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15/10/2026

Cash value inside a life policy is a balance that comes with conditions, and those conditions decide whether it can work as a reserve.

Premiums have to keep being paid. Charges are deducted inside the policy. Surrender charges can apply in the early years. A loan against the cash value accrues interest, and any unpaid loan reduces the death benefit. For indexed policies, the crediting caps and participation rates can change over the years, so the outcome varies and is never guaranteed.

Those conditions are the reason this belongs in a planning conversation. For some Canadian households in the Gulf, an indexed universal life policy can sit beside fixed income and cash as one more source of money that does not require selling investments in a weak market. For others it does not fit their income, their time horizon or their need for liquidity.

The sound approach is to read the policy terms first and decide the role afterward.

Do you know what conditions sit on the cash value of any policy your household already owns?

14/10/2026

The same market decline does more damage to a retirement in year one than in year fifteen.

Early withdrawals during a downturn permanently reduce the capital that later recoveries work on. A household that draws 4% from a portfolio that has just fallen 20% has sold a larger share of the portfolio than the plan assumed, and that share cannot participate when prices rise again. Planners call this sequence risk. It is a timing problem, and averages hide it.

Households can address it with a decumulation plan that separates the next several years of spending from the money that stays invested for growth. The near-term layer can hold cash and fixed income with maturities matched to the spending years. A personally owned life policy with accessible cash value may sit alongside as a further layer, with clear conditions: premiums stay paid, loans accrue interest, and any loan reduces the death benefit.

Households also keep a rule for which pot gets used in a down year. Without one, the decision gets made under stress.

Which of your household's assets would you leave untouched for a year if markets fell sharply?

Bassem Fawzy, LL.B., PFP, FCSI | Vice President MENA | Elixir Wealth Private – DIFC | Regulated by the DFSA

13/10/2026

The Bank of Canada announces its next rate decision on October 28, and in late September markets priced a hike at roughly even odds.

For a household still earning, that is a headline. For a household about to start drawing on savings, the same week can decide which assets get sold first. A withdrawal taken from a portfolio that is down removes units that would otherwise have been there to recover.

Decumulation planning starts with sources. Which pot funds next year's spending if markets are weak, and does that pot depend on a market recovery at all? Cash reserves and bonds maturing in the right years answer part of that. A personally owned permanent life policy with accessible cash value can serve as one further source, subject to its terms, its charges, the interest on any loan taken against it, and the premiums being paid.

None of these is free and none suits every household. A plan names its sources in advance, so a weak year changes which pot is used and leaves the plan itself alone.

12/10/2026

Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian friends and families. Wishing you a warm day with the people who matter most.

09/10/2026

Rates made headlines this month. The Federal Reserve raised its rate on September 16 for the first time in three years, the US 30-year yield reached its highest level since 2004, and Canada's 10-year touched 3.99%.

For a Canadian family in the Gulf, the dirham's peg to the US dollar means US rate moves tend to reach savings and borrowing costs here too. For anyone drawing on savings, the bigger question is which years of spending are already covered by assets that do not depend on a market recovery.

Fixed income can answer that in a planned way: holdings that mature across the years you expect to spend, so each year has a defined source of cash. Credit quality and maturity still matter, and the right mix depends on the household.

08/10/2026

The UAE dirham is pegged to the US dollar, so a Federal Reserve rate decision reaches Gulf households whether or not they own a single US bond.

The Fed raised its rate to a range of 3.75% to 4.00% on September 16, and sixteen of eighteen officials reportedly expect at least one more increase this year. The Bank of Canada held at 2.25% on September 2 and meets again on October 28, with markets pricing roughly even odds of a hike.

Two central banks moving in different directions complicate things for a Canadian household earning in dirhams, saving in one currency and planning to spend in another. Rate headlines rarely settle that question for anyone. A bond in one currency does not fund spending in another without a conversion at whatever rate applies that day.

A plan does. Decide how many years of spending belong in stable fixed-income holdings, in which currency each year's spending will fall, and what remains invested for growth. Those choices come first, and the daily rate news comes second.

Which currency will most of your household's retirement spending be in?

07/10/2026

A long-dated bond bought before September lost market value when the US 30-year yield reached 5.46%, its highest since 2004.

That loss appears on a statement and becomes real only if the bond is sold. A bond held to maturity pays its face value back, subject to the credit quality of the issuer. The risk sits in the word "sold": a household that needs cash in a weak year may have no choice.

Retirees and near-retirees face this more than anyone else. Withdrawals begin while prices are low, and every dollar taken from a falling holding leaves less to recover when prices turn. A plan that ignores this timing problem can look sound on paper and still fail in practice.

Decumulation planning addresses this by matching assets to the years they will be spent. Money needed in the next three to five years sits in fixed income with maturities that line up with those years, and the cash arrives on schedule whatever the market is doing that week. Money not needed for a decade can carry more price movement.

How many years of your household's spending are covered by assets that do not depend on a market recovery?

06/10/2026

The Canadian 10-year government bond yield reached 3.99% on September 24, its highest level since November 2023.

The US 10-year touched 5.14% and the 30-year reached 5.46%, the highest since 2004, after the Federal Reserve raised its rate on September 16 for the first time in three years. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions, so anyone holding long-dated bonds before that move saw their market value fall.

For a household drawing down savings, the more useful question is when the money will be needed. A set of bonds maturing across the years a household plans to spend, often called a ladder, ties each holding to a specific year of income.

That is the job fixed income does in decumulation planning. It gives the next several years of spending a defined schedule, so a decline in the growth portion of a portfolio does not force a sale at the wrong moment. Issuer credit quality and the maturities chosen still matter, and neither is a given.

05/10/2026

Most Canadian households in the Gulf have never run one specific number: how many years of income the family would actually need if a parent's paycheck stopped tomorrow.

Most employment packages here include a modest life insurance policy, usually around two times salary, and it ends the day the job does. Add a Canadian RRSP that's been left alone since the move, a UAE end-of-service gratuity capped at two years' basic wage no matter how long you stay, and a retirement plan nobody has modeled past age 65, and the real gap becomes clear fast.

This isn't a problem money alone solves. It's a sizing problem: knowing what the household would actually need, in income and in a lump sum, and comparing that honestly to what's already in place.

02/10/2026

A UAE group life policy worth two years' salary disappears the same day the paycheck does.

Most Gulf employment packages include a modest life insurance policy, usually two times annual salary, owned and paid for by the employer. It looks like real protection on a benefits summary. Look closer, and it was never built to survive much.

For a Canadian household years into a Gulf posting, that policy was never sized against the family's real numbers, and it doesn't survive a job change, let alone a death. Run a simple household case study: two working parents, two children in school, a Canadian RRSP left untouched since departure. The coverage gap shows up fast, months of protection where years are actually needed, tied entirely to an employer with no stake in the outcome.

Sizing this properly starts with the household's actual income-replacement and legacy number, not a policy handed out on someone's first day at a new job. That number stays intact no matter who is signing the paycheck.

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Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)
Dubai

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http://www.bassem-fawzy.com/

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