February 15, 2001
TORONTO – Canada’s largest life insurer,
Manulife Financial, has signed an agreement with RPM Technologies Corp. (www.rpmtec.com),
a leading software solutions provider to the financial services industry, to provide a
full complement of wealth-management tools to support Manulife’s Canadian advisors.
As a result of this agreement, Manulife advisors will use
RPM’s technologies as a daily part of their practice offering one-stop access to a full
range of real time financial products, solution development services, information and
tools to allow them to satisfy clients’ diverse management needs.
“As Canada’s largest life insurer, we’ve been
hearing more and more that clients need access to relevant and up-to-date
information,” said Trevor Matthews, Executive Vice President for Manulife’s Canadian
operations. “Manulife is committed to helping Canadians make better financial
decisions and we believe RPM will help us reach that goal.”
“This agreement provides an excellent online resource
for financial advisors striving to better serve their clients,” says Henry Wolfond,
Chairman of RPM Technologies Corp. “Financial services companies are continually
trying to understand and satisfy the ever-changing client demand for investment products
and services. The RPM Open product family provides the functionality and business
processing capabilities needed to proactively deliver innovative wealth management
offerings to clients.”
Using RPM’s RPM Open™ and RPM WebRep™ programs,
Manulife Financial advisors will be able to:
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Gain access to real-time expanded services
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Provide faster planning, order entry, inquiry and statement production
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Access a variety of calculators and tools to better serve their clients
For Manulife Financial, this agreement complements the
company’s industry-leading extranet for advisors, called Repsource, and extends use of the
Internet as a vital communication and distribution resource within the insurance industry
and overall financial community.
“The RPM technology will help Manulife deliver its
goal to support real-time order entry and straight-through processing capabilities,”
says Roy Firth, Manulife senior vice president of Wealth Management Services. “This
will help us provide additional state-of-the-art Web tools to help our advisors plan,
enter their orders, answer their clients’ questions and produce statements.”
“RPM will help us maintain an edge with our advisors
looking for a way to keep pace with technology,” says Phil Armstrong, Manulife’s
vice-president and chief information officer of Canadian individual wealth management and
pension operations. ” Not only will this enhance our current service, but it will
enable us to launch new products quicker and reduce processing time for clients transactions.”
About RPM Technologies Corp.
RPM Technologies has been providing innovative wealth
management software solutions to the financial services industry since 1985. Today, more
than 40 organizations, including insurance companies, banks, credit unions, and investment
dealers, administer approximately $60 billion of assets on RPM platforms. For advisors,
RPM’s front office software applications are used by approximately 6,000 registered
representatives for comprehensive client and investment portfolio management automation.
RPM services range from robust back office processing to complete sales, portfolio
administration and service for agents and end consumers. From its corporate head office in
Toronto, a staff of more than 100 industry experts supply business and technical expertise
to clients across Canada and abroad.
About Manulife Financial
Manulife Financial is a leading Canadian-based financial
services company operating in 15 countries and territories worldwide.
Through its extensive network of employees, agents and
distribution partners, Manulife Financial offers clients a diverse range of financial
protection products and wealth management services. Funds under management by Manulife
Financial (Manulife Financial Corporation and its affiliated companies) were Cdn$123.5
billion as at December 31, 2000.
Manulife Financial Corporation trades as ‘MFC’ on
the TSE, NYSE and PSE, and under ‘945’ on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at
www.manulife.com.
For further information, please contact:
Karin Lindgren
Vice President, Strategic Development
RPM Technologies Corporation
(416) 214-6844
Tom Nunn
Director of Media Relations
Manulife Financial
(519)-747-7000, ext. 8578
[email protected]
