Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results
Thursday, February 20th, 2025 at 8:00am ET
Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping our customers make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we operate as Manulife across Canada, Asia, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, providing financial advice and insurance for individuals, groups and businesses. Through Manulife Wealth & Asset Management, we offer global investment, financial advice, and retirement plan services to individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. At the end of 2024, we had more than 37,000 employees, over 109,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving over 36 million customers. We trade as ‘MFC’ on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges, and under ‘945’ in Hong Kong.
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Roy Gori
President and CEO
Roy Gori is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Manulife, Canada’s largest insurance company, and one of the largest insurance and asset management companies in the world.
Appointed in 2017, Roy’s tenure as CEO has been marked by the introduction of a clear strategy and values that build on Manulife’s strong foundations to include sharper focus on the customer and a shift to digital innovation, in line with the company’s mission to make customers’ decisions easier, and lives better.
Roy joined Manulife as President and Chief Executive Officer for Asia in 2015. In that role, he was responsible for operations in 12 markets across Asia, driving Manulife’s rapidly growing business in the region. Roy started his career at Citibank in 1989, where he held progressively senior roles and was finally responsible for the company’s Asia Pacific retail business, which included its insurance and wealth management business.
Roy holds a Bachelor of Economics and Finance from The University of New South Wales, and an MBA from the University of Technology, Sydney. He is both a member and on the Board of Directors of the Business Council of Canada, a member of the U.S. Business Council, a member of the Geneva Association, and a member of the Mayor of Shanghai’s International Business Leaders’ Advisory Council. A native Australian, Roy has worked and lived in Sydney, Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong, and is now based in Toronto.
Philip Witherington
President & CEO, Manulife Asia
Phil Witherington is President & Chief Executive Officer, Manulife Asia and has been a member of Manulife’s Executive Leadership Team since 2018. He is responsible for Manulife’s fast-growing Asia franchise including businesses in Hong Kong and Macau, mainland China, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Myanmar.
Prior to this appointment, Phil served five-years as Chief Financial Officer at Manulife beginning in 2018. He was responsible for managing Manulife’s global financial affairs, and successfully led the implementation of IFRS 17 and IFRS 9. Phil joined Manulife in 2014 as Chief Financial Officer of Manulife Asia, and served as its Interim President & Chief Executive Officer in 2017.
Phil has 25 years of experience in insurance and financial services, globally and in developed and emerging markets within Asia. Prior to joining Manulife, Phil led finance in Asia Pacific for the Retail Banking and Wealth Management business at HSBC and earlier served as the Deputy Regional Chief Financial Officer for its Asian insurance businesses. Previously, Phil was Vice President Finance at AIA, based in Hong Kong. He also spent a decade with KPMG in London and Hong Kong, specializing in financial services audit and advisory services, with a particular focus on life insurance clients.
Phil holds an Executive MBA jointly awarded by the University of Edinburgh Management School (United Kingdom) and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (Paris, France). He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (FCA) and the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FCPA).
Colin Simpson
Chief Financial Officer
Colin Simpson is Chief Financial Officer of Manulife and a member of Manulife’s Executive Leadership Team. He is responsible for managing Manulife’s global financial affairs, including finance, accounting, capital, treasury, taxation, investor relations and financial regulation.
Prior to this appointment, Colin served as Chief Financial Officer for John Hancock, joining the company in 2022. He brings over 20 years of experience to his role, including at Aviva from 2013-2022, where he was most recently Interim Group CFO and prior served as CFO of Aviva’s Canadian division and Aviva’s Director of Investor Relations.
Previously, Colin held executive roles at Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns Investment Bank, where he was an equity analyst covering the European insurance sector. Earlier in his career, Colin held actuarial roles at the Reinsurance Group of America and Gen Re.
Colin holds a BSc in Statistics from the University of Cape Town and is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries (FIA).
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Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
From time to time, MFC makes written and/or oral forward-looking statements, including in this presentation. In addition, our representatives may make forward-looking statements orally to analysts, investors, the media and others. All such statements are made pursuant to the “safe harbour” provisions of Canadian provincial securities laws and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
The forward-looking statements in this presentation relate to, among other things, our objectives, goals, strategies, intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations and estimates, and can generally be identified by the use of words such as “may”, “will”, “could”, “should”, “would”, “likely”, “suspect”, “outlook”, “expect”, “intend”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “plan”, “forecast”, “objective”, “seek”, “aim”, “continue”, “goal”, “restore”, “embark” and “endeavour” (or the negative thereof) and words and expressions of similar import, and include statements concerning possible or assumed future results. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements and they should not be interpreted as confirming market or analysts’ expectations in any way.
Certain material factors or assumptions are applied in making forward-looking statements and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include but are not limited to: general business and economic conditions (including but not limited to the performance, volatility and correlation of equity markets, interest rates, credit and swap spreads, currency rates, investment losses and defaults, market liquidity and creditworthiness of guarantors, reinsurers and counterparties); changes in laws and regulations; changes in accounting standards applicable in any of the territories in which we operate; changes in regulatory capital requirements applicable in any of the territories in which we operate; our ability to execute strategic plans and changes to strategic plans; downgrades in our financial strength or credit ratings; our ability to maintain our reputation; impairments of goodwill or intangible assets or the establishment of provisions against future tax assets; the accuracy of estimates relating to morbidity, mortality and policyholder behaviour; the accuracy of other estimates used in applying accounting policies, actuarial methods and embedded value methods; our ability to implement effective hedging strategies and unforeseen consequences arising from such strategies; our ability to source appropriate assets to back our long-dated liabilities; level of competition and consolidation; our ability to market and distribute products through current and future distribution channels, including through our collaboration arrangements with Standard Life plc, bancassurance partnership with DBS Bank Ltd and distribution agreement with Standard Chartered; unforeseen liabilities or asset impairments arising from acquisitions and dispositions of businesses, including with respect to the acquisitions of Standard Life, New York Life’s Retirement Plan Services business, and Standard Chartered’s MPF and ORSO businesses; the realization of losses arising from the sale of investments classified as available-for-sale; our liquidity, including the availability of financing to satisfy existing financial liabilities on expected maturity dates when required; obligations to pledge additional collateral; the availability of letters of credit to provide capital management flexibility; accuracy of information received from counterparties and the ability of counterparties to meet their obligations; the availability, affordability and adequacy of reinsurance; legal and regulatory proceedings, including tax audits, tax litigation or similar proceedings; our ability to adapt products and services to the changing market; our ability to attract and retain key executives, employees and agents; the appropriate use and interpretation of complex models or deficiencies in models used; political, legal, operational and other risks associated with our non-North American operations; acquisitions and our ability to complete acquisitions including the availability of equity and debt financing for this purpose; the failure to realize some or all of the expected benefits of the acquisitions of Standard Life, New York Life’s Retirement Plan Services business, and Standard Chartered’s MPF and ORSO businesses; the disruption of or changes to key elements of the Company’s system or public infrastructure systems; environmental concerns; our ability to protect our intellectual property and exposure to claims of infringement; and our inability to withdraw cash from subsidiaries.
Additional information about material risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations and about material factors or assumptions applied in making forward-looking statements may be found under “Risk Factors” in our most recent Annual Information Form, under “Risk Management”, “Risk Factors” and “Critical Accounting and Actuarial Policies” in our most recent Management’s Discussion and Analysis, in the “Risk Management” note to our most recent consolidated financial statements and elsewhere in our filings with Canadian and U.S. securities regulators. The forward-looking statements in this presentation are, unless otherwise indicated, stated as of the date hereof and are presented for the purpose of assisting investors and others in understanding our financial position and results of operations, our future operations, as well as our objectives and strategic priorities, and may not be appropriate for other purposes. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.