Maritime Life reached an important milestone this afternoon in its purchase of Royal & Sun Alliance Life Insurance Co. of Canada, when shareholders and participating policyholders voted overwhelmingly to approve the amalgamation.

Once completed, the amalgamation will significantly strengthen Maritime Life’s retail life insurance and investment products lines of business.

The approval by Maritime Life’s shareholders and participating policyholders came at a special meeting held at the company’s head office in Halifax.

Approval was also given by participating policyholders of Royal & Sun Alliance policy holders gave their approval at a special meeting on November 5 in Toronto.

“With these important steps complete, we’ll continue to transition the people, products and business processes of Royal & Sun Alliance Financial into our operations,” says Bill Black, President and CEO, Maritime Li. “Having recently completed two other successful acquisitions and subsequent integrations makes a real difference.”

Maritime Life will now send the proposal for amalgamation to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions for approval. Subject to OSFI approval, the proposal will be submitted to the federal Minister of Finance for approval. Maritime Life is targeting Jan. 1, 2002, for the amalgamation of the two companies.