Self-Assessment Checklist: Which Optional Benefits Do You Need?

TopRates.ca is educational. Quotes are not offered or arranged on this site today. Nothing here is advice for your situation — it is the plain-English background to bring to a licensed insurance professional.

Since July 1, 2026, every Ontario auto policy carries three mandatory accident benefits — medical, rehabilitation and attendant care — and offers the rest as options you keep, add or decline. The ten questions below sort those options by what your household would actually lose after a collision. Answer them honestly, note which benefits each "yes" points to, and take the list to your renewal. The point is not to keep everything; it is to decline nothing by accident.

First, the defaults. A policy renewing on or after July 1, 2026 keeps the benefits it already had, in the same amounts, unless you agree in writing to decline or change them. A new policy starts at the mandatory minimum, with nothing optional unless it is added. Know which kind of policy you are looking at.

Second, the covered group. The optional benefits apply only to the named insured, their spouse, the dependants of either, and the drivers listed on the policy. A regular driver who is not listed gets the mandatory benefits and none of the optional ones — so question 10 matters as much as the other nine. For the background, see what statutory accident benefits are.

1. Does anyone in the household rely on employment or self-employment income?

If yes, look at income replacement. The schedule pays 70 per cent of gross weekly income to a standard limit of $400 per week, with optional limits of $600, $800 or $1,000. Run the cap against the actual pay; above roughly $571 a week gross, the $400 cap binds.

2. If that earner could not work for six months, is there a workplace or private disability plan that would pay through it?

If no, income replacement is doing real work. If yes, check the plan's waiting period, duration and how it treats auto-accident injuries before deciding the auto benefit is redundant. "Yes" from memory is not the same as "yes" from the booklet.

3. Is anyone in the household a student, retired, between jobs, or at home without employment income?

If yes, look at the non-earner benefit. It pays a weekly amount where an injury causes a complete inability to carry on a normal life, and it is the weekly benefit that responds when there is no income to replace. Income replacement does nothing for these people.

4. Is one person the primary caregiver for children, an aging parent or a disabled family member?

If yes, look at the caregiver benefit, and ask whether the household could absorb that care without hiring anyone for two years. Single parents should treat this question as answered.

5. If the person who runs the house were injured, would you have to pay someone to do it?

If yes, look at housekeeping and home maintenance, the companion to question 4. People who live alone, and owners of detached houses with real upkeep, tend to answer yes; renters in an apartment with a second adult at home tend to answer no.

6. Is anyone in the household a full- or part-time student?

If yes, look at lost educational expenses, which the regulator describes as help with costs such as tuition and books when an accident keeps someone from attending school. It is a separate benefit from the non-earner benefit; ask about both by name.

7. Does anyone depend on you financially — a spouse, children, a supported parent?

If yes, look at death and funeral benefits. The standard lump sums are $25,000 to a spouse, $10,000 per dependant and up to $6,000 toward a funeral; an optional increase raises them. If no one depends on you, the funeral portion is the only part with a recipient.

8. Do you hold life insurance that is in force, at an amount that would make those lump sums immaterial?

If no, question 7's benefit carries more weight. If yes, it is a decision about overlap. Many households discover at this question that the life policy they meant to buy is still on the list.

9. Does anyone carry valuables in the car, or have family who would need to travel to be with them after a serious injury?

If yes, look at two smaller optional benefits: damage to personal items (clothing, prescription eyewear, hearing aids) and expenses of visitors. The regulator describes both as covering reasonable and necessary expenses. They are easy to drop and cheap to ask about.

10. Is every person who regularly drives this vehicle listed on the policy?

If no, fix that first. Listing is what brings a driver inside the optional benefits; being a family member is not enough on its own. Ask to see the declarations page and read the names.

The optional indexation benefit adjusts certain weekly payments and monetary limits for inflation each year; without it, a benefit that runs two years is paid at the amount set at the start. And the mandatory medical, rehabilitation and attendant care limits can be increased as an optional benefit if you think the standard limits would not meet your needs.

Write down the benefits each "yes" pointed to. Then ask your insurer or broker for the premium of each one shown separately — the regulator expects quotes to show the price of each optional coverage or bundle clearly and to explain each coverage in plain language. Compare each premium with what the benefit would replace. Decline the ones your answers did not point to, keep the ones they did, and confirm the result in writing.

The regulator and the Insurance Bureau of Canada have each published a self-assessment checklist of their own, built around the same questions; FSRA's sits in its auto insurance reforms communications toolkit.

TopRates.ca is educational. Quotes are not offered or arranged on this site today.