As announced by the Desjardins-Laurentian Financial Corporation on April 6, the participating policyholders of The Imperial Life Assurance Company were invited to vote on the proposal to continue Imperial Life’s operations as a Quebec chartered company.

Almost 94% of approximately 4,000 participating policyholders who returned their ballot indicated their support for the proposal. The result was released at the Imperial Life annual and special general meeting held in Toronto, today. The vote, which will now allow the various regulatory procedures to get underway, represents one step on the road toward the projected merger of Imperial Life with its sister company, Desjardins-Laurentian Life Assurance by the end of the year.

A special general meeting of Imperial Life and DLLA, which participating policyholders may attend, will be held in the fall of 2001 to seek the approval of the shareholders of the newly merged companies.

Subject to the various approvals, the merger of the two companies will create a new Canada-wide company serving 4.5 millions insured clients. It will employ 2,500 people and rank 7th among the life and health insurance companies, with a premium volume worth $1.5 billion. Since the two companies already share a common operational structure, their workforce will be virtually unaffected by the merger.
-IE Staff