life (phased out)
- Advisor-only — no online direct purchase
What the regulators' filings say about Empire Life
Not ratings or reviews: the numbers Empire Life's underwriting companies file with OSFI and the provincial rate regulators, read straight from the public record.
Empire Life kept 15.9% of premiums after claims and expenses in 2025. Its LICAT ratio is above OSFI's 100% supervisory target and higher than a year earlier. All life & health insurers →
Empire Life life insurance in detail
Scored on our life insurance Expert Score — see the full life insurance ranking.
Ranked #6 of 10 life insurance providers we rate
4.1Good for participating whole life & fast simplified issue
Empire Life is a well-capitalized mid-size insurer with the best DBRS rating of its tier (A-high) and a strong digital/simplified-issue reputation — competitively priced term (roughly $22–$32/month for a healthy 30-year-old on $500K, 20-year), participating whole life, and a guaranteed-acceptance option. Its main gap is that it no longer offers universal life, and it’s advisor-only with no online direct purchase.
- A (high) DBRS financial strength, stable trend
- Competitive term + strong participating whole life
- Term runs to a paid-up anniversary near age 100 rather than simply ending
- Conversion to permanent stays open to age 75 — unusually late
- No universal life (phased out)
- Advisor-only — no online direct purchase
How to buy Empire Life life insurance
Advisor-mediated, not direct. Empire Life's site routes you to a Find an Advisor form covering all provinces and territories; advisors are independent contractors, explicitly not Empire Life employees. Product is also distributed through MGAs and brokers. No fluids are required up to $1M for ages 18-50 (health questionnaire or paramedical only), which speeds issue considerably. Quebec and BC applicants need a special MVR authorization form; Alberta applicants must pull their own MVR.
Empire Life life insurance plans
Solution Series Term (10, 15, 20, 25, 30)
Coverage $25,000-$20,000,000. Issue ages 18-75 (Sol 10) down to 18-55 (Sol 30). Renewable, and coverage continues to a paid-up anniversary nearest age 100 rather than expiring. Convertible to any current permanent plan to age 75, full or partial. No fluids up to $1M for ages 18-50.
Best for Buyers who want a long term with a guaranteed conversion runway well past the usual age-70 cut-off.
Not for Anyone who plans to hold Solution 25 or 30 past the initial term, where premiums then renew annually.
Solution ART (Annually Renewable Term)
Coverage $25,000-$499,999, issue ages 18-65. Premium is level for the first three years, then increases annually to age 85, then levels to paid-up at 100. Convertible to permanent plans. Standard underwriting.
Best for Someone carrying a temporary health rating who expects to re-apply or convert within a few years.
Not for A long-term hold — the annual increases compound badly past the first several years.
EstateMax (participating whole life)
Issue ages 0-75, coverage $25,000-$20,000,000 ($10,000 minimum for juveniles and ages 66-75). Life Pay, 20-Pay or 10-Pay. Guaranteed cash value begins in year 5. Five dividend options including Enhanced Coverage. Standard smoker/non-smoker underwriting.
Best for Estate-planning buyers optimizing for the largest initial and long-run death benefit.
Not for Anyone needing cash value in the first four years — there is none guaranteed until year 5.
Optimax Wealth (participating whole life)
Same issue ages and $25,000-$20,000,000 limits as EstateMax, but adds an 8-Pay option and guaranteed cash value from year 1 rather than year 5. Positioned for higher early cash values across the first 20 years with competitive long-term coverage.
Best for Buyers who want participating coverage but need liquidity early in the policy.
Not for Pure estate maximizers, who get more long-run death benefit from EstateMax.
Trilogy (universal life)
Issue ages 0-80, minimum $10,000. Single, multi-life, and joint structures up to 5 lives. Five cost-of-insurance options (ART85, ART100, 10YRT, 20YRT, Level), all with COI rates guaranteed for the life of the contract. No surrender charges from year 1. Administration fee $10/month.
Best for Buyers wanting tax-sheltered accumulation with guaranteed cost-of-insurance rates and no surrender penalty.
Not for Simple pure-protection needs — the 2% premium load, $10 monthly fee and 3.00% index-account charge are dead weight.
What Empire Life life insurance costs
Price is driven by term length, face amount and risk class. Empire Life applies preferred and elite classes only above $1,000,001 and only when fluid tests are provided; below that everyone is Standard non-smoker or Standard smoker, which makes it comparatively friendly to smokers and to applicants who would rather skip bloodwork. Its own consumer brochure claims preferred/elite savings of up to 43% on initial term premiums, with actual savings ranging from 0%. Third-party comparisons place Empire Life at or slightly below market on 20-year term. Every figure below is a comparison site's quote, not an Empire Life rate card, and the sites disagree.
| Profile | Premium | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Non-smoking male, age 30, $500K, 20-year term | $31.50/month | View source |
| Non-smoking female, age 30, $500K, 20-year term | $22.50/month | View source |
| Non-smoking male, age 50, $500K, 20-year term | $129.60/month | View source |
| Non-smoking male, age 40, $400K, 20-year term | $40.86/month | View source |
| Non-smoking female, age 60, $400K, 20-year term | $238.86/month | View source |
Premiums are the figures published or quoted at the sources above as at September 2026. Insurance is priced individually — treat these as a realistic benchmark, not a quote.
What Empire Life life insurance customers say
The only life-specific consumer dataset in Canada for Empire Life is InsurEye, and it holds three reviews averaging 2.0 out of 5 — far too few to support any conclusion. The substantial volume sits on Birdeye, where 257 reviews average 4.2 out of 5, and that is company-wide rather than life-specific. Read together, Empire Life looks like a competent but unremarkable service operation, with the recurring sore points being reachability and renewal-age premium increases.
Empire Life sells almost entirely through independent advisors, so the person a customer actually deals with is usually not an Empire Life employee — which is why direct-review volume is close to zero and why what does exist skews to people motivated to complain. The 2.7-star App Store rating is for the group benefits claims app, which individual life policyholders never use; several comparison sites blend it into a life verdict, which is wrong. No Trustpilot profile was found, and BBB Canada explicitly states it lacks sufficient information to rate the company.
- Birdeye (company-wide) 4.2/5 257 reviews
- Apple App Store — Empire Life Mobile (group benefits app, not individual life) 2.7/5 42 reviews
- Breadth of term ladder. Reviewers and analysts single out the unusually full range — ART plus 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30-year terms — with the annually renewable option rare among Canadian carriers.
- Conversion flexibility. The ability to convert to age 75, and to partially convert while carrying the remaining term forward as a rider with no medical evidence, is repeatedly cited as a structural advantage.
- Competitive term pricing. Comparison shoppers report Empire Life undercutting larger carriers on identical profiles, with Dundas Life showing $40.86 versus Sun Life's $49.05 for a 40-year-old male.
- Pleasant front-line staff. Even critical reviewers volunteer that the individual they eventually spoke with was courteous, with one two-star reviewer noting the representative was 'very pleasant'.
- Hard to reach a human. The most consistent theme across sources, with one reviewer reporting 'after three calls to customer service still no person to talk to'.
- Steep renewal increases. An InsurEye reviewer reports Empire Life raising his premium roughly 18% per year at age 75, which matches the documented annual-renewal mechanics on the longer Solution plans.
- Slow and disorganized administration. Birdeye reviewers describe service as 'disorganized and extremely slow', including a refund for an overcharge still outstanding two months later.
- Inconsistent coverage answers. Reviewers report that questions about what their policy actually covers 'are not always answered correctly', leaving them uneasy about claim time.
Empire Life: frequently asked questions
Can Empire Life be trusted to pay out a claim?
On the evidence, yes: Empire Life holds an A (high) financial-strength rating from Morningstar DBRS (Jul 2026) — an independent agency’s verdict on its ability to pay claims. Financial Strength and Issuer ratings of A (high), stable trend. AM Best withdrew its ratings in May 2021 at Empire Life’s request after affirming A (Excellent) — any AM Best grade you see quoted for Empire Life today is stale.
Who is Empire Life life insurance a good fit for?
Empire Life stands out for participating whole life & fast simplified issue. A (high) DBRS financial strength, stable trend, and competitive term + strong participating whole life. If those things matter most to you, it’s worth a close look; if your priority is something else, compare it against the companies that rate highest on that pillar.
What are the downsides of Empire Life life insurance?
The watch-outs we found: no universal life (phased out); advisor-only — no online direct purchase. We spell these out so you can weigh them before buying — every insurer has trade-offs, and knowing them upfront is the point of a real review.
How does Empire Life compare to other life insurance companies in Canada?
Empire Life ranks #6 of the 10 life insurance providers we scored, at 82.8/100. It’s strongest on financial strength and has the most room to improve on digital experience.
Does my Empire Life term policy actually end when the term does?
No, and this is Empire Life's most distinctive structural feature. Solution Series term plans do not terminate at the end of the initial term — they renew and continue to a policy anniversary nearest age 100, at which point the policy is fully paid up. What changes is the price, not the existence of the coverage. Solution 10, 15 and 20 renew at fixed intervals with a final increase after age 75, 70 and 65 respectively; Solution 25 and 30 renew annually after the initial term until age 85. So the coverage survives, but the cost of holding it long past the initial term rises sharply.
How long do I have to convert an Empire Life term policy to permanent coverage?
Until the policy anniversary nearest age 75, which is later than most Canadian carriers allow. You can convert to any permanent plan Empire Life currently sells, in full or in part, without new medical evidence. If you convert partially, the remaining term coverage can be carried forward as a rider on the new policy — but the permanent portion has to be at least 40% of the total insurance. One catch worth knowing before you rely on this: converted coverage is issued at standard rates even if you originally qualified for a preferred or elite risk class, so you lose that pricing advantage on conversion.
Will I need a medical exam and bloodwork for Empire Life?
Often not. For ages 18 to 50, coverage up to $1,000,000 requires only an electronic health questionnaire or a paramedical interview — no fluids. Fluids become mandatory above $1,000,001, or earlier at older ages: from age 51 the no-fluids ceiling drops to $300,000, from 56 to $249,999, and from 61 to $99,999. Above $3,000,000 you also complete a financial questionnaire. Note that preferred and elite rates are only available if you do provide fluids, so skipping bloodwork means accepting standard rates.
Is Empire Life still rated by AM Best?
No. AM Best withdrew its ratings of Empire Life in May 2021 at the company's own request, after affirming a Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent). Many Canadian comparison sites still display an AM Best rating for Empire Life, and at least one shows an A+ that does not match the affirmation record — treat those as stale. The live rating to look at is Morningstar DBRS, which as at July 2026 assigns Empire Life a Financial Strength Rating and Issuer Rating of A (high) with a stable trend. Empire Life also states it ranks among Canada's top 10 life insurers by assets in December 2025 OSFI filings.
Can I buy Empire Life insurance directly online without an advisor?
Not for the main Solution Series or permanent products. Empire Life's website routes you to a Find an Advisor form, and the advisor who contacts you is an independent contractor authorized to sell Empire Life products — not an Empire Life employee. That distinction matters for service expectations: much of what buyers rate as their Empire Life experience is really their advisor's. Empire Life's buy page does present a 'want to buy it yourself' option, and there are references to an online application path for its Simplified 10 and 20 products, but we could not verify that path directly, so plan on an advisor conversation.