Great-West Lifeco Profile
Great-West Lifeco Inc. operates as a financial-services holding company with interests in life insurance, health insurance, retirement and investment services, asset management and reinsurance businesses worldwide. The company is a subsidiary of Power Financial Corporation.
The company operates in Canada, the United States and Europe through The Canada Life Assurance Company, Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company (GWL&A, which operates primarily as Empower Retirement), Putnam Investments, LLC (Putnam), Canada Life Limited and Irish Life Group Limited (Irish Life).
The company, through its subsidiaries, provides products and services under various brands, including Canada Life, Freedom 55 Financial, Irish Life, Empower Retirement, Putnam Investments and PanAgora.
Canada
In January 2020, the company’s three Canadian life insurance companies, The Great-West Life Assurance Company, London Life Insurance Company and The Canada Life Assurance Company (Canada Life), and their holding companies, Canada Life Financial Corporation and London Insurance Group Inc., amalgamated into one life insurance company, The Canada Life Assurance Company.
In Canada, Canada Life offers a portfolio of financial and benefit plan solutions for individuals, families, businesses and organizations through two primary business units, including Individual Customer and Group Customer. Through the Individual Customer business unit, Canada Life provides life, disability and critical illness insurance products, as well as wealth savings and income products and services to individual clients. Through the Group Customer business unit, Canada Life provides life, accidental death and dismemberment, critical illness, health and dental protection and creditor insurance, as well as accumulation and annuity products and other specialty products to group clients in Canada. The products are distributed through a multi-channel network of brokers, advisors, managing general agencies and financial institutions, including Freedom 55 Financial and Wealth and Insurance Solutions Enterprise.
The United States
In the United States, Empower Retirement offers employer-sponsored defined contribution plans, individual retirement accounts, enrollment services, communication materials, investment options and education services. The Great-West Investments brand offers fund management, investment and advisory services. Empower Retirement services and products are marketed nationwide through its sales force, brokers, consultants, advisors, third-party administrators and financial institutions. The Empower Institutional brand offers private label recordkeeping and administrative services for other providers of defined contribution plans and associated defined benefit plans. Empower Retirement is the second major defined contribution recordkeeper in the United States and the major provider of services to state defined contribution plans. Personal Capital Corporation is a hybrid wealth manager that combines a digital experience with personalized advice delivered by human advisors.
Putnam provides investment management, certain administrative functions and distribution services. Putnam offers a range of investment products, including equity, fixed income, absolute return and alternative strategies, through Putnam Funds, Putnam World Trust Funds, institutional portfolios (including hedge fund and other alternative strategies), model-based separately managed accounts and model portfolios. Individual retail investors are served through a network of distribution relationships with unaffiliated broker-dealers, financial planners, registered investment advisors and other financial institutions that distribute the Putnam Funds and defined contribution investment only services to their customers, which, in total, includes approximately 140,500 advisors. Institutional investors are supported by Putnam’s dedicated account management, product management, and client service professionals.
Europe
The Europe segment includes three business units serving customers in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany respectively and offering protection and wealth management products, including payout annuity products. The U.K. and German units operate under the Canada Life brand and the Irish unit operates under the Irish Life brand.
The core products offered by the U.K. business unit are bulk and individual payout annuities, equity release mortgages, investments (including life bonds, retirement drawdown and pension), individual protection and group insurance. These products are distributed primarily through independent financial advisors and employee benefit consultants in the U.K.
The core products offered by Irish Life in Ireland are savings and investments, individual and group life insurance, health insurance and pension products. These products are distributed through independent brokers, a direct sales force and tied agent bank branches. Irish Life Health offers individual and corporate health plans, distributed through independent brokers and direct channels. Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM) is a fund management operation in Ireland. In addition to managing assets on behalf of companies in the company, ILIM also manages assets for a range of institutional and retail clients, occupational defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes, large multinational corporations, charities and domestic companies.
The German operation focuses on pension, lifetime guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit and individual protection products that are distributed through independent brokers and multi-tied agents.
Capital and Risk Solutions
The Capital and Risk Solutions segment includes the Reinsurance business unit, which operates primarily in the U.S., Barbados, Bermuda and Ireland. In the U.S., the reinsurance business operates through a branch of Canada Life, subsidiaries of Canada Life and a subsidiary of GWL&A. In Barbados, the reinsurance business operates primarily through a branch of Canada Life and subsidiaries of Canada Life. In Bermuda and Ireland, the reinsurance business operates through a subsidiary of Canada Life. In 2020, Capital and Risk Solutions established a subsidiary in Bermuda. The subsidiary, Canada Life International Reinsurance Corporation Limited, has been approved as a Certified Reinsurer by the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services.
The Reinsurance business includes both reinsurance and retrocession business transacted directly with clients or through reinsurance brokers. As a retrocessionaire, the company provides reinsurance to other reinsurers to allow those companies to manage their reinsurance risk. The product portfolio offered by the company includes life, annuity/longevity, mortgage, surety and property catastrophe reinsurance, provided on both a proportional and non-proportional basis.
In addition to providing reinsurance products to third parties, the company and its subsidiaries also utilize internal reinsurance transactions between companies in the company. These transactions are undertaken to manage insurance risks relating to retention, volatility and concentration; and to facilitate capital management for the company and its subsidiaries and branch operations. These internal reinsurance transactions might produce benefits that are reflected in one or more of the company and its subsidiaries' business units.
History
Great-West Lifeco Inc. was founded in 1891.
