Manulife net income slips in Q4 but up for 2022 as a whole

Manulife Financial Corp. says earnings slipped in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier but rose for the full 2022 financial year.

The insurance giant says net income attributable to shareholders came in at $1.89 billion for the fourth quarter, compared with $2.08 billion for the same quarter a year earlier.

Net earnings attributable to shareholders for the year totalled $7.3 billion, up from $7.1 billion for a year earlier.

Analysts had expected a net income of $1.86 billion for the fourth quarter, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

The company says the higher earnings for the year were related to annuity transactions in the U.S. and benefits from changes to the Canadian corporate tax rate.

It says investment-related gains in the year were driven in part by favourable fixed-income reinvestment as well as higher-than-expected returns from long-duration assets like private equity, infrastructure and timberland, partially offset by real estate.

In global wealth and asset management, net outflows in retail were $1.6 billion, compared with net inflows of $29.2 billion in 2021, due to higher redemptions and lower gross flows. Institutional asset management net inflows were $5 billion, and net retirement outflows were $100 million. As a result, global wealth and asset management net inflows were $3.3 billion in 2022, down from $27.9 billion in 2021.

Total assets under management and administration at Dec. 31 were $1.31 trillion, a 2.9% increase from $1.28 trillion the previous quarter and a 5.9% decrease from $1.43 trillion at Dec. 31, 2021.

Annualized premium equivalent sales in Canada increased 3% (to $1.26 billion in 2022 from $1.23 billion in 2021), primarily driven by higher sales in group insurance, participating insurance and travel insurance, partially offset by the impact of market volatility on the demand for segregated fund products, and lower universal life and health and dental sales.

In Canada, Manulife added “innovative customer-centric enhancements,” including the expansion of the Vitality program to all eligible new retail term and universal life insurance policies, and a new capability that lets retirement clients book one-on-one meetings with PlanRight advisors directly in a mobile app, which resulted in more than 1,780 advisor meeting requests.

“The macro environment is being shaped by three megatrends: the growth and emergence of the middle class in Asia, an aging global population, and the digitization of the consumer,” president and CEO Roy Gori said in a release.

Staff, with files from The Canadian Press

The Canadian Press is a national news agency headquartered in Toronto and founded in 1917.