Term life conversion deadlines by Canadian insurer

Your term life policy almost certainly lets you convert to permanent coverage with no medical exam and no health questions. That right expires on a fixed date set by your contract. No Canadian insurer allows conversion past age 75, and most stop at 70 or 71.

If you bought a Term 20 in your thirties or forties, your conversion privilege is probably the most valuable financial asset you own that you have never thought about. It is the right to buy permanent life insurance at the health class you were approved for on the day you applied, regardless of what has happened to your health since.

It is also the only right in your policy that vanishes on a specific date and cannot be recovered.

What the conversion privilege actually is

Most individually underwritten term policies sold in Canada are described as renewable and convertible. The convertible half means the insurer contractually agrees to issue you a permanent policy, on request, without evidence of insurability.

No medical exam. No blood work. No questionnaire about the stent, the diagnosis, or the medication you started last year. RBC Insurance states the position plainly for its own contracts: conversion to a permanent or universal life plan at any time prior to age 71, with no health questions or medical exam.

The price you pay is based on your age at conversion and the health class recorded when the original policy was issued. If you were approved at standard rates at 38, you convert at standard rates at 58, even if you would be declined outright on a fresh application today.

The deadline table

Across the Canadian market, conversion deadlines fall into three bands:

Insurers are consistently more conservative about conversion deadlines than about renewal deadlines. That is the opposite of what most policyholders assume, and it is why conversion is usually the first right you lose rather than the last.

Why your insurer’s name does not tell you your deadline

There is no reliable table that maps a company to a date, and you should be sceptical of any page that offers one. Five reasons:

Deadlines are set per product, not per company. A single insurer may sell several term products with different conversion terms at the same time. Desjardins converts most of its term products up to age 70, but its Term 65 product only to age 60. Canada Life’s My Term converts up to age 70, but a My Term policy issued at age 69 or older can only be converted in its first two years.

Your contract vintage governs, not the current shelf. The terms that bind you are the ones printed in the contract you signed. A policy issued in 2006 is governed by 2006 terms, which may differ substantially from what the same insurer sells today. Product guides describe current products. Your contract describes yours.

The policy anniversary governs, not your birthday. Contracts typically reference the policy anniversary nearest or preceding a stated age. That can move the real date up to a year in either direction from what you would calculate from your date of birth. RBC’s public product page says prior to age 71. The specimen contract behind it says prior to the policy anniversary nearest the life insured’s seventy-first birthday. Both are accurate. Only the second one tells you your date.

Riders may differ from base coverage. A spousal rider or additional benefit attached to the policy can carry conversion terms different from the base coverage.

Even the industry’s own data tables contain errors. While preparing this page, we checked industry data compiled by InsuranceINTEL and published in 2025 which reported that Foresters Financial caps Term 20 conversion at age 65. Foresters’ own advisor guide and current product page say conversion runs to the policy anniversary nearest age 71, for every term length. The age 65 figure appears to have confused conversion with Foresters’ separate exchange privilege, a different right with its own age caps. If the professional data services can disagree with an insurer’s own documents, a blog table is not going to settle your deadline. Your contract will.

This is why the only answer that means anything is the one read off your actual contract. The section below shows you how to find it, and we will do it for you at no cost if you would rather not.

Current products, for orientation only

The table below describes products currently on sale. Every row was checked against the insurer’s own published documents, not third party data, in September 2026. It is not a statement about your policy and should not be relied on to establish your own deadline, particularly if your contract predates the product listed.

Manulife, iA, Equitable Life and Desjardins are reported by broker sources at age 70 or 71, but we could not verify those figures against insurer documents, so they are not in the table. We would rather publish ten rows we can stand behind than a full market table we cannot.

Why the deadline is earlier than you think

The deadline is usually an age, not a term end. A Term 20 bought at 55 reaches the end of its initial term at 75, but if the conversion cutoff is age 71 you lose the privilege four years before the initial term itself ends. Those four years are precisely the ones in which your health is most likely to have changed.

Conversion dies before renewal does. Term coverage most commonly renews to age 85. Some products stop at 80, and several, including Empire Life, Wawanesa and RBC, run to age 100 before the coverage becomes paid up. Conversion stops at 75 at the very latest, and for most of the market at 70 or 71. So the expensive right to keep renewing survives long after the valuable right to convert has gone. What renewal actually costs, and how the structures differ by insurer, is covered in our guide to what happens when term life insurance expires.

What you can convert into

Conversion is not a single product. Depending on the insurer and the vintage of your contract, the permanent products available may include participating whole life, non participating whole life, universal life, and in some cases a term to 100 style plan. Some insurers let you choose from their permanent shelf. Others designate the product: Humania, for example, converts into a non participating whole life plan it designates at the time of conversion.

Partial conversion is commonly allowed, which matters a great deal for affordability. You can convert the portion of coverage that addresses a permanent need and let the rest go, rather than facing an all or nothing decision.

Some products add structure to this. Canada Life’s My Term includes a conversion with reset option, available on full or partial conversions, in which at least 40 percent of the converted amount must be applied to base permanent coverage, with the balance continuing as a converted term benefit whose term length is at least as long as the original. The reset moves the next renewal date out, and rates on the new coverage are set at the attained age without underwriting.

That is one insurer’s design, not a general rule. It is a good illustration of why the specific contract matters more than any summary. The pricing mechanics, how to size a partial conversion, and when converting is the wrong answer are covered in our guide to converting term life to permanent coverage.

How to find your own deadline

Five steps, and you need the contract rather than any summary of it.

1. Find the contract, not the annual statement. The statement shows your premium and coverage amount. Only the contract contains the conversion provision. If you cannot find it, the insurer will send a replacement copy on request. Ask specifically for the full contract including the conversion provision, not a statement of benefits or a summary of coverage, because those will not contain the clause.

2. Locate the clause. Look for a heading reading Conversion Privilege, Conversion Option, Right to Convert, or Conversion to Permanent Insurance. It usually sits with the other policy provisions rather than on the schedule page.

3. Read the age wording exactly. You are looking for phrasing along the lines of “prior to the policy anniversary nearest the insured’s 71st birthday” or “before the policy anniversary following the insured’s 65th birthday.” The words nearest, following, preceding and prior to each produce a different date. Write down the wording verbatim rather than paraphrasing it.

4. Record four facts from the policy schedule. Original issue date. Issue age. Rate class or risk class at issue, which is what your converted premium will be based on. Face amount, including any riders listed separately.

5. Calculate the date, then check it against the anniversary. Apply the age from step 3 to your date of birth, then move it to the anniversary the wording requires. That anniversary date is your real deadline. It can sit up to a year away from the birthday you would have assumed.

If the wording is ambiguous, and a fair amount of older contract language is, that ambiguity is worth resolving in writing with the insurer rather than guessing. A written confirmation of your conversion expiry date costs nothing and settles the question permanently.

Or send it to us. Email us a copy of the contract and we will read the clause, calculate the date against your policy anniversary, tell you which permanent products your contract makes you eligible for, and confirm whether partial conversion is permitted. No cost, no application, and no obligation to do anything with the answer.

Frequently asked questions

Does converting require a medical exam?

No. That is the entire point of the privilege. The insurer has already accepted the risk and contractually agreed to issue permanent coverage without reassessing your health.

Will my old health rating carry over?

Generally, yes. You convert at the rate class assigned when the original policy was issued. If you were rated at issue, that rating usually carries forward, and some insurers will consider reducing it at conversion. Preferred classes are the exception: some contracts carry a preferred class into the new policy only for a limited period, RBC for example within the first ten policy years, and map you to standard rates for your smoking status after that. Any exclusion in the original policy carries into the new one.

Is converting cheaper than buying a new permanent policy?

Not necessarily. If you are still in good health, a freshly underwritten permanent policy can cost less. Conversion wins when your health has changed, because it is priced on your old health class rather than your current one.

Can I convert only part of my coverage?

Usually yes. Most Canadian insurers allow partial conversion, often subject to a minimum amount and sometimes to rules about how much must go to base permanent coverage.

What happens if I miss the deadline?

The privilege is gone permanently. Your remaining options are renewing the term at attained age rates if the policy is still within its renewal period, applying for new coverage with full underwriting, or applying for simplified issue coverage. None of those preserve your original health class.

Can I convert a group life benefit from work?

That is a different provision with a much shorter window, typically 31 days from the date your group coverage ends, under the standard wording Canadian group contracts follow. Group conversion also commonly ends at age 65 and caps the amount you can convert, often at $200,000. Our guide to group life insurance conversion covers the window, the age limit and the cap.

If your health has changed and you are weighing conversion against a new application, our hard to insure guide covers how carriers differ and what a preliminary inquiry can tell you without creating a record.

What to do next

Not sure of your own deadline? Email us a copy of your contract and we will read the clause, calculate the date against your policy anniversary, and confirm your options, at no cost and with no obligation. Or if a new policy is on the table too, get a free quote and compare both.