Manulife Financial and Zurich North America Canada have completed an agreement to transfer all outstanding shares of Zurich Life Insurance Company of Canada to Manulife. Zurich Life is now a wholly owned subsidiary of The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company under the share-purchase agreement which closed today.

Zurich Life participating policyholders will vote on the new name for the subsidiary – Manulife Canada Ltd. – at their annual meeting to be held June 4 in Toronto. With their endorsement, a new name will be submitted for regulatory approval later that month.

“Manulife is pleased to add this high-quality block of business to our Canadian operations,” said Bruce Gordon, Manulife Financial executive VP of Canadian operations. “This purchase strengthens Manulife’s overall position in the individual life insurance market and also provides Zurich Life customers with products and services from one of Canada’s leading financial services companies.”

The purchase adds 193,000 individual life insurance policies to Manulife’s combined Canadian individual life business, which now surpasses a significant milestone of more than $1 billion in gross annual premiums. Manulife also acquires control of 547 Zurich Life group pension contracts, 2,900 individual annuity contracts and segregated fund assets of about $41 million. Contractual rights of Zurich Life policyholders are not affected by the transaction.