(May 2 – 14:40 ET) – RBC Insurance has received regulatory approval and closed its acquisition of the individual life insurance and annuity business of the Prudential of America Life Insurance Co. (Canada), known as PruCan. It has also closed its 15% interest in PPI Partners.
“Our plan to transfer the business and integrate the operations is on schedule. As anticipated, more than 90% of PruCan’s employees have been offered positions with RBC Insurance,” said Jim Westlake, president and CEO of RBC Insurance, the insurance operations of Royal Bank Financial Group. “In fact, we have not only retained positions, but will also hire more staff to meet the growing needs of our organization.”
The Prudential brand name will no longer be used for this business in Canada. PruCan’s operations will be integrated with RBC Insurance’s existing life insurance operations. The integration involves about 17,000 PruCan life insurance policies and annuities in Canada that are held by clients in the affluent segment of the life insurance market.
“The integration will be seamless for policyholders, whose current policies and annuities will be kept in their existing form,” said Grant Hardy, president and CEO of the life division of RBC Insurance.
The agreement also makes RBC Insurance a limited partner of PPI, which will become a major distributor of RBC Insurance products for high net worth clients. Calgary-based PPI Partners has distributed individual life, disability and group insurance as well as wealth management products to high net worth Canadians for more than 20 years.
-IE Staff