TORONTO, Dec. 3, 2003 – Mission Accomplished! That’s the message from Donald A. Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of Sun Life Financial Inc., and Bob Astley, President of Sun Life Financial Canada, as they mark the successful completion of a two-year journey to integrate the operations of Clarica into Sun Life Financial.
The proposed combination of Sun Life Financial and Clarica was announced December 17, 2001 and the deal closed May 29, 2002. In-depth integration planning began in January 2002.
Stewart said, “It’s time to celebrate this important milestone – – the largest integration in the Canadian life insurance industry. The successful completion of integration on time and on budget, together with the ability to maintain business momentum, is testament to the tremendous efforts and accomplishments of our people who have turned a vision into a reality.”
“The result of this outstanding work and unwavering commitment is a Canadian market leader that is greater than the sum of its parts and one that will serve as a springboard for expansion in North America and internationally”, he said.
Astley said, “It has been a gigantic task. Chief among the many key accomplishments was conversion of data for hundreds of thousands of policies and claims to single processing systems, which will produce more efficient operations and establishes a stronger platform for growth.” Accomplishments included:
- Conversion of almost one million retail life insurance policies to a common system, which continued to service Clarica policies.
- Conversion of 2,500 group insurance clients representing more than 2.2 million plan members. Also converted 21,000 disability claims in the course of payment.
- Conversion of more than 400,000 pension members.
- $10 billion of pension assets converted.
- More than 200,000 IT days devoted to integration – – the equivalent of 1,000 IT developers working full time for one year.
“We have dealt with all the legacy issues around our technology platforms by effecting a complete conversion to single processing platforms for each business function. Customer feedback during the integration process was positive and I would like to thank our customers for their trust and loyalty”, said Astley.
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, 2003, the Sun Life Financial group of companies
had total assets under management of CDN$348.5 billion.
Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under ticker symbol SLF.
