Manulife Financial Corp. reported $1.6 billion in net income attributed to shareholders for the last quarter of 2024, down 3% compared to the same quarter in 2023. Earnings per share were 88 cents, up slightly from 86 cents in the same period.
The insurance giant had $1.61 billion in assets under management and administration as of Dec. 31, 2024, compared to $1.39 billion at the same time in 2023.
Canadian core earnings for 2024 were $1.57 billion, compared to $1.49 billion the year prior. The increase was primarily driven by business growth in group insurance and improved individual insurance experience, partially offset by lower expected investment earnings.
Individual insurance annual premium equivalent sales in Canada came in at $523 million in 2024, down 7% compared with 2023. Manulife reported that this was caused by a large, one-off affinity markets sale in 2023, and partially offset by higher participating life insurance sales.
Canadian group insurance annual premium equivalent sales of $923 million in 2024 were up 43% compared to 2023, reflecting higher sales across all group benefits markets, primarily from large-case sales.
Contractual service margin — or the value of unearned profits — in Canada was $4.1 billion, an increase of $49 million compared with 2023.
Manulife had 27 artificial intelligence (AI) use cases in 2024 with another 32 in development, it said in the management’s discussion and analysis. For example, it has used a generative AI sales tool in Singapore and Japan to create personalized engagement strategies based on needs, preferences, demographic data and transaction histories. AI has also been used to automate document digitization during underwriting in the U.S. and Singapore.
This article has been updated to correct a figure.