TORONTO, Feb. 12, 2002 – National Life Assurance Company of
Canada, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services,
has entered into an agreement with BMO Life Insurance Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary
of Bank of Montreal, in order to supply administrative and information processing services
to BMO Life and assist them with the development of their term and universal life insurance products.
“This agreement will allow us to move forward with our
organization’s growth strategy to develop distribution and administrative agreements with
other strong financial institutions,” stated Vince Tonna, President and Chief
Operating Officer, National Life. “It is also a means for us to leverage the service
expertise that we have developed and lower unit costs by increasing business substantially
with a relatively small increase in infrastructure costs.”
“BMO Life is set to deliver insurance products using a
virtual organization,” said Gordon Henderson, President and Chief Executive Officer,
BMO Life. “We will undertake product development, marketing and risk management and
outsource administrative services, which are expensive to build from scratch and not among
our core competencies. We wanted to develop a life insurance operation quickly that would
provide ‘best of class’ service to our clients. We chose National Life for their excellent
reputation in customer service and their ability to adapt quickly and positively within a
changing environment.”
This is the latest in a series of agreements announced by
the Industrial Alliance Group of companies over the last few years. Earlier last year,
National Life entered into a joint venture with MD Management to create a new life
company, MD Life, which distributes and administers group pensions and individual
insurance products to medical doctors in Canada. In December 2001, Industrial Alliance
also entered into an agreement with National Bank Trust to administer its group pension plans.
National Life has been a strong performer in the insurance
and financial industry for over a century, with a reputation for service excellence and
product innovation. Providing individual insurance, group life and health insurance, and
retirement and investment products across Canada, National Life is a trusted name in the
financial industry. Working in partnership with the industry’s top independent producers,
National Life’s network of expert resources provides long-term wealth management solutions
to clients. National Life is a member of the Industrial Alliance Group of Companies, which
ranks seventh among Canadian life insurers with over $15.1 billion in total assets.
