Exciting things have been happening in the world of insurance at Canada Life™. Let’s recap this year’s incredible journey and see what we achieved together.
On July 1, 2022, the dividend scale increased for policies in the Canada Life combined open participating (par) account. This includes policies that formerly belonged to the Canada Life open account before amalgamation on Jan. 1, 2020. The dividend scale also increased for the Canada Life closed account policies issued before Nov. 5, 1999. The dividend scales decreased for former New York Life and Crown Life policies.
For the Canada Life combined open account and Canada Life closed account policies, we saw strong performance in the investment component, which is one of several parts making up the dividend scales. This was mainly driven by:
- Exceptional equity market performance throughout 2021.
- Changes to our investment strategy in 2021. We delivered on our commitment to increase our non-fixed income assets to 30% of assets backing liabilities in the combined open account and Canada Life closed account.
- Interest rates continued to rebound in 2021 after their lows from 2020.
The dividend scale changes resulted in the following increases to the DSIRs:
|
Par Policies |
Dividend scale interest rate |
Dividend scale |
|---|---|---|
|
Canada Life policies in the combined open account, issued on or after Jan. 1, 2020 |
Increase from 5.1% to 5.25% |
Increase |
|
Policies issued before Jan. 1, 2020: |
||
|
|
|
|
|
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Every asset class is actively managed by teams of experienced asset managers working day in and day out with a goal to maximize risk-adjusted returns. In fact, in 2021 Canada Life repositioned more than $2B in assets to achieve our target of 30% NFI of total participating account assets.
Some examples of how our active management investment strategy has benefited the participating account are:
- Our 10-year fixed-income laddering strategy is more responsive to the current economic environment than a longer-term strategy.
- Industry leading Real Estate performance. In fact, Canada Life’s real estate holdings in the participating account (+5.5%) outperformed the MSCI Canadian Property Index (+3.4%) in the first half of 2022.
- Our actively managed public equity performance through Mackenzie Investments and Putnam Investments have outperformed the benchmark this year.
- The Canada Life participating account has made private equity commitments of $432M across 11 new mandates YTD as of Q3 2022, bringing our total commitments to over $2B.
For more information on the strength of our investment strategy please review our Investing with Conviction series.
This exciting offer began in 2022, but it isn’t too late to take advantage of it! Canada Life is offering a premium reduction on critical illness insurance on new qualifying insurance policies. Applications received between Nov. 7, 2022 and March 3, 2023, can get a 5% premium reduction that is applied to the total premium for the life of the policy.
Learn moreDescription: Emily stands in her kitchen, talking on the phone with a friend.
Narrator: Critical illness insurance provides coverage when it counts.
Description: She quickly hangs up the phone, feeling a pain in her chest.
Narrator: If you’re ever diagnosed with a life-threatening illness covered by your policy
Description: Cut to Emily in a hospital bed. A doctor stands beside the bed holding a clipboard.
Narrator: Critical illness insurance can help you focus on you and your family
Description: Cut to her at home, lying on the couch, covered in a blanket. Her son sits on the end of the couch while her husband brings a tea.
Narrator: It’s a one-time tax-free payment you can use however you want
Description: Her hands enter the frame. She opens a letter to reveal a cheque from Canada Life.
Narrator: And that includes covering costs your healthcare plan doesn’t.
Description: A shield is drawn around a plus sign, representing healthcare.
Narrator: It’s money to help
Description: Cut to Emily holding her phone.
Narrator: Pay the bills
Description: She uses online banking to make a bill payment.
Narrator: Protect your retirement savings
Description: Cut to Emily and her husband smiling, vacationing on the beach.
Narrator: And cover expensive drugs or alternate treatments
Description: Cut to her in the kitchen, holding a pill bottle and receipt.
Narrator: It can also give you access to expert medical help
Description: She sits at her desk with her laptop open, video conferencing with a specialist.
Narrator: And if you never need to make a claim
Description: A shield is drawn to represent optional coverage.
Narrator: With the optional return-of-premium* benefit, you could get back some, or all of the money you paid for your coverage.
Description: A pile of money appears and becomes larger when "all of the money…” is mentioned. Legal line appears: *The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and Revenue Quebec have not provided a formal ruling regarding the tax treatment of return-of-premium benefits that are included in a critical illness policy. The tax treatment of an optional return-of-premium benefit is, therefore, subject to interpretation.
Narrator: Get the coverage you need, when it counts the most.
Description: Cut to Emily and her family sitting on the couch relaxing and drinking tea.
Narrator: Visit canadalife.com to learn more.
Description: Text “Visit canadalife.com to learn more.” appears with Canada Life logo and legal lines: Canada Life and design are trademarks of The Canada Life Assurance Company. canadalife.com 1-888-252-1847
Canada Life My Term™ led the way, starting 2022 off with a great discount, updated pricing to include some of our most competitive rates and includes:
- Industry leading conversion features
- This year we introduced the term conversion with reset feature
- 7-year term-to-term conversion privilege – the longest available in the market
- One of the most flexible term products available
- The only 5-year term product available in Canada
- Term lengths between 5 and 50 years to match your client's unique needs
- Top first-year commission (FYC) rate of 55% for term policies 20 years and longer
Joint insurance policy applications got even simpler in 2022 with this feature now available in SimpleProtect! It allows each applicant to complete their application questions individually in the same application, letting you easily access and process joint or single policies in one convenient place.
Large cases aren’t just larger, their complexity requires a greater degree of specialized knowledge and focus. We have a unique team of top-tier industry professionals, including:
- Industry-leading advanced case consultants and wealth and tax planning consultants
- The hands-on support of Dr. Bruce Empringham, who’ll provide you medical expert support as you manage your clients policies through personal and business change
- Actuarial, special quote and par account investment experts
- Advanced and Large case underwriting teams
- Financial Underwriting and Accounting expertise
- Policy change experts
This team exists to help you manage your large case from initial conversations with a prospect through underwriting and policy issue, and if needed, policy changes in the future. Check out some of the great resources and articles we published in 2022 on our large case site.
You can look forward to more ways to connect with clients in 2023, starting with a par focused campaign. Keep an eye out for it in late January. We’re looking forward to carrying this momentum into 2023.