Manulife One Discovery Centre

Create a retirement backup plan

Even if you’re confident that you’re financially prepared for retirement, it never hurts to have a backup plan in place. And if you’re like most Canadians, your home is your largest asset—don’t you want to be able to access the equity you have built up in it? 

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Access your money Reverse mortgages Help prevent fraud Let's review

Access your money

With Manulife One, you can borrow up to 65% of the appraised value of your home in the Main Account. So unlike a traditional mortgage, you always have easy access to the equity in your home—up to your borrowing limit—whenever you need it. This can help provide financial flexibility that allows you to:

Supplement retirement income

 Supplement your retirement income, making sure you can take advantage of life’s opportunities, like taking a dream vacation, or respond to life’s challenges, such as a major home repair.

Help family members

Help a family member with education expenses or a down payment on a home. For example, you can gift a child or grandchild part of or all of their down payment.

Pause investment withdrawals

Temporarily stop making withdrawals from your investments if the markets are down. As always, you’ll want to speak to your advisor when making these types of financial decisions. 

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Manulife One vs a reverse mortgage

Although Manulife One is a mortgage, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be taking on debt when you open the account.

The line of credit in the Main Account will be available to you, but if you don’t have a need to borrow any money, you don’t have to. And you won’t incur any interest charges until you do. Bottom line—there are no withdrawals required, and there’s no minimum withdrawal amount. You only withdraw money when you need it.  And as always, you can pay off the debt in your Main Account as quickly as you want with no penalty.

In contrast, reverse mortgages are generally not as flexible as Manulife One. For example, some reverse mortgages force you to withdraw a minimum amount right when you get the mortgage and you can’t repay your debt early without paying a penalty.

With Manulife One, you don’t have to make deposits until you reach your borrowing limit.

Your interest payment will still automatically be taken from your Main Account at the end of the month. This is called letting the interest accrue or capitalize. If you reach your borrowing limit, you’ll need to start making payments to your Main Account. With a reverse mortgage, you can let your interest capitalize indefinitely, as long as you’re living in the home—if you do this, you will have reduced equity in your home when you go to sell it.

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Help prevent mortgage fraud

In addition to having money to cover expenses such as health care costs and home maintenance, some of our retired customers open a Manulife One to register a collateral mortgage charge (PDF) against their home to help prevent mortgage fraud. When a property has no mortgage registered, it can be susceptible to fraud—someone else can register a mortgage against the property title. If you register a Manulife One on the title of your mortgage-free home, the registration acts as a deterrent to potential fraudsters.



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Let’s review

  • Manulife One can help provide you with a flexible retirement backup plan.
  • When you open a Manulife One, there are no early withdrawals required, and there’s no minimum withdrawal amount. You can also repay the debt in your Main Account at any time. Reverse mortgages do not offer this level of flexibility.
  • Registering a mortgage on your property, such as Manulife One, can help prevent mortgage fraud.
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Next steps

We invite you to talk to your advisor as part of your overall financial plan or your mortgage broker to find out more about Manulife One. If you don’t work with an advisor or broker, our Find an advisor tool can help you find one.

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Manulife One is offered by Manulife Bank of Canada.

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