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Sun Life Financial Inc. (SLF) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Sun Life Financial Inc. (SLF)

Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call

Company Participants

David Garg - Senior Vice President, Capital Management and Investor Relations

Kevin Strain - President and Chief Executive Officer

Manjit Singh - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Daniel Fishbein - President, Sun Life US

Kevin Morrissey - Senior Vice President, Chief Actuary

Randolph Brown - Chief Investment Officer

Stephen Peacher - President, SLC Management

Jacques Goulet - President of Sun Life Canada

Conference Call Participants

Meny Grauman - Scotiabank

Tom MacKinnon - BMO Capital

Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial

Doug Young - Desjardins

Mario Mendonca - TD Securities

Paul Holden - CIBC

Darko Mihelic - RBC Capital Markets

Lemar Persaud - Cormark

Nigel D'Souza - Veritas Investment Research

Presentation

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Sun Life Financial Q4 2023 Conference Call. My name is Shree, and I'll be your conference operator today. [Operator Instructions]

The host of the call is David Garg, Senior Vice President, Capital Management and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Garg.

David Garg

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Sun Life's Earnings Call for the Fourth Quarter of 2023. Our earnings release and the slides for today's call are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at sunlife.com. We will begin today's call with opening remarks from Kevin Strain, President and Chief Executive Officer. Following Kevin, Manjit Singh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will present the financial results for the quarter. After the prepared remarks, we will move to the question-and-answer portion of the call. Other members of management are also available to answer your questions this morning.

Turning to Slide 2, I draw your attention to the cautionary language regarding the use of forward-looking statements and non-IFRS financial measures, which form part of today's remarks. As noted in the slides, forward-looking statements may be rendered inaccurate by subsequent events.

And with that, I will now turn things over to Kevin.

Kevin Strain

Thanks, David, and good morning, everyone. Turning to Slide 4. We delivered strong performance during the fourth quarter, contributing to strong full year results for 2023. Our results show the strength and resilience of our business mix and the positive impact we're having on our clients. We achieved strong underlying earnings for the quarter of $983 million, up 10% year-over-year. Our strong results were broad-based with strength in Canada, U.S. and SLC management. Underlying ROE of 18.4% this quarter is above our medium-term financial objective of 18% plus, reflecting our strong earnings and disciplined financial management. Further, we maintained a strong capital position with an SLF LICAT ratio of 149%.

Our results reflect exceptional individual protection sales and good momentum in our group health and protection businesses in the fourth quarter. Strong group health and protection sales were driven by both our Canadian and U.S. Group businesses. In Canada, sales were up 63% year-over-year, largely due to higher large case sales and in the U.S., both Dental and Health and Risk Solutions sales were strong. This quarter, DentaQuest was awarded two new Medicaid dental benefits contracts in two states and commercial dental sales increased 55% over the prior year.

The dental business has recorded more than US$ 650 million in sales since the closing of the DentaQuest acquisition on June 1, 2022. Individual protection sales were driven by strong performance in Asia, with sales up 49% year-over-year. International high net worth sales were 2x higher than the prior year and Hong Kong sales were 4x higher. Our Hong Kong sales growth reflected our diversified mix of high-performing quality-focused distribution channels, including our broadened broker network and new agency teams focused on Mainland Chinese individuals and our bancassurance partnership with Dah Sing Bank. Canadian individual protection sales were up 23% year-over-year, driven by higher third-party sales. Wealth sales and asset management gross flows were up in the quarter with the Canadian business up 32% due to higher individual wealth and defined benefit sales.

SLC demonstrated strong capital raising, closing the year with $177 billion in fee-earning AUM, up 8% over the prior year. SLC also won the 2023 CIOs Industry Innovation Awards for Private Credit. MFS experienced outflows primarily driven by industry conditions. During the year, MFS became the 9th largest fund group for the U.S. retail mutual fund industry based on AUM. And next month, MFS celebrates their 100th anniversary. Congratulations to Michael Roberge and our colleagues at MFS on this milestone. Keeping with MFS, I want to recognize their recent leadership announcement with Michael Roberge set to become Executive Chair of MFS on January 1, 2025, and Ted Maloney to take on the role as their CEO. Ken has been with MFS for almost 20 years and is currently their Chief Investment Officer. Congratulations to both Mike and Ted.

Turning to Slide 5. Our full year 2023 results were driven by similar factors as seen during the fourth quarter. Underlying net income increased 11% to $3.7 billion, supported by growth across all businesses. Underlying ROE of 17.8% was also strong. Total assets under management reached $1.4 trillion in 2023, demonstrating the resilience of our business in a challenging environment. Turning to Slide 6. This quarter, we delivered on several key business initiatives that help drive our client impact strategy forward. Providing access to care and helping clients live healthier lives remains a top priority. We remain a leader in health benefits and services in Canada and the U.S. and are increasingly leveraging digital partnerships to support our clients' health journeys. This quarter, we finalized a contract with the Government of Canada to be the administrator of the Canadian dental care plan, which will provide access to dental care for up to 9 million additional Canadians.

We also completed the acquisition of Dialogue, Canada's premier virtual health care and wellness platform. And finally, in Canada, we completed a minority investment in Pillway, a virtual pharmacy offering increased choice and convenience for our clients. In the U.S., we successfully launched a pilot of Sun Life Health 360, an app built using Dialogue's flexible digital engagement platform as a front door to health and wellness support. It's an example of how we are leveraging our strategic capabilities across markets to create value for our clients and advancing how we think and act more like a digital company. Through this pilot, over 63,000 members now have access to Sun Life Health 360, bridging the gap in accessing care and helping facilitate better health outcomes. We're continuing to roll out the platform to more members and further enhancing the app by enabling access to programs focused on kidney, joint and muscle condition, among others.

We continue to expand our distribution capabilities and product suite to support our clients in achieving life confidential security. During the quarter, we formed a securities investment dealer, Sun Life Canada Securities, having received regulatory approval from the Canadian investment regulatory organization. We anticipate an operational launch later this year. Our expanded offerings in Sun Life Canada Securities will broaden access to wealth solutions to help clients achieve lifetime financial security. SLC Management recently announced a strategic relationship with Scotiabank to distribute our alternative investment products to the Canadian retail market through Scotia Global Wealth Management.

This relationship will provide Canadian high net worth investors with access to our world-class alternative investment capabilities. In Singapore, we launched a new indexed universal life product, providing high net worth clients a dynamic balance between long-term protection and growth and the flexibility to customize premium payments and investment allocations. This product has been well received by the market. We're doing more to think and act like a digital company, harnessing the power of generative AI. We're testing and learning with several Gen AI experiments across the organization, balancing innovation while managing risk. This quarter, we launched a new Gen AI-powered tool that helps developers write and test code more efficiently. The tool was launched to over 2,000 employees, and we're seeing productivity gains from the first group of adopters enabling delivery of new digital experiences for our clients. In the U.S., Gen AI is helping improve productivity in our call centers by analyzing and summarizing calls and delivering insights on clients' top concerns. We're excited about the potential Gen AI has to help create more exceptional client experiences and improve workplace productivity.

Finally, we continue to be recognized for our progress in sustainability and our inclusive culture. Sun Life was recognized by Corporate Knights as being among the Global 100 most sustainable corporations in the world for the 15th consecutive year and the 6th consecutive year as the top bank insurance company in North America. Additionally, Sun Life received numerous employer recognitions in 2023, including being certified as a great place to work in several key markets. SLC Management was also named 2023 Best Places to Work in Money Management for the fourth year in a row by pensions and investments. We are pleased to receive these recognitions as they reflect our inclusive culture and our commitment to our people.

Turning to Slide 7. We remain confident in the resilience of our strategy and our ability to execute on our strategy. In 2024, we'll be focused on taking the next step in our digital development, advancing how we think and act like a digital company. This means building on the strong foundation we have built over the last four years under our digital enterprise program, where we have been modernizing our tech stack and building our agile working model. 2024 will see us continue to evolve towards thinking and acting more like a digital company, including building out new apps and new features on existing apps to support our clients' financial security and healthy living. We will also continue to look for and execute on synergies between asset management and insurance, building on the strong capabilities at SLC and MFS. We have built a strong health business in Canada and the U.S., and we'll continue to deepen and impact we have on client health, and we will accelerate our momentum in Asia, focusing on building quality distribution and strong execution. Finally, we will continue to evolve our culture towards bolder thinking, driving a bias to action and delivering on results.

In closing, I'd like to wish our Asian colleagues around the world good health, happiness and prosperity as they celebrate Lunar New Year over the next few days and welcome the year of the Dragon. Kung Hei Fat Choi. Gong Xi Fa Cai, Chuc Mung Nam Moi for all of those that are celebrating their new year. I'd also like to recognize Black History Month, where we're celebrating the outstanding contributions and achievements of black individuals who have made a positive impact in our communities. It's important to continue to build a more inclusive culture for everyone.

And I'd like to share a final note that this will be Manjit's last call as our Chief Financial Officer. As you all know, Manjit will be taking on the role of President of our Asia business starting in March. Manjit on behalf of all Sun Life's congratulations on your new appointment. We're looking forward to working with you in your new capacity and continue to see great things coming out of Sun Life Asia.

And with that, I will turn the call over to Manjit, who will walk us through the fourth quarter financial results.

Manjit Singh

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. Let's begin on Slide 9, which provides an overview of our fourth quarter results. We delivered strong results this quarter as underlying net income of $983 million and underlying earnings per share of $1.68 were up 10% and 11%, respectively. This was driven by strong performance in U.S. and Canada as well as resilient asset management earnings. We are pleased that our underlying ROE of 18.4% cross the 18% mark this quarter. Our peer-leading ROE is driven by our attractive mix of businesses across wealth and asset management, group health and protection and individual protection. Wealth and Asset Management comprised 40% of our Q4 underlying earnings and were up 7% from the prior year. This was driven by higher asset management fee-related earnings and higher investment income, reflecting volume growth and increased yields. Group Health and Protection businesses comprised 40%, 34% of underlying earnings and grew 14% year-over-year. Results were driven by good sales growth, improved disability experience and higher investment contribution, partially offset by lower dental earnings.

Individual protection comprised 26% of underlying earnings and increased 23% from last year. This was driven by business growth and higher investment earnings, partially offset by the sale of the Sun Life U.K. business. New business CSM of $381 million was up 51% from the prior year, reflecting strong sales in Asia and Canada. For the full year, we added over $1 billion of new business CSM. Reported net income for the quarter was $749 million, $234 million lower than underlying earnings. The difference between underlying and reported net income was driven by acquisition-related costs, amortization of intangibles and unfavorable market-related impacts. Market-related impacts were primarily driven by negative interest rate experience, reflecting lower rates and unfavorable real estate experience. Real estate experience reflects modestly negative total returns in the current quarter versus our long-term expectations of approximately 2%. We are long-term investors and continue to view real estate as a key component of our diversified investment portfolio. Over the last 10 years, our North American real estate portfolio has generated annualized total returns in excess of our current long-term assumptions.

Our balance sheet and capital position remain strong. This provides us financial flexibility to support attractive organic and inorganic business opportunities, return capital to shareholders and maintain resilience to absorb potential impacts from volatile market conditions. SLF LICAT of 149% increased two points from the prior quarter, primarily driven by strong organic capital generation. Total capital generation in the quarter before payment of dividends was just over $1 billion, reflecting good business results and favorable capital impacts from lower interest rates. Book value per share increased 2% quarter-over-quarter, holdco cash remained strong at $1.6 billion, and our leverage ratio remains low at 21.5%. Now let's turn to our business group performance, starting on Slide 11 with MFS. MFS net underlying income of US$ 191 million was down $11 million or 5% from the prior year, reflecting higher expenses, partially offset by higher A&A and increased investment income. Reported net income of US$ 183 million was down 18% year-over-year, driven by the fair value changes in shares owned by MFS management. Pre-tax net operating margin of 39% remained resilient. AUM US$ 599 billion was up $43 billion from the prior quarter, driven by market appreciation, partially offset by net outflows of $11.2 billion. MFS investment performance was strong. Over 95% of fund assets ranked in the top half of their respective Morningstar categories for both five and 10-year performance. Short-term performance was impacted by the significant outperformance of a small group of equities relative to MFS's broader core and growth-oriented strategies.

Turning to Slide 12. SLC Management generated underlying net income of $70 million, up from $48 million last year, driven by higher fee-related earnings and higher seed investment income. Fee-related earnings of $92 million were up 26% year-over-year. The increase reflects strong capital raising and deployment of capital into fee-earning AUM over the past year as well as the AAM acquisition. Reported net income was $47 million, up $29 million year-over-year, largely due to growth in underlying earnings. Capital raising of $5.5 billion increased over the prior quarter, driven by demand for public debt at SLC fixed income and strong fundraising at BGO. For the full year, SLC Management raised $13.1 billion of capital. Total AUM of $223 billion was up $13 million from the prior year. Turning to Slide 13. Canada, underlying net income of $350 million was driven by strong growth across all businesses. Reported net income of $348 million was in line with underlying earnings as unfavorable market-related impacts and acquisition-related expenses were largely offset by favorable ACMA. Wealth and Asset Management underlying earnings were up 28% year-over-year on increased investment income from higher volumes and yields. Group Health and Protection underlying earnings increased 56% year-over-year, reflecting business growth and improved disability experience driven by higher margins, lower claims volumes and shorter claim durations. Individual Protection earnings were up 9% year-over-year and higher investment earnings, partially offset by unfavorable mortality experience. Both group and individual protection businesses posted strong sales growth. Group sales were up 63% in higher large case sales while individual sales were up 23% due to higher par life sales.

Turning to Slide 14. U.S. underlying net income of US$ 187 million was up 8% from last year. Reported net income of US$ 77 million includes unfavorable ACMA negative market-related impacts and acquisition-related expenses. Group Health and production underlying earnings were down from the prior year, driven by lower dental results, partially offset by growth in Group Benefit earnings. Our Group Benefit businesses benefited from strong revenue growth, driven by good sales and disciplined pricing, higher investment returns and improved mortality experience, partially offset by less favorable morbidity experience compared to the prior year. U.S. morbidity experience in the quarter remained favorable in stop-loss and group disability, partially offset by unfavorable dental experience. U.S. Group sales of $932 million were up 4% year-over-year, driven by strong stop-loss sales. We are pleased with this performance during this important part of our annual sales cycle. Lower dental results were driven by the impact of Medicaid redeterminations on member count, which drove lower dental premiums and higher loss ratios. Looking forward, we expect the added revenue from 2023 sales as well as our current sales pipelines to more than offset the impacts from the Medicaid redetermination process, driving good dental revenue and earnings growth in 2024. Individual protection results increased year-over-year, reflecting the inclusion of our legacy U.K. business and better mortality experience.

Slide 15 outlines Asia's results for the quarter. Underlying net income of $143 million was up 5% year-over-year on a constant currency basis. Normalizing for the impact of insurance experience, Asia's results were in line with the prior quarter, reflecting good core business fundamentals. Reported net income of $44 million includes unfavorable market impacts, partially offset by favorable tax benefits. We continue to see good sales momentum in Hong Kong with sales up 4x year-over-year and high net worth, where sales grew 88%. The strong sales results also drove new business CSM of $223 million, up 82% from the prior year. Overall, we closed the year on a high note. We delivered year-over-year underlying earnings growth of 10%, generated peer-leading underlying ROE of 18.4%. We maintained an excellent capital position, had strong sales momentum in both our individual protection and group health and protection businesses and our asset management businesses were resilient, delivering steady contribution in a challenging environment.

Looking ahead, we are optimistic that our strong fundamentals and focus on execution will help carry our strong performance into the new year. In closing, as Kevin noted, this will be my last call as CFO. I'd like to thank my finance team for all their tremendous support over the past 3 years in my tenure as CFO. I would also like to thank our investors and analysts for your thoughtful engagement. Now I'll turn the call over to David for Q&A....

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