Lifecos see mixed earnings in latest quarter

Three of the big lifecos reported quarterly earnings this week, with two of the three seeing their net income fall year over year.

Great-West Lifeco Inc.’s (GWL) net earnings fell by 39% to $498 million compared to the second quarter of 2022. The insurer attributed the decline to “losses associated with strategic business portfolio repositioning and surplus asset rebalancing.”

GWL’s Canadian segment saw earnings fall by 17% to $283 million over the same period, primarily due to “strong group health morbidity results in 2022 that did not repeat” as well as higher interest rates in 2023.

Sun Life Financial Inc.’s net income fell 29% to $660 million compared to Q2 2022. This was due in part to large one-time gains last year as well as challenges related to interest rates and real estate investments this year.

The firm’s “underlying” net income increased to $920 million, up from $808-million a year ago. (Underlying net income is a non-standard accounting measure.)

Sun Life also saw a 25% drop in its wealth sales and asset management gross flows over the same period, as well as a $1-million decrease in its “underlying net income” for wealth and asset management.

The company attributed the decrease to lower fee-based earnings in its MFS Investment Management division due to equity market declines and higher expenses in Canada.

Sun Life’s assets under management were up by 9% year over year.

Manulife Financial Corp. reported a dramatic year-over-year increase in net income, going from a $2.1-billion loss in Q2 2022 to a $1.0-billion gain in Q2 2023.

Earnings in Manulife’s global wealth and asset management segment fell by 2% to $320 million over the same period. The company reported $639 billion in assets under management, and its net flows increased to $2.2 billion in Q2 2023 from $1.7 billion in Q2 2022.

All three lifecos also report non-standard measures of earnings, which showed year-over-year increases for the three insurers.

Staff

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