COVID-19 FAQs

We know that social distancing is affecting you and how you’ve been able to use your benefits. We also know the economic uncertainty may affect your ability to pay your insurance premiums. We’re actively looking at what options we’ll be able to offer Clients affected by COVID-19. We’ll share more about how we will help as quickly as we can. 

We’re staying committed to worldwide communities. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Sun Life will be donating $1 million to support health care, elder care and address food security needs.

Learn more about how we’re helping charities in the markets in which we operate.

Your Sun Life Financial advisor can meet with you online using Zoom video chat. We use an Enterprise version of Zoom, which runs over an encrypted internet connection to keep your computer and webcam information private and secure. This version also has new security features that allow advisors to:

• validate and admit the participants prior to entering the Zoom session,
• lock the meeting to prevent anyone else to join,
• limit what participants can do, and
• remove anyone who should not be part of the meeting.

During the meeting, you’ll be able to see your advisor and the information they share from their computer screen. You’ll be in full control of your video camera.

Other video conference platforms will not be as secure, so your advisor will only video conference with you using Zoom.

Call or email your advisor for more information or to set up a meeting.

We keep your personal information secure no matter where our employees are located. Even though some employees are working from home, we haven’t changed the way we access, use and store your data. Our existing privacy and security controls are still in place.

Most Clients can sign up for this through their mysunlife.ca account. Other Clients will have to send us their banking information before we can send electronic payments. Give us a call at 1-877-SUN-LIFE (1-877-786-5433) and we’ll walk you through it.

No, your remaining balance will not carry over to next year.

Your HSA and PSA terms haven’t changed. We’ll carry over your account balances and expenses the way your contract tells us to. We aren’t adding any extra extensions.

There are many expenses you can claim to use up your HSA or PSA balance. You can find a list at mysunlife.ca in the Benefits section.

• Select Coverage information
• In the Spending Account section, choose Health Spending Account coverage or Personal Spending Account coverage

You can also find information in your benefits booklet.

Yes. Your health remains our top priority. We want to make it easier for you to see your health-care provider.

If your plan covers the practitioners listed below, you’ll continue to have the same coverage as non-virtual services. We’ll cover virtual services for appointments where you don’t need in-person therapies. This means we’re covering your claims for virtual services performed by:

• Audiologists 
• Chiropodists 
• Chiropractors 
• Naturopaths 
• Occupational Therapists 
• Osteopaths 
• Podiatrists 
• Psychologists 
• Psychotherapists 
• Physiotherapists 
• Registered Dieticians 
• Social Workers 
• Speech Therapists  

Your practitioner must be in Canada for us to cover your claim.

We continue to review and assess all of our processes. We want to ensure we make it easier for you to continue on your health journey.

You can submit a claim on mysunlife.ca or through the my Sun Life mobile app.

To make a claim for a virtual service:

• Select the type of service
• Select the location of service
  • For any virtual appointments, select “virtual visits” as the location of service

We know you want to ensure you have enough medication at home. Early on in the pandemic, health authorities recommended pharmacists provide a 30-day supply to Canadians. This helped ensure everyone could get the medications they needed. Some provinces are now beginning to relax these limits, but it depends on your province and your medication. Talk to your pharmacist next time you get a refill and they’ll explain the limits that apply to you.

You can rest assured that the coverage you bought through your advisor remains the same. We haven’t made any changes to your policies because of COVID-19. We’ll continue to pay claims for policies in good standing (in force), and as long as the information you provided was accurate when you applied.  

• Life insurance: We’ll pay claims when death is due to COVID-19. 
• Critical illness insurance covers critical illnesses such as heart attack or stroke. COVID-19 is not a covered illness. We’ll continue to cover Clients who suffer a covered critical illness after contracting COVID-19.  
• Personal Health, Insurance Personal Health Direct, My Health Choice and Health Coverage Choice: Usually, policies cover emergency travel medical coverage for 60 days. If you are out of country and delayed returning to Canada beyond your 60-day coverage date, we’ll extend individual emergency travel medical coverage until April 30, 2020. You can submit your claims as usual or give us a call at 1-800-361-6212.  We’ll continue to visit this time frame as the situation progresses. 
• Long Term Care Insurance: We’ll continue to pay claims for Clients who meet the requirements in their policy.  

Your policy includes the details about your coverage. Your advisor can help you with any questions. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the lives of many Canadians. We’re here to help. If you purchased your insurance through an advisor and you’re facing financial hardship due to the pandemic, we have solutions to help you keep your valuable life and health insurance coverage in place.

Please speak with your advisor or contact us at 1-877-SUN-LIFE (1-877-786-5433) to see how we can help you.

If you have a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF) and other registered income plan types (like LIFs), you can reduce your required minimum annual withdrawals by up to 25% in 2020. This gives you the flexibility to redeem fewer assets while their market value is low.

You don’t have to lower your minimum withdrawal if you don’t want to. This is a temporary change that applies only to the 2020 tax year. The RRIF minimum reduction will apply to the entire minimum annual payment. You cannot make a re-contribution if you’ve already made your original minimum withdrawal.

You can read more about this change on the Government of Canada website.

If you want to take advantage of this option, reach out to your advisor or call us at 1‑877‑SUN‑LIFE (1‑877‑786‑5433).

We know it’s emotional to see your portfolio go down in the short term. But if your long-term goals haven’t changed, it pays to stay the course. If your financial goals have changed, we are here for you. If you do need to make a change, here’s more information:

To change your investments in savings accounts set up through your employer:

• Sign in to mysunlife.ca.
• Under Investments, select my financial centre.
• Under Requests, select Change investments.
• Not registered yet? Take a few minutes to register now.

To change the investments in accounts you set up through your advisor:

• Contact your advisor. If you can’t find your advisor’s number or email address, go to Find an advisor and enter your advisor’s last name.

For more information, you can go to our Contributions, withdrawals and fund changes page.