Canadian Life Insurance Industry

Canadian Life Insurance Industry

Contents

Canadian Industry and Analysis 2

Table 1: Top Five Competitors and their Market Shares in the Life Insurance Industry 2

Canadian Company Information 2

Group Weekly Meeting Information 3

Appendix A – Industry Sizes by Company 4

Table 2: Industry Sales Overview 4

Endnotes 7

Bibliography 8

Canadian Industry and Analysis

Sun Life Financial has a SIC code of 6311 which falls under “Life Insurance”.1 This company has been assigned a NAICS code of 524111 under the “Life Insurance” classification.2 Sun Life Financial belongs to an industry association known as “Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association Inc”.3 The industry aims to provide a range of products and services to help Canadians protect themselves and their families from financial risk, premature death, illness and retirement.4

The life insurance industry described by the NAICS code of 524111 is primarily engaged in underwriting annuities and life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment insurance.5 It provides disability insurance and insurance for medical, hospital, dental, vision and other health services.6

According to SIC code 6311 the life insurance industry had a total sales of C$121 billion in 2006, C$142 billion in 2007, and C$132 billion in 2008 (see appendix A).7 According to this information the industry saw a 17.35% growth rate between 2005 and 2006, and a decline of 7% from 2006 to 2007.8

Table 1: Top Five Competitors and their Market Shares in the Life Insurance Industry

Companies Sales ( C$ thousands) Market share percentage (company sales/industry sales*100)

Manulife 32,047,000 22.54%

Great West Life Co. 23,871,000 16.79%

Sun Life Financial 21,918,000 15.41%

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company 20,574,000 14.47%

The Canada Life Assurance Company 6,045,000 4.25%

Source: 2008 Canadian Key Business Directory (Mississauga: Dun & Bradstreet Canada, 2008), [multiple pages].

The size of the industry demonstrates that the life insurance industry is quite large. With the top five companies having multi-billion dollar revenues it shows how large the companies that deal with life insurance can be. The market share is evenly spread between the top firms. Manulife is clearly ahead of Great West Life Co and Sun Life Financial but it is possible that the smaller of the top insurance companies could catch up. The decline in the industry growth predominantly affected the smaller insurance companies, some with a C$400 million decline in sales.9

Canadian Company Information

The insurance company goes by the name of Sun Life Financial Inc.10 The company’s head office is located in Toronto, Ontario.11 Sun Life Financial Inc. became incorporated in August of 199912 and is now being traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.13 In 2004, Sun Life Financial Inc. reported revenues of C$21.75 million.14 Sun Life Financial has a Reuter’s Instrument Code (RIC) of SLF.TO15 Sun Life Financial Inc. provides the public with several financial products and services, focusing on Life insurance.16

Ansi Feng, a public affairs specialist at Sun Life Financial has confirmed to be our company contact for the project and her phone number is (416)204-8126. The Universal life insurance product at Sun Life Financial will be focused on in the second report.

Group Weekly Meeting Information

The group is scheduled to meet every Monday from 9:30am – 11:30am and Wednesday from 3:30pm – 5:30pm in the basement of Thode Library.

Report One Timeline Table

Task Beginning Date Ending Date

Primary Research:

Surveys – 2

Interviews – 2 Feb. 6, 2008 Feb. 14, 2008

Secondary Research:

Company Website – 2

Databases –