Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC) Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. On behalf of our Board, we welcome you to the Annual Meeting of Manulife Financial Corporation and the Manufacturers Life Insurance Company. My name is John Cassaday, Chairman of the Board. Across Manulife, we are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. Part of this commitment includes incorporating an indigenous land acknowledgment, where we recognize and acknowledge the history of the land on which we operate. It is important for us to show our respect for indigenous peoples and recognize their enduring relationship to the land. The Board of Directors, on behalf of shareholders, policyholders and employees of Manulife acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the indigenous peoples. As we gather today on these treaty lands, we have the responsibility to honor and respect the 4 directions, the land, waters, plants, animals and ancestors that walk before us and all the wonderful elements of creation that exist. Today, these gathering places are home to many First Nations Metis and Inuit and indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island. Acknowledging them reminds us of our important connection to this land where we live, learn and work. We recognized honor and respect these nations as the traditional stewards of the land and water on which Manulife offices are now present. With that important acknowledgment, we are once again holding our annual meeting virtually this year as we navigate the ongoing prevalence of COVID-19. Your Board is proud of Manulife's many achievements in 2021 and grateful for the thoughtful leadership of President and CEO, Roy Gori, and your executive leadership team. We truly appreciate the continued dedication, resilience and energy demonstrated by the Manulife team around the world, who continue keeping our customers at the core of everything we do. In 2021, we remained focused on providing oversight and guidance to management, continuing to leverage technology to maintain a high level of interactivity and collaboration during our sessions. We are proud of the robust and constructive dialogue that took place around our virtual table and are honored to have been ranked in first place by the Globe and Mail's report on business for best board governance in Canada. Your Board brings a robust and diverse skill set, and we continue to deploy this expertise as we remained focused on the company's strategic growth opportunities, both in the near and long term, in particular, our growth engines of global wealth and asset management and our Asia segment. We are also excited about the opportunities presented by accelerating our digital transformation and optimizing our portfolio. And we focus several learning sessions on related topics such as cybersecurity, disruptive business models, blockchain and cryptocurrency. And we are proud to have maintained our aspiration of gender parity and representation among independent directors with 7 women among the 13 independent directors nominated for election at today's meeting. While the 2 -- past 2 years have been challenging, we are confident in the knowledge that we have maintained and even enhanced our connectedness in the virtual setting, and we remain optimistic about the future, driven by our mission and united by our shared values. Before handing over to Roy Gori, our President and CEO, for his remarks, we'd like to review a few housekeeping items. The meeting is being broadcast in both English and in French. To switch languages, please click on your desired language from the buttons above the presentation screen. Closed captioning is also being provided in both languages. If you joined the meeting by dialing in to one of the conference lines, you will be able to hear the meeting but will not be able to vote or ask questions. Voting will be available online during the meeting for shareholders, policyholders and duly appointed proxy holders. To be able to vote during the meeting, you have to have joined the meeting by entering your control number at the registration screen. Information on where to find your control number was provided in the meeting materials sent to shareholders and policyholders and posted on our website. We will provide instructions on how to vote at the appropriate time in the meeting. As is our usual practice, shareholders and policyholders are invited to ask questions of the Board and management. Similar to the instructions for voting, to be able to ask questions during the meeting, you had to have joined the meeting by entering your control number at the registration screen. [Operator Instructions] Antonella Deo, our Corporate Secretary, will receive the questions and read them for all to hear. In the interest of giving sufficient time to respond to the questions of others, please only ask one question at a time and kindly keep your questions brief. Questions during the formal business of the meeting should relate to the matter being discussed. All questions should be of interest to all shareholders and policyholders and should not be of a personal nature. Questions of a general nature will be dealt with during the Q&A session. In fairness to other shareholders and policyholders in attendance, if your question relates to a personal matter, we will contact you following the meeting to follow up on your question. We are joined today by Phil Witherington, our Chief Financial Officer; Jim Gallagher, General Counsel; and Antonella Deo, Corporate Secretary. The rest of the Board of Directors, the external auditors and the scrutineers for the meeting, TSX Trust are participating electronically as well. We draw your attention to the caution regarding forward-looking statements in the presentation slide. Comments made during this meeting may include forward-looking statements as defined in securities legislation. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Please also refer to the note regarding the non-GAAP measures used in today's presentations. Roy will now provide his remarks on Manulife.

Hello, everyone. Welcome, and thank you for joining us today. Reflecting on 2021, I am tremendously proud of our team and how we continue to deliver for our customers, shareholders, communities and each other. The experience of the past 2 years has underscored the critical role that our products and services play for our customers around the world. And we can be proud of the way that we've supported them and their families through the most challenging times. To really live our mission and make a difference in people's lives, we constantly ask ourselves the question, what if. What if we could do more to protect people and their families? What if we could help people save for retirement and plan for their future? What if we could contribute more meaningfully to a healthier planet? What if we could make decisions easier and lives better for the people we serve? It's through this lens that we're driving innovation and action at Manulife. And whilst there's always much more that we can do, we're making a difference. We supported our customers with over $31 billion in claims paid last year. We've helped over 8 million people plan, save and prepare for a happy retirement. Our sustainable investments totaled more than $67 billion. We've planted more than 1.2 billion trees and protected over 479,000 acres of land. At Manulife, when we say we want to make the world a better place, we really mean it. And I'm proud of the fact that we're making a difference in people's lives in a deep and meaningful way every day. Our success over time depends on our ability to continue delivering for each of our key stakeholders, our customers, the communities where we live and work, the planet we all share, our colleagues and you, our shareholders and policyholders. We know that what's good for business is putting customers and humanity first. In 2021, we welcomed approximately 1.6 million new customers for a total of more than 33 million customers around the world. Our ambition is to be the most digital customer-centric global company in our industry. And in 2018, we set an ambitious goal to improve our Net Promoter Score by 30 points. Since then, we've invested more than $850 million to enhance our digital capabilities and have increased our relationship NPS score by 20 points to 21 as of the end of 2021 as we continue to meet and exceed our customers' expectations. We now process more than 90% of claims digitally and have achieved 82% straight-through processing, a measure of customers' interactions that are completely digital. Throughout the pandemic, our customers, agents and partners have accelerated digital adoption. Our investments in technology have enabled us to provide a seamless experience and drive higher customer satisfaction. In response to our customers' desire to continue improving their well-being, we've evolved and expanded our behavioral insurance offerings to support them in achieving their goals. One customer was prompted to do a mammogram to earn more points and learned that she had early-stage breast cancer. She was treated and is now cancer-free. She thanked us for helping to save her life as she's the younger lady and a doctor hadn't recommended a mammogram for her yet. A 67-year-old customer started following a vitality program about a year ago and has not only lost weight, but is now off all of their previously prescribed medications. Another customer was inspired to challenge himself to run 5 kilometers every day and is now one of our top vitality point owners and credits his good health through our program. These are only some examples of how ManulifeMOVE Manulife Vitality and John Hancock Vitality continue to have a positive impact on our customers' lives, while also driving higher rates of interaction and in turn, contributing to improved health outcomes. We're also supporting our customers and clients with their investment needs, and we're proud of global wealth and asset management's track record of positive net flows and strong investment performance. Demand for our products continue to increase with the widening of the retirement gap and the expansion of household wealth in the United States, Asia and Canada. As a result, our retail business had a record year with net inflows of $30 billion, and we improved our global money manager rankings from 32 to 27 as measured by pensions and investments. In 2021, we made great progress building on our history as a trusted insurer, long-term investor and good corporate citizen. At last year's annual meeting, I was pleased to announce the first phase of our climate action plan, a set of robust and long-term commitments to reduce our environmental footprint, support the transition to a net zero future and invest in climate change mitigation and resilience. We're bringing these commitments to life through our business, including through our acquisition of 90,000 acres of forested land as an impact first investment as well as the expansion of our suite of sustainable investing products. We continue to invest in the communities where we live and work to empower sustained health and well-being, drive inclusive economic opportunity and create a sustainable future. And I look forward to providing further updates on our impact agenda later this month. Alongside our partners, we delivered on high-impact initiatives around the world, including our second move for good challenge in Hong Kong, motivating members to walk over 1 billion steps to unlock a charitable donation for underserved children. In the U.S., last year marked our 14th annual MLK Scholars program. Across sector collaboration, we lead that provides jobs and professional development opportunities for thousands of youth. And in Canada, Manulife continued our partnership of over 30 years with the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research supporting pioneering research to improve the health, well-being and resilience of communities across the country and beyond. Finally, we provided relief to communities across our footprint around the world to respond to the impacts of COVID-19. The future of economic growth and the health of our community will be determined by the investments we make as a company and society in the ongoing health crisis, and we all have a role to play. We know that our people are our most important asset, and I believe the culture is one of the only truly sustainable long-term competitive advantages. Our ambition has always been to achieve top quartile engagement results. And despite a tremendously challenging year, our 2021 engagement scores again increased year-over-year, ranking Manulife in the top 15% of Gallup's financial and insurance companies' benchmark. We're mindful of the importance of well-being, and we continue to make this a priority through a broad range of initiatives, including investments in learning, mental health, parental leave and providing everyone 5 additional paid days off in both 2021 and 2022. We're also making progress on our diversity, equity and inclusion ambitions through expanded hiring commitments, education and community support for organizations helping black, indigenous and people of color. And in June, we brought our global colleagues together for our first afternoon of reflection and learning to allow all team members to explore the many dimensions of diversity through speaker sessions, guided discussion and more. We're committed to building a culture where everyone thrives and is deeply aware of the role that they can play in helping to support inclusion. When people feel like they belong, they bring their best selves to work, which in turn manifests itself into our processes, products and services. Now let me give you an overview of the strategic progress and results that we delivered in 2021. We achieved net income attributed to shareholders of $7.1 billion in 2021, up $1.2 billion from 2020, and we delivered core earnings of $6.5 billion, an increase of 26% on a constant exchange rate basis. We increased our common share dividend by 18% in the fourth quarter of '21, and we will be buying back shares in 2022, generating shareholder value. Looking to our growth engines, Global Wealth and Asset Management and Asia. We have continued to accelerate growth and scale. Global Wealth and Asset Management delivered strong performance with net inflows of $27.9 billion in 2021. In Asia, our core earnings grew to $2.2 billion and net income attributed to shareholders grew to $1.8 billion despite the headwinds that we faced in some markets. Our new business value of $1.7 billion represented a 27% increase over the prior year on a constant exchange rate basis. Crucially, we gained market share in 5 geographies across Asia during the year, and we continue to scale our business to grow across the diverse markets that we serve in Asia. We completed our acquisition of Aviva Vietnam and began a 16-year exclusive bancassurance partnership with VietinBank, allowing us the opportunity to provide an additional 14 million customers with a full suite of insurance, wealth and retirement solutions. We also continued to make significant progress on our portfolio optimization commitments as evidenced by the announcement of our legacy U.S. variable annuity reinsurance transaction with Venerable Holdings, Inc., which closed in February of this year. This transaction unlocked value and meaningfully reduced our go-forward risk profile, and we will continue to look for opportunities to reduce risk and unlock value. The investment case for Manulife continues to evolve and is compelling. We have an unparalleled platform for growth that is global in nature and poised to capitalize on key global mega trends shaping the future, including the growth and emergence of the middle class in Asia, an aging global population and the digitization of the consumer. More than 1 billion people in Asia are expected to join the middle class by 2030. By 2032, they're expected to account for more than 50% of consumer spending. By 2030, 1 in 6 people globally will be 60 and over. And 60% of those over the age of 65 are expected to be in Asia. We are uniquely positioned to make a difference and win in this space with our strong leadership position in 13 of the fastest growing, most profitable markets in Asia. In closing, I'd like to thank our Chairman, John Cassaday, and our Board of Directors for their continued support and counsel. Thank you for the trust that you've placed in our team. I am deeply grateful to our global colleagues, many of whom have worked under very trained circumstances throughout the pandemic. We could not have delivered our 2021 results without their dedication, resilience and care. At Manulife, we're not resting on our laurels, and we will continue to ask ourselves, what if. What if we could help people live longer, healthier lives? What if there was an easier way to protect your family or plan for the future? What if your investments contributed to the long-term sustainability of our planet? And as we continue to challenge ourselves, we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. Thank you. [Presentation]

The Annual Meeting of Shareholders of MFC and the Annual Meeting of Policyholders and the Shareholder of MLI have now been called to order. Antonella Deo will act as Secretary of the meeting, and Lise-Anne Thomas and Pat Lee of TSX Trust Company will act as scrutineers for both MFC and MLI. The notice of this meeting was sent to all shareholders and policyholders required to be sent such notice and the quorum requirements for the meeting have been complied with. Accordingly, this meeting is properly convened. We will now table the 2021 consolidated financial statements of MFC and of MLI as well as the reports of the auditor and the actuary on these documents. The 2021 consolidated financial statements of MFC were sent to shareholders in accordance with the Insurance Companies Act and applicable securities legislation. The 2021 consolidated financial statements of MLI were sent to policyholders in accordance with the Insurance Companies Act. Antonella, do we have any questions on the financial statements.

There are no questions on the financial statements.

We will now table the information for participating policyholders of MLI, which includes summaries of the participating policyholder dividend policy and the participating account management policy. This information can be found in the 2021 report to policyholders, which was sent to all participating policyholders who requested notice of meetings. Antonella, do we have any questions on the information for participating policyholders of MLI?

There are no questions on this item.

We will now proceed to the voting section of the meeting. Before commencing, we would like to provide instructions for how shareholders and duly appointed policyholders may vote using the online platform. To the extent that you have voted in advance of the meeting and do not wish to change your vote, you do not need to do anything. As we proceed through each item of business, those that joined the meeting using their control number will see the resolutions to be voted on, displayed on the screen as the item of business is being discussed. To vote, click one of the voting options available. Your vote will be automatically submitted for our scrutineers to include in the vote tabulation. Votes may be changed until the voting is closed on that matter. Once voting for a particular matter is closed, and we move on to the next item of business, the screen will change to show the next item of business, and you will no longer be able to vote on the previous matter. If you have not voted in advance of the meeting and you do not press one of the for, withheld, against or abstain when voting is open, your vote will not be recorded, and you will be regarded as having abstained from voting. We will be voting on items of business for both MFC shareholders and MLI policyholders. If you are both an MFC shareholder and MLI policyholder or a proxy holder for both, you may vote on all matters. If you are an MFC shareholder but not an MLI policyholder or vice versa, you will see the items being voted upon for each company, but votes cast will only be counted towards the company of which you are a holder. A simple majority is required to approve matters voted on at this meeting. To facilitate efficiently proceeding through the business of the meeting, Antonella Deo, who is a shareholder of MFC and an MLI policyholder appointee, will move all resolutions. Preliminary results will be announced after voting closes for all matters and final results will be posted on our website following the meeting. The first item of business is the election of the directors of MFC and MLI. You may either vote for or withhold your vote from each director nominee. We will now vote on the election of directors of MFC. The number of directors to be elected today, as determined by the Board, is 14. If you have already voted and do not wish to change your vote, there is nothing for you to do at this time. Information on each nominee is set out in the proxy circular for this meeting. Two new directors are up for election for the first time today, each with expertise in areas critical to Manulife's ongoing growth. May Tan is a senior financial services executive who has held a number of senior roles at Standard Chartered Bank, including the position of Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong. And Vanessa Kanu is a seasoned finance professional with over 20 years of business experience. Vanessa currently serves as global CFO at TELUS International. Antonella Deo, a shareholder, has agreed to move this resolution.

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to nominate the 14 directors set out in the proxy circular and shown on the screen as directors of MFC to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of the shareholders of MFC or until their successors are elected or appointed.

Thank you. Antonella, do we have any questions on the election of the directors of MFC?

We do not have any questions on this item.

Voting is now closed for the election of the directors of MFC. We will now vote on the election of directors of MLI. The number of directors to be elected today, as determined by the Board, is 14, 5 policyholder directors and 9 shareholder directors. Information regarding the nominees is set out in the report to policyholders for this meeting. The participating policyholders of MLI vote for the policyholder directors. If you have already voted and do not wish to change your vote, there is nothing for you to do at this time. Antonella Deo, a policyholder appointee, has agreed to move this resolution.

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to nominate the 5 directors set out in the report to policyholders and shown on the screen as policyholder directors of MLI to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting or until their successors are elected or appointed.

Thank you. Antonella, have we received any questions on the election of the policyholder directors of MLI?

We have not received any questions on this item.

Voting is now closed as it relates to the election of the policyholder directors of MLI. We will now move to the election of the shareholder directors of MLI. As the sole shareholder of MLI, MFC has elected the shareholders by written resolution in accordance with the Insurance Companies Act. The 9 directors shown on the screen and as set out in the report to policyholders have been elected as the shareholder directors of MLI to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting or until their successors are elected or appointed. We will now vote on the appointment of auditors for MFC and MLI. If you have already voted and do not wish to change your vote, there is nothing for you to do at this time. Antonella Deo, a shareholder and policyholder appointee, has agreed to move this resolution.

Mr. Chairman, I move that Ernst & Young LLP, chartered accountants, be appointed as auditors for MFC and MLI until the close of the next annual meeting at a remuneration to be fixed by the directors.

Thank you. Roy Gori, a shareholder and policyholder appointee, has agreed to second this motion.

Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.

Thank you. Antonella, have we received any questions on the appointment of the auditors for MFC and MLI?

We have not received any questions on the appointment of auditors.

Voting is now closed as it relates to the appointment of the auditors for MFC and MLI. We will now hold the nonbinding shareholder advisory vote on MFC's approach to executive compensation. Your Board believes that shareholders should have an opportunity to understand how and why the Board makes its executive compensation decisions and should be able to provide input to the Board on executive compensation. We take our shareholders' feedback seriously and will continue to do so. If you have already voted and do not wish to change your vote, there is nothing for you to do at this time. Antonella Deo, a shareholder, has agreed to move this resolution.

Mr. Chairman, I move that the advisory resolution to accept MFC's approach to executive compensation as set out on Page 13 of the proxy circular be approved.

Thank you. Roy Gori, a shareholder, has agreed to second this motion.

Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.