Your participation in the This week with Canada Life call gives us the opportunity to connect with you on relevant changes and updates that relate to your business and to answer your questions.

Your call recap
On Jan. 6, Tim Prescott, President, Quadrus Investment Services Ltd. and Vice-President, Advisor Compliance and Wealth Distribution announced the monthly calls will move to alternating between wealth-focused calls hosted by Tim and insurance-focused calls lead by Mike Cunneen, Senior Vice-President, Insurance and Independent Distribution. Tim also provided a brief review of 2020 and reminded listeners of today’s announcement that the Canada Life real estate fund is going to reopen to contributions and withdrawal requests on Jan. 11.

On Jan. 4, we launched our new fund management company, Canada Life Investment Management Ltd. (CLIML). It was established at the end of 2020 as a result of GLC Asset Management Group becoming part of Mackenzie Investments. Tim advised that more information about CLIML will roll out in the coming weeks.

Following Tim, Brent Joyce, Vice-President, Investment Strategist with Mackenzie Investments shared his predictions for 2021. Brent forecasts that the early part of 2021, because of the ongoing effects of the pandemic, will be touch and go, but once vaccination rates rise the second half of the year will be better. Until we have a firmer timeline for vaccinations, we have to take a wait-and-see approach to what the landscape will look like after the pandemic potentially ends.

From Putnam Investments, Richard Bodzy, Portfolio Manager, and Greg McCullough, Portfolio Manager and Analyst, spoke about what’s happening in U.S. markets. They predicted economic activity will pick up in 2021, thanks to government stimulus and consumers being able to leave quarantine. While some companies struggled due to the pandemic, other companies, because they were already poised for businesses to move online, were able to grow more than in past years. They see the move to digital solutions for payment and other business tasks will continue after the pandemic.

Couldn’t make it? No problem – here’s a recording!

Save the date
Our next call will be Feb. 24. Keep an eye out for registration.

What’s new this week
Use these resources to stay up to date on the latest things we’re doing to help you continue to support your clients – you might even want to bookmark them.

1)    Visit Combined Strengths for an updated RRSP toolkit you can use to help with your client conversations.

2)    The supporting you and your business page houses everything you need to continue to conduct business in a virtual environment while also giving you updates to processes.

3)    Canada Life Investment Management Ltd.’s News and Insights page includes ongoing market commentary.

4. Visit Your complete guide to doing Canada Life insurance business to learn more about placing new business without personal contact, temporarily relaxed underwriting, claims processes and options to help clients impacted by COVID-19.

We’ll continue to support you and your clients as we focus on the next phase of the pandemic.