Sun Life Financial Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Sun Life Financial Q4 2023 conference call. My name is Cherie and I will be your conference operator today. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. The host of the call is David Garg, Senior Vice President, Capital Management and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Garg.

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Sun Life's earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2023. 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 for the quarter. 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 turn it over to Kevin.

Thanks, David, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide four, we delivered strong performance during the fourth quarter, contributing to strong full-year results for 2023. Our results show the strength and resilience of our business mix and the positive impact we're having on our clients. We achieved strong underlying earnings for the quarter of $983 million, up 10% year-over-year. Our strong results were broad-based with strength in Canada, U.S., and SLC management. Underlying ROE of 18.4% this quarter is above our medium-term financial objective of 18% plus, reflecting our strong earnings and disciplined financial management. Further, we maintained a strong capital position with an SLF-LICAT ratio of 149%. Our results reflect exceptional individual protection sales and good momentum in our group health and protection businesses in the fourth quarter. Strong group health and protection sales were driven by both our Canadian and U.S. group businesses. In Canada, sales were up 63% year-over-year, largely due to higher large-case sales, and in the U.S., both dental and health and risk solution sales were strong. This quarter, DentaQuest was awarded two new Medicaid dental benefits contracts in two states, and commercial dental sales increased 55% over the prior year. The dental business has recorded more than U.S. $650 million in sales since the closing of the DentaQuest acquisition on June 1, 2022. Individual protection sales were driven by strong performance in Asia, with sales up 49% year-over-year. International high net worth sales were two times higher than the prior year, and Hong Kong sales were four times higher. Our Hong Kong sales growth reflected our diversified mix of high-performing, quality-focused distribution channels, including our broadened broker network and new agency teams focused on mainland Chinese individuals and our bank insurance partnership with Da Sing Bank. Canadian individual protection sales were up 23% year-over-year, driven by higher third-party sales. Wealth sales and asset management gross flows were up in the quarter, with the Canadian business up 32% due to higher individual wealth and defined benefit sales. SLC demonstrated strong capital raising, closing the year with $177 billion in fee-earning AUM, up 8% over the prior year. SLC also won the 2023 CIO's Industry Innovation Awards for private credit. MFS experienced outflows primarily driven by industry conditions. During the year, MFS became the ninth largest fund group for the U.S. retail mutual fund industry based on AUM, and next month, MFS celebrates their 100th anniversary. Congratulations to Mike Roberge and our colleagues at MFS on this milestone. Keeping with MFS, I want to recognize their recent leadership announcement with Mike Robert set to become executive chair of MFS on January 1st, 2025, and Ted Maloney to take on the role as their CEO. Ted has been with MFS for almost 20 years and is currently their chief investment officer. Congratulations to both Mike and Ted. Turn to slide five. Our full year 2023 results were driven by similar factors as seen during the fourth quarter. Underlying net income increased 11% to $3.7 billion, supported by growth across all businesses. Underlying ROE of 17.8% was also strong. Total assets under management reached $1.4 trillion in 2023, demonstrating the resilience of our business in a challenging environment. Turn to slide six. This quarter we delivered on several key business initiatives that helped drive our client impact strategy forward. Providing access to care and helping clients live healthier lives remains a top priority. We remain a leader in health benefits and services in Canada and the U.S., and are increasingly leveraging digital partnerships to support our clients' health journeys. This quarter, we finalized a contract with the Government of Canada to be the administrator of the Canadian Dental Care Plan, which will provide access to dental care for up to 9 million additional Canadians. We also completed the acquisition of Dialogue, Canada's premier virtual health care and wellness platform. And finally, in Canada, we completed a minority investment in Pillway, a virtual pharmacy offering increased choice and convenience for our clients. In the U.S., we successfully launched the pilot of Sun Life Health 360, an app built using Dialog's flexible digital engagement platform as a front door to health and wellness support. It's an example of how we are leveraging our strategic capabilities across markets to create value for our clients in advancing how we think and act more like a digital company. Through this pilot, over 63,000 members now have access to Sun Life Health 360, bridging the gap in accessing care and helping facilitate better health outcomes. We're continuing to roll out the platform to more members and further enhancing the app by enabling access to programs focused on kidney, joint, and muscle condition, among others. We continue to expand our distribution capabilities and product suite to support our clients in achieving lifetime financial security. During the quarter, we formed a securities investment dealer, Sun Life Canada Securities, having received regulatory approval from the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization. We anticipate an operational launch later this year. Our expanded offerings in Sun Life Canada Securities will broaden access to wealth solutions to help clients achieve lifetime financial security. SLC Management recently announced a strategic relationship with Scotiabank to distribute our alternative investment products to the Canadian retail market through Scotiaglobal Wealth Management. This relationship will provide Canadian high net worth investors with access to our world-class alternative investment capabilities. In Singapore, we launched a new Indexed Universal Life product, providing high net worth clients a dynamic balance between long-term protection and growth, and the flexibility to customize premium payments and investment allocations. This product has been well received by the market. We're doing more to think and act like a digital company, harnessing the power of generative AI. We're testing and learning with several gen AI experiments across the organization, balancing innovation while managing risks. This quarter, we launched a new gen AI power tool that helps developers write and test code more efficiently. The tool was launched to over 2,000 employees and we're seeing productivity gains from the first group of adopters, enabling delivery of new digital experiences for our clients. In the U.S., GenAI is helping improve productivity in our call centers by analyzing and summarizing calls and delivering insights on clients' top concerns. We're excited about the potential GenAI has to help create more exceptional client experiences and improve workplace productivity. 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 15th consecutive year and the sixth consecutive year as the top-ranked insurance company in North America. Additionally, Sun Life received numerous employer recognitions in 2023, including being certified as a great place to work in several key markets. SLC Management was also named 2023 Best Places to Work in Money Management for the fourth year in a row by pensions and investments. We are pleased to receive these recognitions as they reflect our inclusive culture and our commitment to our people. Turning to slide seven, we remain confident in the resilience of our strategy and our ability to execute on our strategy. In 2024, we'll be focused on taking the next step in our digital development, advancing how we think and act like a digital company. This means building on the strong foundation we have built over the last four years under our digital enterprise program, where we have been modernizing our tech stack and building our agile working model. 2024 will see us continue to evolve towards thinking and acting more like a digital company, including building out new apps and new features on existing apps to support our clients' financial security and healthy living. We will also continue to look for and execute on synergies between asset management and insurance, building on the strong capabilities at SLC and MFS. We have built a strong health business in Canada and the U.S., and will continue to deepen an impact we have on clients' health, and we will accelerate our momentum in Asia, focusing on building quality distribution and strong execution. Finally, we will continue to evolve our culture towards bolder thinking, driving a bias to action, and delivering on results. In closing, I'd like to wish our Asian colleagues around the world good health, happiness, and prosperity as they celebrate Lunar New Year over the next few days and welcome the Year of the Dragon. for all of those that are celebrating their New Years. I'd also like to recognize Black History Month, where we're celebrating the outstanding contributions and achievements of Black individuals who have made a positive impact in our communities. It's important to continue to build a more inclusive culture for everyone. And I'd like to share a final note that this will be Manjit's last call as our Chief Financial Officer. As you all know, Manjit will be taking on the role of President of our Asia business starting in March. Manjit, on behalf of all Sunlifers, congratulations on your new appointment. We're looking forward to working with you in your new capacity and continue to see great things coming out of Sunlife Asia. And with that, I will turn the call over to Manjit, who will walk us through the fourth quarter financial results.