Canada Life Financial Corp is reporting higher first-quarter earnings.

The insurer says fewer payouts for sickness, accident and death insurance combined with cost cuts boosted profits.

Met income was $120 million, or 75¢ a share, for the period ended March 31. That is up from $99 million, or 62¢ a share, in the year-before period.

The company said first quarter profit did not include $6 million of goodwill amortization, which has been eliminated due to changes to accounting standards. Had the company continued amortizing goodwill, quarterly profit would have risen 15%.

Three of five units reported 20% or higher results in the first quarter, led by the Canadian division. The British, U.S., and Reinsurance segments also posted solid returns. Only the Irish division was flat during the first quarter.

First-quarter return on equity slipped to 11.5% from 13.5% on a 12-month basis. Total premiums and deposits stood at $2.8 billion, compared with $3.1 billion last year.

At its meeting today, the company’s board of directors approved a quarterly dividend of 15¢ a share.

Premiums, premium equivalents and new deposits of $2,836 million for the quarter were down $230 million, or 8% below the comparable period in 2001. The majority of the year-over-year decline was due to a decrease of $264 million in segregated funds deposits as strong single premium deposits in the company’s Isle of Man subsidiary and Ireland in 2001 did not recur in the first quarter of this year.

Assets under administration were $66,523 million as at March 31, an increase of $3,724 million or 6% over the same date last year and an increase of $1,098 million over December 31, 2001. The increase was realized across all divisions and was due to the strong new business sales over the past 12 months and some strengthening of foreign currencies against the Canadian dollar.