Posts Tagged ‘life assurance company’
Canadian Banks Shine Amid Tarnished Financial Sector
January 4, 2012
With financial stocks being the worst performing sector in 2011, I thought it would be good idea to find financial stocks that would be worth considering in 2012, whether financials continue to underperform or whether they play catch-up with the rest of the market.
For my search, I used the free stock screener from finviz.com, and used the following screener settings:
- I selected only stocks in the Financial Sector category.
- Companies with a market capitalization of $2 Billion or greater.
- A Price/Book ratio of less than 2.
- A PEG (Price/Earnings to Growth ratio) of less than 2.
- Positive Return on Assets.
- Positive Return on Equity.
- Positive EPS growth this year.
- Positive EPS growth quarter over quarter.
- Positive Sales growth this year.
- Positive Sales growth quarter over quarter.
- Long Term debt/Equity ratio of less than 1.
- Dividend Yield of greater than 3%.
There are seven companies that matched all the above criteria, and they are listed below with a short business summary, PE ratio, and dividend yield from Yahoo Finance, and 1-year performance from finviz:
AFLAC Inc. (AFL)
Aflac Incorporated, through its subsidiary, American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus (Aflac), provides supplemental health and life insurance. Aflac has a PE of 10.98, and a dividend yield of 3.10%.
2011 Performance: -21.29%
BlackRock, Inc. (BLK)
BlackRock, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors. BlackRock has a PE of 14.07, and a dividend yield of 3.10%.
2011 Performance: -3.61%
Bank of Montreal (BMO)
Bank of Montreal, together with its subsidiaries, provides various retail banking, wealth management, and investment banking products and services in North America and internationally. Bank of Montreal has a PE of 10.65 and a dividend yield of 5.00%.
2011 Performance: -0.31%
The Bank Of Nova Scotia (BNS)
The Bank of Nova Scotia, together with its subsidiaries, offers various personal, commercial, corporate, and investment banking services in Canada and internationally. Bank of Nova Scotia has PE ratio of 11.02 and a dividend yield of 4.10%.
2011 Performance: -9.55%
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM)
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce provides various financial products and services to individual, small business, commercial, corporate, and institutional clients in Canada and internationally. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has a PE ratio of 10.12, and a dividend yield of 4.90%.
2011 Performance: -3.31%
NYSE Euronext, Inc. (NYX)
NYSE Euronext, through its subsidiaries, operates securities exchanges. It operates various stock exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NYSE Arca, Inc., and NYSE Amex LLC in the United States; and five European-based exchanges that comprise Euronext N.V. NYSE Euronext has a PE ratio of 10.70 and a dividend yield of 4.60%.
2011 Performance: -9.37%
Royal Bank of Canada (RY)
Royal Bank of Canada provides personal and commercial banking, wealth management services, insurance, corporate and investment banking, and transaction processing services under the RBC name worldwide. Royal Bank of Canada has a PE ratio of 16.28, and a dividend yield of 4.20%.
2011 Performance: +1.17%
Thoughts and Observations
All of the above stocks picks, except for AFLAC, outperformed the Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF), which had a 2011 performance of -17.14%. By design, all of the above stocks had a dividend yield greater than the XLF, which has a dividend yield of 1.57%. The fact that 4 out of the 7 stocks that met all the criteria were Canadian banks isn’t much of a surprise, but does say something about the strength of this particular segment.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
Disclaimer: The commentary does not constitute individualized investment advice. The opinions offered herein are not personalized recommendations to buy, sell or hold securities.
The strategies discussed are strictly for illustrative and educational purposes and should not be construed as a recommendation to purchase or sell, or an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. There is no guarantee that any strategies discussed will be effective. The information provided is not intended to be a complete analysis of every material fact respecting any strategy. The examples presented do not take into consideration commissions, tax implications or other transactions costs, which may significantly affect the economic consequences of a given strategy.
This material represents an assessment of the market environment at a specific time and is not intended to be a forecast of future events or a guarantee of future results. This information should not be relied upon by the reader as research or investment advice regarding the funds or any security in particular.
Old Mutual to sell Finnish branch of Skandia Life Assurance Company
December 23, 2011
Related Sectors
Life Insurance Pensions
Related Industries
Financial Services Insurance Life Insurance
Posted in Quotes Life Assurance | 
Tags: Assurance, Dates, finnish branch, insurance, insurance life, life assurance company, life insurance, Old, pensions, Quotes Life Assurance
OP-Pohjola to Acquire Skandia Life Finland
December 22, 2011
OP-Pohjola Group`s central institution, OP-Pohjola Group Central Cooperative, will acquire Skandia Life Finland`s business from Skandia Life Assurance Company Ltd, a subsidiary of Old Mutual plc. The acquisition will be completed on or about 30 June 2012, provided that the required regulatory approvals can be gained within these timescales.
The acquisition will involve the transfer to OP-Pohjola of some 100,000 customers` unit-linked life and pension policies with with total assets of around 1.3 billion euros (unaudited) as of 30 September 2011.
The acquisition will require no action on Skandia Life customers` part. Following the acquisition, Skandia Life customers will benefit from OP-Pohjola`s extensive service network and have the opportunity to use a wide range of financial services and a diverse package of benefits from using OP-Pohjola as their main bank and insurer.
- We were very interested when we became aware that Skandia was intending to exit the Finnish market, as we saw this as an opportunity to expand our service proposition to Finnish customers. The acquiree`s focus on the asset management business is in line with our Group`s strategy. Moreover, this deal will bring us a number of new customers, says Jarmo Kuisma, Managing Director of OP Life Assurance Company Ltd.
- We are very pleased to have reached this agreement with OP-Pohjola as we believe it is in the best interests of our customers. Old Mutual`s decision to sell its Finnish operations is driven by its strategic priority to streamline and simplify its structure. Skandia Life Finland is a profitable operation which is expected to continue to thrive within the OP-Pohjola Group. We look forward to working with OP-Pohjola to ensure a smooth transfer of the business with minimal disruption for our customers, says Jyrki Thauvon, Skandia Life Finland`s appointed head agent.
For more information, please contact
Jarmo Kuisma, Managing Director, OP Life Assurance Company Ltd, tel. +358 (0)10 252 7891
Karri Alameri, Chief Investment Officer, OP Life Assurance Company Ltd, tel. +358 (0)10 252 8384
About OP-Pohjola Group
OP-Pohjola Group is Finland`s leading financial services group providing a unique range of banking, investment and insurance services. The Group has the mission of promoting the sustainable prosperity, well-being and security of its owner-members, customers and operating regions through its local presence. Its objective is to offer the best and most versatile package of loyal customer benefits on the market. OP-Pohjola Group consists of some 200 Group member banks and the Group`s central institution OP-Pohjola Group Central Cooperative with its subsidiaries and closely related companies, the largest of which is the listed company Pohjola Bank plc.
About Old Mutual plc
Old Mutual is an international long-term savings, protection and investment Group. Originating in South Africa in 1845, the Group provides life assurance, asset management, banking and general insurance to more than 15 million customers in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Old Mutual is listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, among others.
In the year ended 31 December 2010, the Group reported adjusted operating profit before tax of £1.5 billion (on an IFRS basis) and had £309 billion of funds under management from core operations, and shareholders` equity of £9.0 billion.
This announcement is distributed by Thomson Reuters on behalf of Thomson Reuters clients.
The owner of this announcement warrants that:
(i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws; and
(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the
information contained therein.
Source: Pohjola Pankki Oyj via Thomson Reuters ONE
HUG#1572945
SIEFERS v. PACIFICARE LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY
December 20, 2011
2. Nevada courts apply contract rules of interpretation to insurance policies. See, e.g., Fed. Ins. Co. v. Am. Hardware Mut. Ins. Co., 184 P.3d 390, 393 (Nev. 2008). Evidence that serves to defeat a contract, and not to vary its terms, may be considered by a court even if the evidence was not part of the contract when the contract was created. See, e.g., Friendly Irishman, Inc. v. Ronnow, 330 P.2d 497, 498-99 (Nev. 1958) (finding that parol evidence rule did not apply to exclude evidence that “demonstrated fraud in the procurement of the [car sale] instrument and served to defeat the instrument and not to vary its terms”).
Charles Guay to head Standard Life
December 18, 2011
Finance et Investissement, Investment Executive’s Montreal-based sister publication, has learned that Charles Guay, president and CEO of National Bank Securities Inc., will be replacing Joseph Iannicelli as president and CEO of The Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada.
Iannicelli announced his plan to retire from Standard Life in May of this year, following a 19-year career with the company.
Guay’s appointment is expected to be officially announced on Monday.
Irish Life chooses Tableau data visualisation over QlikView, Oracle
December 17, 2011
Irish Life Group has chosen Tableau for data visualisation to put an end to what Paul Egan, IT
manager for business intelligence at the life assurance company, called the “MIS Monday madness” of
Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft Access.
For more on data visualisation
Data visualisation tools explored: Data
visualisation tools going mainstream with help of Google, Tableau
Defined: What is data
visualisation?
And located: Do
you know where your BI software’s data visualisation tools come from?
The company chose Tableau over QlikTech and Oracle following a two-month proof of concept
earlier this year. Tableau is also in use by the pensions part of the group.
Gerry Hassett, CEO at Irish Life Retail had asked for a BI dashboarding tool that was
compelling, easy to build to and use, and that looked great.
“So, not a lot to ask for,” joked Egan.
Denis McLoughlin, the company’s general manager of finance and IT, joined Irish Life from
another part of the group three years ago. He has urged IT “to build compelling systems,” and get
beyond the bland, “which is what we had with our BI applications,” he said.
The company was founded in 1939, has over one million customers and €31 billion of assets under
management.
There are 75 IT development staff in the life part of the group. Egan’s four-person BI team
likes to control its own destiny.
“We tend not to outsource anything,” he said of the IT department. “We lead all the architect
and design role ourselves and are good at getting command of new technologies ourselves.”
Before the data visualisation technology, BI consumers at the firm were beset by the “Monday
madness of copying and pasting spreadsheets and emailing them around to satisfy their audiences,”
Egan said. “It was also static BI, with little trends analysis, just numbers.”
The company, which has an Oracle data warehouse, had previously used Oracle Discoverer, he said,
but “that only had very basic graphs. It sort of suited a company with many actuaries and
accountants. They like their numbers. But they were not getting so much value from the
numbers.”
Coincidentally, the company had been a Siebel CRM customer but had struggled with Siebel
Analytics, which Oracle
acquired in 2005.
Irish Life engaged Tableau reseller MXI Computing to help with a proof-of-concept project in
March and April, running Tableau. Egan’s team also ran QlikView and Oracle Business Intelligence
Enterprise Edition in the proof-of-concept project. Egan said the reseller “put in a huge amount of
time,” and worked the relationship with Tableau in Seattle at a time when MXI had no assurance of
any revenue. “Tableau said it was one of the toughest evaluations of any customer they’d ever sold
to. It’s easier to sell if it’s just a matter of say £5,000 on a few local computers.”
The cost, modelled on 300 concurrent users was $300,000 (€225,000), Egan confirmed. The deal was
for 12 core server licences, 30 developer licenses and three years’ maintenance.
“Tableau was easiest to work with by a considerable distance and delivered tremendous
dashboards,” said Egan. He reported his team found QlikView more akin to Microsoft Visual Studio,
requiring a degree of programming skill. Tableau was more like working in Excel.
Egan wanted business power users to do a lot of the dashboarding themselves, “coming to us with
the symphony written.”
They bought the software in June, had training in July and installed the server in August. The
first dashboards for the executive management group went live on 6 October. “It was astonishingly
fast,” said Egan. The dashboards are accessible to business executives, account managers and the
CEO.
The company has reporting applications deployed in sales, business retention, costs by
functional areas, human resources and online usage. Fifteen business power users are working with
an IT team of four, focused on identifying new data to be put in place and “modest degrees of ETL
[extract, transform and load].”
“My vision is that we enable data sources for power users to build the dashboards, then come
back to us, and IT transfers to production then” Egan said.
Among the business benefits that users are reporting is being able to see patterns in the
retention of pensions contracts, important in a difficult economy. “Just because [a salesperson’s]
numbers are green and positive, it might not mean they are in a great place compared with colleague
whose numbers are red and negative if the trend lines are showing a declining situation.
“We can see nooks and crannies that would heretofore be hidden.”
Standard Life Mutual Funds announces a change for 3 of its funds
December 14, 2011
MONTREAL, Dec. 12, 2011 /CNW Telbec/ – Standard Life Mutual Funds Ltd.
announces its portfolio manager, Standard Life Investments Inc, intends
to sub-delegate to Standard Life Investments (USA) Limited the
management of the three following funds:
- Standard Life U.S. Dividend Growth Fund,
- Standard Life U.S. Mid Cap Fund, and
- Standard Life U.S. Equity Focus Fund.
These changes are to take effect on or about December 15, 2011 and will
be reflected in the simplified prospectus of Standard Life Mutual Funds
to be filed on or about December 23, 2011, subject to the required
regulatory approvals.
The investment objectives and strategies of the three funds remain
unchanged following this announcement.
About Standard Life Mutual Funds
Standard Life Mutual Funds Ltd. (SLMF) is a modern and forward-thinking
company which strives to offer advisors and retail investors in Canada,
products and services that inspire confidence and optimism about the
future. SLMF offers a wide range of professionally managed mutual funds
with varying investment styles across major asset classes. Established
in 2000, SLMF serves over 72,000 investors and offers some 50 mutual
funds and fund-of-funds. It has total managed assets of C$4.1 billion
(as at September 30, 2011).
SLMF is part of Standard Life plc, a leading long-term savings and
investments company headquartered in Scotland and operating
internationally. It is affiliated with The Standard Life Assurance
Company of Canada.
AFLAC fraud convicts sentenced – WALB
December 14, 2011
Columbus, GA -
Information from Michael J. Moore, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia
Five people were sentenced by Clay Land, United States District Court, in Columbus, on December 8 on one Count of Health Care Insurance Fraud against American Family Life Assurance Company, also known as AFLAC.
- Ronnie Moore was sentenced to serve six months incarceration, ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $53,301.25 jointly and severally with Guillermina Bressler, to be followed by three years supervised release, and a mandatory assessment fee of $100.00;
- Camille Toney was sentenced to three years probation to include home confinement with electronic monitoring, ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $2,100.00, and a mandatory assessment fee of $100.00;
- Steven Lester was sentenced to serve six months incarceration, ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $61,676.25 jointly and severally with Travis Washington, to be followed by three years supervised release, and a mandatory assessment fee of $100.00;
- Dontavious Dowdell was sentenced to serve six months incarceration, ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $19, 960.25 jointly and severally with Danielle Mahone, to be followed by three years supervised release, and a mandatory assessment fee of $100.00;
- Derrick Jones was sentenced to serve six months incarceration, ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $39,980.00, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and a mandatory assessment fee of $100.00;
The defendants submitted fraudulent claims against their supplemental insurance policies with AFLAC to fraudulently obtain funds ranging in various amounts. While AFLAC engages in various types of businesses, its primary function is to provide supplemental insurance (health care benefit program) to policyholders who are ill or injured, or both, and are unable to work.
United States Attorney Michael Moore said, “We remain committed to prosecuting cases of health care insurance fraud. By fighting fraud on a local level, U.S. Attorneys can make a difference nationwide.”
The case was investigated by Special Agent David Whitlow, Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Verda Colvin.
American Income Life Raises the Bar in its Support of the Food for Families …
December 12, 2011
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(PRWEB) December 12, 2011
Last year American Income Life Insurance Company employees donated a whopping 15,000 pounds of nonperishable food items to the Central Texas Food for Families Campaign, and employees were determined to surpass that goal for 2011. Their determination paid off! Employees increased their donations an amazing 275 percent through a series of food-raising events held during the first two weeks of November. Delivery of food to the donation site took 21 trucks, vans, and cars. Gordon Collier, a local news anchor covering the event said, “I have been covering Food for Families for many years, and I have never seen anything like this. It is unbelievable.” For more information on the campaign visit http://www.ailgiving.com.
Community involvement is a foundation of the AIL philosophy of doing business. Founded more than 50 years ago, American Income Life Insurance Company is one of the nation’s largest providers of supplemental life insurance to labor unions, credit unions, and associations, covers more than 2 million policyholders, and represents more than $130 million in annual insurance product sales. American Income Life is licensed in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and is registered to carry on business in New Zealand. AIL also has two wholly owned subsidiaries: National Income Life Insurance Company, licensed in the state of New York, and Union Heritage Life Assurance Company Limited, licensed in the Republic of Ireland.
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Posted in Quotes Life Assurance | Tags: AIL, american income life, american income life insurance, american income life insurance company, food, heritage life, life assurance company, life insurance company, national income life insurance company, Quotes Life Assurance, Raises, supplemental life insurance, support
Sun Life Global Investments to expand its role with Sun Life Milestone Funds
December 9, 2011
TORONTO, Dec. 8, 2011 /CNW/ – Sun Life Global Investments (Canada) Inc.
(Sun Life Global Investments) today announced that its in-house
Portfolio Management Team will take on increased responsibilities for
the Sun Life Milestone 2020 Fund, Sun Life Milestone 2025 Fund, Sun
Life Milestone 2030 Fund, Sun Life Milestone 2035 Fund and Sun Life
Milestone Global Equity Fund (the Funds). Subject to regulatory
approval, this change is expected to be effective on or about January
3, 2012. With this transition, Sun Life Global Investments will remain
the portfolio manager for the Funds and Sun Life Assurance Company of
Canada will continue its role of sub-advisor. Sun Life Global
Investments will continue to have access to the expertise of its
affiliates in managing the Funds. Sun Capital Advisors LLC will no
longer be a sub-advisor to the Funds.
Sun Life Global Investments has been overseeing Sun Capital Advisors
management of the Funds to date, and will continue to work closely with
them. There will be no change to the structure, objectives or
strategies of the Funds and unitholders will not be affected by the
transition. The defined maturity date and guaranteed value at maturity
of the Sun Life Milestone 2020 Fund, Sun Life Milestone 2025 Fund, Sun
Life Milestone 2030 Fund and Sun Life Milestone 2035 Fund will not be
affected by the transition.
Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may
be associated with mutual fund investments. Please read the prospectus
before investing. Mutual fund values change frequently and past
performance may not be repeated. Mutual funds are not generally
guaranteed, although the Sun Life Milestone Funds benefit from the
guarantee described below. We have structured each Sun Life Milestone
Fund so that it will have sufficient assets to pay the Guaranteed Value
per unit on its respective maturity date. If the net asset value per
unit on the maturity date of a Sun Life Milestone Fund is less than the
Guaranteed Value per unit, then Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada,
as sub-advisor to the Sun Life Milestone Funds, (Sun Life, or the
guarantor) has agreed to pay the shortfall to the Sun Life Milestone
Fund. Any shortfall payment is subject to the financial health and
creditworthiness of Sun Life. The respective maturity dates for the Sun
Life Milestone Funds is June 30 of the year in the corresponding fund’s
name. The maturity date for a Sun Life Milestone Fund may be
accelerated in certain circumstances, in which case an accelerated
Guaranteed Value will be calculated using a net present value
calculation. If this occurs, it is possible that you could receive less
than $10 per unit, or less than your original investment. If you redeem
your securities of the Sun Life Milestone Funds prior to their
respective maturity dates, your redemption will be processed at the
current net asset value per security, less any applicable redemption
fees, and you will not benefit from the Guaranteed Value at maturity.
Additional information, including specific risks associated with the
Sun Life Milestone Funds, can be found in the prospectus.
Sun Life Global Investments and Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada are
members of the Sun Life Financial group of companies.
About Sun Life Global Investments (Canada) Inc.
Sun Life Global Investments brings together the strength of one of
Canada’s most trusted names in financial services with some of the best
asset managers from around the world. With a focus on risk management,
our rigorous selection and monitoring process provides access to
leading asset managers who use insight and innovation to manage some of
the highest-quality investment solutions for Canadian investors. For
more information, visit www.sunlifeglobalinvestments.com.
About Sun Life Financial
Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services
organization providing a diverse range of protection and wealth
accumulation products and services to individuals and corporate
customers. Chartered in 1865, Sun Life Financial and its partners today
have operations in key markets worldwide, including Canada, the United
States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan,
Indonesia, India, China and Bermuda. As of September 30, 2011, the Sun
Life Financial group of companies had total assets under management of
$459 billion. For more information please visit www.sunlife.com.
Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and
Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the ticker symbol SLF.
Note to Editors: All figures in Canadian dollars.
For further information:
Posted in Quotes Life Assurance | Tags: Financial, global equity fund, Investments, life assurance company, Milestone, mutual fund investments, mutual fund values, portfolio management team, Quotes Life Assurance, sun life assurance, sun life assurance company, sun life assurance company of canada, unit