How Canada Life Makes Money

Canada Life operates a highly diversified composite financial services business model structured across four primary reporting segments: Canada, United States (Empower), Europe, and Capital and Risk Solutions (Reinsurance). In Canada, the company earns recurring premium revenue, administrative services only (ASO) fees, and asset management spread income by providing group life and healthcare benefits to corporate employers, as well as individual life, disability, and segregated fund wealth products. In the United States, operating as Empower, the group generates fee-based revenue from institutional retirement recordkeeping, participant administrative charges, and asset-based advisory fees on over 18 million employee participants. In Europe, Canada Life generates underwriting premiums and wealth fee margins through Irish Life pensions, UK offshore investment bonds, and German unit-linked life policies. Finally, its Capital and Risk Solutions segment generates premium and structured risk-transfer income through life, annuity, and longevity reinsurance treaties with global life insurers. In fiscal year 2024, Canada Life generated C$35.0 billion in consolidated revenue, converting C$3.75 billion into net profit, which equates to an efficient net profit margin of 10.71%.

Canada Life's forward growth strategy rests on three interconnected pillars: scale expansion through programmatic acquisitions, participant monetization through digital wealth advisory, and global reinsurance deepening. First, the group continues to consolidate fragmented wealth and retirement markets, exemplified by Empower's US retirement deals and Canada Life's C$575 million acquisition of Investment Planning Counsel (IPC). Second, the firm is aggressively executing an advisor-led and direct-to-consumer wealth strategy, converting workplace plan participants into lifetime wealth clients using digital tools like the Empower Personal Dashboard and Canada Life Workplace Solutions. Third, the Capital and Risk Solutions business is accelerating institutional longevity reinsurance treaties in the UK, Europe, and North America, leveraging Great-West Lifeco's capital depth to structure innovative pension de-risking solutions.