Important: New application requirements

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a new international standard for the automatic exchange of information on “Financial Accounts”, including life insurance policies with cash value and annuity contracts, between CRS participating countries, which includes Canada. The purpose of the CRS is to reduce tax evasion and improve tax compliance around the world.

Foresters Financial™ is now required to gather tax residency information from certain certificate and policy holders for the purpose of identifying reportable accounts. This requirement came into effect on July 1, 2017.

To comply with CRS, Foresters will require the completion of a

RC520 - Declaration of Tax Residence for Individuals

or RC521 - Declaration of Tax Residence for Entities

for all applications for Advantage Plus,¹ Non-Par Whole Life,² Simplified Non-Par Whole Life,² Child Non-Par Whole Life,² and Annuity Plus.¹

We will not settle applications without the completed declaration.

The declaration will also be required for certain inforce policy forms such as conversions and change of owner.

In addition, we will no longer be able to accept life and critical illness insurance applications with a version date before March 2016. The version date on the Application for life and critical illness insurance is found in the lower right-hand corner. The current version is available here.

Please contact our Compliance team at askcompliance@foresters.com if you have any questions.

Sky and Bluesky updates
We updated our Sky illustration system on June 25^th to add the declaration form to illustrations for non-registered products with cash value. You will have the option to select whether the individual or entity declaration is required. The appropriate declaration will be automatically added to the end of the illustration.

In addition, we are updating pdfs of the appropriate applications and forms on our advisor portal Bluesky with the declaration as well as adding the two declaration forms to the Forms section of our portal.

Additional resources
The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) has prepared a comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document on CRS. The FAQ is available in two formats: CRS FAQ for Advisors and CRS FAQ for Clients.