| We are pleased to announce that on Friday, January 30, the Canadian operations of Standard Life plc joined Manulife.
With this acquisition, Manulife increases the breadth of products and services you can draw on to help your customers find the right financial solutions. We will strengthen our wealth portfolio and offer increased investment management capability; enhance what we offer by combining the best features from each company; and build a talent pool dedicated to supporting you and your business. We are also very excited with the way the acquisition expands our presence in the Quebec market, including a dedicated team and, in the future, a new building in downtown Montreal. Our commitment to you and to the customers we serve together won’t change. We believe the strength of the new organization will help you build your business and meet your clients’ needs. As we integrate the two organizations, we remain committed to supporting you and your needs and we will continue to communicate on a regular basis. What you can expect today
As of now, all of our business processes and product offerings will remain unchanged, as will your points-of-contact. Your sales contacts
You will continue to work with the corresponding sales representatives you normally work with and they are committed to keeping the lines of communication open. To help facilitate the move to an integrated sales team over time, we have the leadership of both sales teams under one National Leader. For more information please see the announcement in the “If you need more information” section. Your sales representatives will notify you within an appropriate timeframe prior to any decisions regarding product changes or updates. Conferences
The Standard Life President’s Club conference in April and the Manulife National Educational Conference in April will continue as planned. Our product roadmap - Guaranteed Interest Contracts (GICs): We will begin to harmonize rates on GICs at both companies. Because the individual product offerings between Manulife and Standard Life are similar, we will be closing the Standard Life product offerings (Standard Life Term Funds) to new sales in the second quarter. We will communicate those details to you at a later time, and until then, Manulife GICs can be submitted to Manulife, and Standard Life Term Funds can be submitted to Standard Life.
Afterwards, GIC business will be submitted to Manulife only (provided appropriate contracts are in place). The Manulife system includes electronic trading capabilities for your convenience. Existing Standard Life clients may continue running pre-authorized chequing (PAC) deposits and will not be impacted by this change. For more information on contracting and the impact to Standard Life Term Fund clients, please see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) below.
- Annuities: We will be harmonizing annuity product rates. Existing product offerings for both companies will remain available for sale throughout the first half of 2015. We will work with you to assess which products and features are the most important to the future success of this line of business. Ultimately, we want to move to a single product suite later this year.
- Structured Settlements: We will be harmonizing structured settlement rates where appropriate. Over the next few months, we will review both products in addition to talking to our distribution partners to determine what the combined product will look like. Our intention is to move to a single product suite later this year.
- Mutual Fund Products: Throughout the first half of 2015, we are not planning on making any fund availability changes. We will start to align products as part of our regular fund change activity in the fall.
- Segregated Fund Products: We are committed to the segregated fund space and over the course of 2015, we will work with you to assess which are the most important products and features offered by both Manulife and Standard Life. From the assessment, our goal is to offer a segregated fund product shelf that consists of combined Manulife and Standard Life products. Throughout this assessment exercise, all products will remain available for sale. There may be fund and administrative changes in 2015 as we work through the product assessment.
- Insurance Products: For the time being, we will maintain existing insurance products and processes and we will notify you should anything change.
If you need more information
As always, your sales representative will support you with any questions you may have.
We are very excited about the opportunities this acquisition brings. We appreciate your support and thank you for being part of this significant milestone.
Marianne Harrison | Charles Guay | President and CEO, Manulife Canada | EVP, Institutional Markets and President and CEO, Manulife Quebec | | |
We recognize that you may be contacted on multiple occasions regarding our announcement today. We are committed to minimizing the number of communications you receive, but that may not always be possible. Thank you for your understanding. | |
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