Standard Life

The Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada is the Canadian subsidiary of the international life insurer Standard Life.

The Parent Company

The parent company, Standard Life, is a large life insurance company that was founded in 1825 and is based in Edinburgh, UK. It was a mutually owned company from 1925 to 2006, but has been on the London Stock Exchange since 2006 with 1.5 million shareholders. Worldwide it has 6.5 million customers with C$ 278.9 billion under management and 10,000 employees. As well as the UK and Canada, it is also present in Ireland and Austria, Germany, China, Hong Kong and India. Standard Life started writing business in Canada in 1833 and has had a presence in Canada since then.

Standard Life Offices and Headquarters

Standard Life is based in Montréal. It has offices in British Columbia (Burnaby, Vancouver and Victoria); Alberta (Calgary and Edmonton); Ontario (Mississauga, Ottawa and Toronto); and Québec (Gatineau and Montréal). Standard Life has around 2,000 employees in Canada and 25 offices throughout the country. At the start of 2009 it had C$ 33.7 billion assets under management. In Canada it has 1.3 million customers.

Competitors of Standard Life

As a specialist in group plan insurance, particularly for large companies with an international presence it has traditionally been a strong rival with Sun Life (a rivalry that was stronger when Sun Life was also based in Montréal). It also rivals group specialists such as SSQ.

Standard Life Corporate Culture

Standard Life claims that its culture is founded on the idea of Total Customer Satisfaction which it aims to bring about through best possible service, dedicated specialists and offering a wide range of tools. Standard Life Canada offers its services under four areas; Protection, Investment, Life & Health and Savings & Retirement.

Standard Life Protection Services

Protection services are the life and critical insurance offered to both individuals and to employers. The life insurance services that are offered are Universal Life Insurance, Term Insurance and Whole Life Insurance. They also offer Critical Illness Insurance.

Life & Health Insurance

Life & Health are the life insurance and health insurance services that are offered to plan administrators. Standard Life has traditionally been strong in this area in all their markets. Although it now markets quite heavily to individuals, the core strength of Standard Life has always been its offerings to plan administrators.

Standard Life Investment

Like most other life insurance companies Standard Life has been attempting to grow its investment side hoping that its reputation for prudence and its customer base of committed long term savers can be leveraged to grow the services it offers. It offers the traditional life insurance investment products of Segregated Funds, Term Funds and Annuities as you would expect of a life insurance company. It also offers more generic investment products such as Portfolio Funds, Mutual Funds and Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs). Life Insurance companies have traditionally been treated as trusted advisors for retirement funds, and Standard Life is a market leader in this area, partly due to its international business. It sells both directly, to plan administrators and through independent financial advisors.