Sun Life Financial Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Sun Life Financial Q3 2024 conference call. My name is Gaylene and I will be your conference operator today. All the lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. Your host for today's 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 third quarter of 2024. 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 Following Kevin, Tim Deacon, 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 now turn things over to Kevin.

Thanks, David, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide four, we had a strong quarter for profitability, for financial strength, and for growth. Our EPS was $1.76, up 11%, ahead of our medium-term financial objective of 8% to 10%. Both underlying and reported earnings exceeded $1 billion, showcasing the power of our division-wide business platform, the strength of our client impact strategy, and our focus on execution. We maintain a strong capital position, reflecting our financial discipline and capital light businesses. Underlying ROE for the quarter of 17.9% was in line with our medium-term financial objective, while our LICAT ratio at SLF remained strong at 152%. we announced an increase to our quarterly common share dividend, consistent with our medium-term objective for a dividend payout ratio. We also bought back $146 million of common shares as part of our share buyback program. The business continues to produce capital and cash consistent with our objectives, and both the dividend increase and the share buybacks demonstrate our strong capital generation and our commitment to return capital to our shareholders. We achieved solid growth across all business groups, driven by Canada and U.S. group health and protection sales that were up 19%, individual protection sales up 9%, and higher fee income and asset management driven by higher AUM. Our AUM reached an all-time high, surpassing $1.5 trillion, reflecting both strong equity markets and the continued strength of our asset management capabilities. At $1.5 trillion, we are Canada's largest asset manager based on AUM. Turning to slide five, our success continues to be driven by our winning strategy, which is driven by our purpose of helping clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives. We continue to focus on positioning ourselves in high growth spaces and delivering for our clients. As such, we have sharpened our focus on our four strategic imperatives to include leverage our asset management capabilities and extend our wealth presence, accelerate our momentum in Asia, deepen our impact along our client health journey, and operate like a digital company. Turning to slide six, we share some of our key highlights and progress from this last quarter. Starting with our focus on asset and wealth management, we realized solid earnings momentum stemming from higher fee income in MFS and SLC management. MFS delivered strong investment performance during the quarter, and AUM returned to its highest level since Q1 2022. While outfall challenges remain, we are confident in the long-term strategy of MFS and the actions they are taking to address these headwinds, including offering a diverse range of investment products to meet evolving client needs. This quarter, MFS achieved strong momentum in separate managed accounts, which year-to-date were up 40% relative to the same period last year. MFS also experienced growth in fixed income on strong investment performance, which contributed to steady AUM growth. Finally, MFS will be launching five actively managed ETFs on December 5. In SLC management, fee-related earnings were up 6% year-over-year on higher AUM driven by strong capital raising. This was SLC's highest capital raising quarter since Q1 2021. We also acquired the remaining 20% interest in Infrared Capital Partners, our global infrastructure investment manager. Since our initial majority stake acquisition in 2020, Infrared has broadened SLC management's suite of alternative investment solutions while also creating the opportunity for Infrared to access North American investors through our distribution networks. We are also delivering on our purpose of helping clients achieve lifetime financial security through offering innovative wealth solutions. In our Canadian Group Retirement Services business, we are helping clients with their longevity needs and have launched My Retirement Income, an innovative first for Canadians that offers retirees a reliable source of income while maintaining flexibility and the potential for continued investment growth. This fully automated solution will help ease the transition from saving during working years to drawing income in retirement. We also achieved record wealth earnings in Asia during the quarter, driven by solid fund performance in India and our Hong Kong MPF business. And we also realized strong protection results in Asia. Individual protection sales were up 19% year-over-year, driven by higher sales in Hong Kong, India, and Indonesia. In Hong Kong, we observed growth across all channels, including all-time high agency sales and strong contributions from our bank insurance partnership with Dossing Bank. In India, we continue to execute well across our distribution channels. We also continue to see strong sales momentum in Indonesia, where we are preparing to launch the next stage of our partnership with CMV Niagara on January the 1st. Shifting to health, both Canada and the U.S. delivered strong group benefits earnings, driven by improved morbidity experience and strong sales during the quarter. In dental, we saw positive momentum in both Canada and the U.S., In Canada, as the administrator of the Canadian Dental Care Plan, we continue to provide access to dental care for Canadians in need. To date, we have enrolled 2.7 million Canadians onto the plan and processed 2 million claims. In the US, our plan to improve dental results is proceeding well. Pricing renegotiations and claims and expense management actions are driving improved results. Membership is growing again, and while there is more work ahead, we expect results to continue to improve towards the U.S. $100 million of earnings in 2025 that we discussed last quarter. Further, this quarter, we reached a milestone, becoming the largest dental benefits provider in the U.S. with approximately 35 million members. We are well positioned in this attractive high-growth market. Looking at digital, Sun Life was recognized this quarter as a 2024 CIO Award Canada winner for our Sun Life Ask generative AI chatbot, an internal gen AI chatbot that supports employees in delivering daily tasks more efficiently. Gen AI is an important part of our digital transformation, and we are committed to innovating and adopting emerging technology. In the Philippines, we implemented a new automated underwriting platform, resulting in a 50% increase in straight-through processing. This platform not only enhances the client experience through faster turnaround times, but it also delivers operating efficiencies. We are implementing this automated underwriting platform across Asia. Finally, underpinning our strong business performance is our exceptional people and culture. This quarter, Sun Life was awarded the Canada Order of Excellence, recognizing our company as a leading employer that consistently prioritizes employee well-being, fosters a positive work culture, and achieves excellence in mental health. We are one of two corporations in Canada to have received this honor. Special thanks goes to Jacques, Sun Life Canada's Executive Chair, who has helped elevate our commitment to support the well-being of our people, our clients, and Canadians. I'd also like to welcome Jessica Tan, our president of Sun Life Canada. Jessica has extensive global experience in insurance and digital innovation, and is widely recognized for her thought leadership and execution across digital transformation and health. She brings unique skills and capabilities to Sun Life, and we are fortunate to benefit from her global experience. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tim, who will walk us through the third quarter financial results in more detail.