Businessweek

Sun Life Financial Inc., an international financial services company, provides a range of life and health insurance, savings, investment management, retirement, and pension products and services to individuals and corporate customers worldwide. The company operates in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, and Bermuda. Segments The company operates through five segments: Sun Life Financial Canada (SLF Canada), Sun Life Financial United States (SLF U.S.), MFS Investment Management (MFS), Sun Life Financial Asia (SLF Asia), and Corporate. SLF Canada This segment has three business units, such as Individual Insurance and Investments, Group Benefits, and Group Retirement Services (GRS). This segment offers a range of protection and wealth accumulation products and services. Individual Insurance and Investments: The Individual Insurance and Investments business unit’s principal insurance products include universal life, term life, permanent life, participating life, critical illness, long-term care, and personal health insurance. The company offers savings and retirement products, which include accumulation annuities, guaranteed investment certificates, payout annuities, mutual funds, and segregated funds. The products, including accidental death insurance and personal health insurance are marketed directly to the Individual client base in partnership with its advice channels. Group Benefits: The Group Benefits business unit provides group life and health insurance products in Canada. It provides life, dental, drug, extended health care, disability, and critical illness benefit programs to employers of various sizes. In addition, voluntary benefits solutions are offered directly to individual plan members, including post-employment life and health plans to plan members exiting their plan. GRS: GRS provides defined contribution (DC) plans in Canada, serving approximately one million plan participants as of December 31, 2011. The company also offers other retirement services and products, including investment-only segregated funds and fixed rate annuities, stock plans, group life annuities, pensioner payroll services, and guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits and solutions for de-risking defined benefit pension plans. It serves medium and large organizations, as well as small-employer market. SLF U.S. This segment consists of three business units: Employee Benefits Group (EBG), Annuities and Individual Insurance. EBG: EBG business unit provides group life, long-term and short-term disability, medical stop-loss, and dental insurance to approximately 10 million group plan members. EBG provides products and services to meet the group insurance needs of small- and medium-sized employers and their employees. Its group insurance products are sold through approximately 31,000 independent brokers and benefit consultants. Annuities: The SLF U.S. Annuities business unit includes its in-force fixed and variable annuity products, as well as investment management services. Individual Insurance: The SLF U.S. Individual Insurance business unit includes its in-force individual life insurance products, including participating whole life insurance, universal life, variable universal life insurance, no-lapse guarantee universal life, corporate-owned life insurance, and bank-owned life insurance. MFS This segment is a global asset management firm, which offers a selection of financial products and services. MFS manages assets for retail and institutional investors around the world through mutual funds, separately managed accounts, and retirement plans. MFS sells its products primarily through financial intermediaries. Retail products, such as mutual funds and private portfolios, are distributed through financial advisers at major wirehouses, regional brokerage firms and banks, and through certified financial planners and registered investment advisors. MFS also manages assets for institutional clients and discretionary managers, including corporate and public pension plans, DC plans, multi-employer plans, investment authorities