The administration of Sun Life Financial ServicesÕ closed book of U.K. individual life and pension business consisting of over 800,000 policies will be handled by Marlborough Stirling group.

“In early 2001, Sun Life Financial placed all of its U.K. operations under strategic review. This review led to a series of actions last year, including the exiting of the direct sales force business and the sales of Sun Bank and SLC Asset Management,” says Donald Stewart, chairman and CEO of Sun Life Financial. “This agreement to outsource our U.K. back office operations in the individual business will save approximately $50 million in operating expenses over the next five years. In addition, it will reduce operating risk and enhance our strategic flexibility in the U.K.”

Sun Life Financial has been a client of Marlborough Stirling since 1999 when it decided to implement Lamda, Marlborough Stirling’s life and pensions administration system. Under the terms of the new agreement, Marlborough Stirling will have overall responsibility to complete the planned implementation of the Lamda system, which will be used as the platform on which the portfolio will be managed.

Approximately 720 Sun Life Financial employees based in Basingstoke, U.K. will be joining Marlborough Stirling, where they will provide services to policyholders. Sun Life Financial will maintain a small U.K. governance team who will be responsible for ensuring fiduciary, policyholder and regulatory obligations are met. In addition, Sun Life Financial will maintain approximately 100 employees in its continuing U.K. group insurance business.