Additionally, Sun Life Financial’s Group Retirement Services and Clarica Advisors will refer clients to E(*)TRADE Canada’s top ranked online brokerage service.
TORONTO, Jan. 28, 2003 – E(*)TRADE Canada today announced that on January 6, an agreement was reached to acquire Sun Life Securities brokerage accounts. The transaction is expected to close by the end of February, subject to regulatory approval. In addition to the sale agreement, Sun Life Financial’s Clarica Advisors business will enter into a referral agreement, which will enable its consumers to access E(*)TRADE Canada, ranked No. 1 for Serious Investors and Active Traders in Canada by GomezCanada.(*) Sun Life Financial’s Group Retirement Services (GRS) will form a strategic alliance with E(*)TRADE Canada, which will enable GRS to offer the self-directed brokerage products as part of employer-sponsored retirement or savings plans.
This new marketing relationship between these two financial industry leaders in Canada will enable them to focus on their core strengths and deliver enhanced services to their customers.
“With this agreement, E(*)TRADE Canada will partner with a strong industry leader in Sun Life Financial and grow our market share of Serious Investors and Active Traders in Canada,” said Colleen Moorehead, President of E(*)TRADE Canada. “For E(*)TRADE Canada, one of Canada’s leading electronic trading businesses for consumers, corporations/employees and institutional brokers/dealers, this new strategic relationship will help us continue to deliver the online tools, performance, services, pricing and offers that enable do-it-yourself investors to trade smarter and faster. We will continue to focus on our premium Power E(*)TRADE trading suite, as well as our Mainstreet consumer and Corporate Employee brokerage services, to delight all of our newly acquired Sun Life Securities customers and all the future Sun Life Financial client referrals.”
“The sale of Sun Life Securities’ accounts follows our decision to focus on activities that are core to our business,” said Barry Triller, Executive Vice President, Retail Operations, Sun Life Financial Canada. “Our new relationship with E(*)TRADE Canada allows us to offer our Canadian retail clients one-stop investment shopping, including our partnership with CI Funds, our guaranteed rate products, including GICs, as well as a broad selection of stocks, bonds and other third-party mutual funds through E(*)TRADE Canada. This will help strengthen our Sun Life Financial customer relationships with our team of more than 3,000 Clarica Advisors/Managers.”
“For Group Retirement Services, the agreement with E(*)TRADE Canada enables us to continue to provide clients and its plan members with the flexibility and choice of a self-directed option, as well as the benefit of its inclusion in a group plan,” said Kevin Dougherty, Vice President, Group Retirement Services, Sun Life Financial Canada. “This agreement also aligns with our goal to provide a complete product and service offering to meet all of our clients’ needs.”
About E(*)TRADE Canada
E(*)TRADE Canada operates four major electronic brokerage businesses in Canada:
- Retail – a leading provider of online brokerage services, including the premium Power E(*)TRADE trading suite, for Active Traders, Serious Investors and Mainstreet consumers, which can be accessed online at www.etrade.com and www.poweretrade.ca
- Corporate – a leading provider of online Employee stock option, stock purchase and group retirement plan services
- Institutional – a leading provider of electronic brokerage services for worldwide institutional, broker/dealer, and corporate investors trading within/to/from Canada
- Global Technology – a leading developer of global order routing and order management technologies, including the lightning fast RoutEX trading engine, VENOM, and ClickTrader, PortfolioTrader and TradeChat institutional trading terminal applications
(*)E(*)TRADE Canada was ranked No. 1 for Serious Investors and No. 1 for Active Traders in GomezCanada’s Fall 2002 Canadian scorecard. As well, E(*)TRADE Canada was ranked No. 2 overall for all online consumer investors in The Globe & Mail 2002 Online Broker Report.
E(*)TRADE Canada is a service of E(*)TRADE Canada Securities Corporation (discount broker), a member of the TSX, the TSX Venture Exchange, the Montreal Exchange, the Investment Dealers Association and the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. The E(*)TRADE Canada service is offered in all provinces. E(*)TRADE Canada, Power E(*)TRADE, the Asterisk Logo, RoutEX, VENOM, ClickTrader, PortfolioTrader and TradeChat are registered trademarks of E(*)TRADE Group, Inc. or its subsidiaries and are used with permission.
E(*)TRADE Group, Inc, a U.S. public holding company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is a global provider of diversified financial services and worldwide electronic trading.
About Sun Life Financial
Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organization providing a diverse range of wealth accumulation and protection products and services to individuals and corporate customers. Tracing its roots back to 1865, Sun Life Financial and its partners today have operations in key markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China and Bermuda. As of September 30, 2002 the Sun Life Financial group of companies has total assets under management of CDN $347 billion.
Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under ticker symbol “SLF”.
