Sun Life Financial Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to the Sun Life Financial Q4 2022 conference call. My name is Michelle, and I'll be your conference operator today. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. The host of the call is Anit Bitton, Vice President, Head of Investor Relations and Capital Markets. Please go ahead, Mr. Bitton.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Sun Life's earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2022. Our earnings release and the slides for today's call are available on the investor relations section of our website at sunlife.com. We will begin today's call with opening remarks from Kevin Strain, President and Chief Executive Officer. Following Kevin, Manjit Singh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer will present the financial results. After the prepared remarks, we will move to the question and answer portion of the call. Other members of management are also available to answer your questions this morning. Turning to slide two, I draw your attention to the cautionary language regarding the use of forward-looking statements and non-IFRS financial measures, which form part of today's remarks. As noted in the slides, forward-looking statements may be rendered inaccurate by subsequent events. And with that, I'll now turn things over to Kevin.

Thanks, Genevieve, and good morning to everybody on the call. Turning to slide four, Sun Life delivered strong performance during the fourth quarter, contributing to solid 2022 full-year results. Our results demonstrate the resilience of our diversified business model and the commitment of our people to deliver strong earnings and continued growth amidst a challenging environment while meeting our commitments to clients and delivering on our purpose. We've made tremendous progress on our business strategy by driving positive client impact for our 85 million clients around the world. We achieved strong underlying earnings this quarter of $990 million Canadian, representing 10% growth over prior year demonstrating the resilience of our business mix. Our growth was driven by strong results from our protection and health businesses. Sun Life US had a strong fourth quarter, underlying earnings as a result of solid underwriting performance in health and risk solutions, significant moderation of COVID-related impacts, and contributions from DentaQuest. In Asia, we saw a breakthrough in earnings profitability in Vietnam, driven by the addition of scale in bank assurance and in agency, and we saw higher margins in our international high net worth business. Strong results from our protection and health business were partially offset by lower income and increased outflows from our wealth and asset management businesses, largely reflecting declines in global equity markets. Underlying ROE for the quarter of 15.7% continues to trend towards our medium-term objective of 16% plus, reflecting our disciplined capital management and growing emphasis on capital light businesses. And our LICAT ratio at SLF remains solid at 130% for the quarter. Turning to slide five, our full year 2022 results were driven by similar factors as seen during the fourth quarter. Underlying net income increased 4% to $3.7 billion, supported by growth in our health and protection businesses. Underlying ROE for the year was 15.1%, was also strong. Over the past year, we increased our quarterly dividend by 31% following the lifting of restrictions in November of 2021. Turning to slide six, this quarter we delivered on several key business initiatives that helped drive forward our client impact strategy. The strengthening of our distribution capabilities in growth markets has been a priority for Sun Life in 2022. In Sun Life Asia, we remain focused on building quality distribution channels. We realized a step change in our bank insurance distribution over the last 12 months, driven by new marquee relationships and executing on our existing partnerships. Last month, we announced our first exclusive bank insurance partnership in Hong Kong with Dosting Bank. Under the 15-year agreement, Sun Life will be the exclusive provider of life insurance solutions to Dosting's retail banking customers with distribution of Sun Life products expected to start this summer. This rounds out our distribution capabilities in Hong Kong and positions us well to compete. With the addition of this bank insurance partnership in Hong Kong, we now have more than 20 quality bank insurance partnerships in seven markets across Asia. Our history of execution in Asia has proven that strong bank insurance distribution, coupled with high-quality advisor channels, provides a critical platform for growth. One example of this is how we're building our business in Vietnam, executing on transformational bank insurance partnerships with a focus on providing high-quality insurance and wealth products and services to fit our clients' needs. We are now one of the fastest-growing life insurance players in Vietnam. We've improved our market position for insurance sales from 15th position in the full year 2020 to 6th position in 2022. At SLC Management, we also recently closed our acquisition of a majority stake in Advisor Asset Management. Advisor Asset Management, or AAM, adds distribution capabilities in the U.S. high net worth retail market, one of the fastest growing distribution channels for alternative assets. We're excited to welcome the AAM team to our SLC team. We are increasingly delivering positive client impact, by elevating our focus on health, helping clients access health care and the coverage they need. In the U.S., DentaQuest continues to expand its dental business, advancing our goal to increase access to oral health care in underserved communities. In Q4, DentaQuest expanded its Advantage Dental Plus care practices with four new offices in Florida. These practices went from start-up to at capacity in 90 days. which demonstrates the need for these services. DentaQuest also had a strong quarter for contracts awarded, including two new dental managed care contracts from a multi-state health plan provider. The two newest contracts expand DentaQuest's partnership with the health plan to 10 states. DentaQuest's unique capabilities continue to contribute to our ability to win and retain state business while also driving higher margins. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the mental health crisis in Canada. We know many people are at a breaking point and we need to offer more resources and more access to tackle this crisis. We know the workplace is an important place to address these concerns and we're doing our part in Canada by providing clients with better access to mental health solutions. We're also doing our part in our communities And last month, we announced an investment to support mental health programs for at-risk, marginalized youth across Canada, continuing to build capabilities that will expand access to care, will support Canadians with early prevention, and with faster recovery. We continue to make great strides in our digital journey. Tied to our commitment of increasing financial security, we continue to work hard to build the capabilities such that our clients can access our spectrum advisory options through a frictionless digital experience, Sun Life Canada has created more than 65,000 financial roadmaps for Canadian clients in 2022 using our Sun Life One Plan digital tool. Sun Life One Plan contributes to our goal for all Canadians to have a financial plan. Finally, we continue to be recognized for our progress in sustainability and our inclusive culture. Sun Life was recognized by corporate nights as being among the global 100 most sustainable corporations in the world for the 14th consecutive year. And this year, we were the top-ranked insurance company globally. Additionally, Sun Life received many employer awards in 2022, including being certified as a great place to work in several of our markets. This is especially gratifying because it's the result of direct feedback from our employees. This is recognition of our focus on ensuring we have an environment where diversity is championed, in addition to offering resources and flexibility to support mental, physical, and professional well-being. Before I turn to Manjit to detail our Q4 financial results, I'd like to share a few final thoughts. First, I'm excited to welcome Tom Murphy, our new Chief Risk Officer, to the Sun Life Executive Team. Some of you will know Tom from his time with SOC Management. where he headed up our fixed income and institutional business. Tom brings a global depth of knowledge and experience, particularly in asset management and the pension space, which will be a tremendous benefit for all of us. I'd also like to recognize Colm Frame. Many of you on the phone will know him from his time as the Sun Life CFO and then as our Chief Risk Officer. Colm will retire on May 1st after an illustrious 20-year career with Sun Life. He has played a significant role in our company's growth over the past two decades. On behalf of everyone at Sun Life, I want to thank Colm for his service to Sun Life and wish him well in his retirement. And lastly, I'd like to share a few thoughts on the year ahead. While we expect the environment to remain challenging, we're optimistic about the outlook. Based on recent direction of travel for inflation in North America, we're seeing most economists forecasting a plateau of interest rates in the back half of 2023, with some showing reductions in interest rates in 2024. We expect some volatility in rates will persist, but this will likely be within a tighter range. While inflation looks to be moderating, we continue to watch the environment, including geopolitical uncertainty, additional shocks to energy supply, the reopening of markets in Asia, and COVID-19. We continue to feel prepared as a result of a resilient client impact strategy supported by our diversified and capital-light business mix. Recent investments across growing spaces in health, asset management, and Asia, and our sustained commitment to delivering on our purpose to help clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives will all support us next year. With that, I will now turn the call over to Manjit, who will walk us through the fourth quarter financial results.