My mom is 72, in great health, active and doing very well for herself. She's retired with a government pension, has 0 debts and is living comfortably well below her means. Her home is mortgage-free and is worth over 1M, and she also has over 1M in savings through various RRSP, TSFAs, savings accounts and non-registered investment accounts.

She has no dependents (divorced) and all of her children are adults with a good income, stable jobs, and enough saving to pay for all of her funeral's expenses.

A financial advisor at RBC is trying to convince her to sign up for manulfe whole life insurance and claims that "given your health history it does make sense to proceed with an application and we do see value in the insurance."

But my mom is unsure it's in her best interests and asked me to look into it.

So far, I don't understand how it makes sense at all. In fact, to me it looks a terribly bad idea that they're selling.

They want my mom to pay a $10,000 annual premium for 15 years (until aged 87) for a total benefit death of $191,400, after which the death benefit actually decreases to $180,776 at aged 90, only to slowly increase back to $246,282 at age 100.

OR, they want her to pay a $8,107 annual premium for 18 years for a guaranteed fixed death benefit of only $100,000.

How does this make any sense??

Unless she plans to die in the next 4 years, it seems to me that she's way better off at investing in a conservative portfolio. According to my calculations, even a dismissal investment return of merely 2.5% would give better returns than this insurance policy.

Is this financial advisor full of crap for an easy commission off a someone who doesn't know better, or am I missing something?

Province: Ontario

PS: My grandmother was in worse health at 72 than my mom and lived until 99 despite being in worst care. I have no doubts that my mom stay alive and healthy longer, since she stays more active, is surrounded by engaging friends, and will have the luxury to stay at a more comfortable residence when time comes.