To My Canadian Friends

[Vern Humphrey]

My wife has a small life insurance policy with a company headquartered in Canada. I just got a letter from the Canadian authorities requiring me to submit a notarized statement certifying she is still alive.

Are your bureaucrats out of their ever-lovin' minds!?!?

It's a LIFE INSURANCE policy!! If she weren't alive, I would have submitted a claim!

You have my sympathy for living under a bureaucracy like that!!

[Mark in Ottawa]

I just spent the last two hours with friends reminiscing about our days as federal bureaucrats. Many of our stories were of similar bureaucratic stupidity. In fact, I mentioned that the department that I worked for for 14 years was probably the cause of most of the unnecessary internal bureaucratic BS.

By the way, be sure that the request is genuine. If they ask for personal data that you would not necessarily share such as your social security or Canadian social insurance number and /or anything related to your banking arrangements be very hesitant to share the data.

[Sandpebble]

I'm not so sure we should beat up on the Canadians over bureaucratic bumbling there Vern. Years ago it took the wife and I seven years.... 7 years to convince the IRS and Social Security that we had the same last name regardless of every possible proof we could offer making income tax time a living nightmare.

And I've just spent the past six years in a failed effort to get local government to print my annually renewed business licence with my name correctly spelled....guess they just can't do it.

Plus year after paying my fee, instead of mailing me my copy of the licence..... they sent me another bill... with my mispelled name on it.

[Sunray]

"...Are your bureaucrats out of their ever-lovin' minds..." Yeah, why?
Our unelected civil servants, collecting huge pay cheques from our tax papers, assuming that's the Canadian authorities you mean, do not do that kind of thing for the assorted insurance companies. And the insurance companies don't do it for themselves.
It's highly probable that whoever sent that letter is living in Nigeria or some place similar.

[lyman]

I'm not so sure we should beat up on the Canadians over bureaucratic bumbling there Vern. Years ago it took the wife and I seven years.... 7 years to convince the IRS and Social Security that we had the same last name regardless of every possible proof we could offer making income tax time a living nightmare.

And I've just spent the past six years in a failed effort to get local government to print my annually renewed business licence with my name correctly spelled....guess they just can't do it.

Plus year after paying my fee, instead of mailing me my copy of the licence..... they sent me another bill... with my mispelled name on it.

I have had several customers that I have had to refuse a sale to (FFL/SOT) because DMV screwed up the spelling of their name,
and those customers had a tough time getting DMV to get it right

[Vern Humphrey]

"...Are your bureaucrats out of their ever-lovin' minds..." Yeah, why?
Our unelected civil servants, collecting huge pay cheques from our tax papers, assuming that's the Canadian authorities you mean, do not do that kind of thing for the assorted insurance companies. And the insurance companies don't do it for themselves.
It's highly probable that whoever sent that letter is living in Nigeria or some place similar.

Nope. This has to do with how to tax her dividends.

[Sunray]

So it's supposedly Revenue Canada? They don't ask for proof of life either. A whole life policy, assuming that's what it is, isn't taxed annually anyway(Had an insurance licence for a while). There are no "dividends" involved, but there is 'cash value'. Isn't taxed until it's cashed in. Then the insurance company will send the Government's cut to them and send you the rest.
There have been scams going on, up here, with Revenue Canada and other government agencies being named as interested in people. This sounds like a variation.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/corporate/security/protect-yourself-against-fraud.html#h5

[Vern Humphrey]

There are dividends on this policy -- about $400 a year. She's had it about 40 years.

[Sunray]

This the first time our government idiots have contacted you? Revenue Canada does not ask for proof of life for any reason.

[Vern Humphrey]

This the first time our government idiots have contacted you? Revenue Canada does not ask for proof of life for any reason.

They contact me regularly. I suspect it's due to the fact this is the first time I have signed for my wife under a Power of Attorney.

[jon_norstog]

They contact me regularly. I suspect it's due to the fact this is the first time I have signed for my wife under a Power of Attorney.

That is a pretty good guess Vern.

jn

[RED]

I find it interesting that anybody that begs for and supports bigger government, higher taxes, and more and more bureaucrats, can possibly cry about bureaucratic bungling and misdeeds.

My wife was a retired Senior Secretary at a University. When she retired she had to pay the premiums to keep some of her insurance benefits, namely group life insurance and Dental Insurance. The premiums were deducted from her monthly retirement check. When she died, the University Retirement Specialist explained to me that all her retirement benefits ended the moment she died and that included life insurance. Think about that for a minute! I had final medical and funeral expenses that had to be paid and that of course was the purpose of the policy. It took nearly six months and a lawyer to collect the proceeds and in the meantime my own group life and dental insurance through the University expired for lack of payments.

Not one single department in the U.S. government is run efficiently, not a single one, and yet and we still have people that want more and bigger government. They want the government to be in charge of their health care, what they can eat and drink, watch on TV and every other part of their lives from cradle to grave. They vote for people like Peelosi. Hillary, Schumer and Schiff and still claim to be pro gun. It is absolutely mindless.

[togor]

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/admin.html

Seems like a pretty low expense ratio.

As for government inefficiency, I think that is to a large degree a feature of the system as opposed to a bug. A government that can just go do whatever it wants at the drop of a hat could be very scary in many ways.

[Former Cav]

don't feel bad...........
I got DRAFTED 3 times between 1964 and 1968..
morons!

[Vern Humphrey]

don't feel bad...........
I got DRAFTED 3 times between 1964 and 1968..
morons!

But at least you felt wanted.