Letter from Roy Gori
President and Chief Executive Officer

At Manulife, we know the work we do every day helps people live longer, healthier lives. That sense of purpose is a powerful motivator for our colleagues, helping to drive the strong results we delivered in 2023.

We continued to make progress by focusing on areas where we can affect change, which are articulated in our three Impact Agenda pillars: empowering sustained health and well-being to support the journey towards a better life, driving inclusive economic opportunities to create a more even playing field, and accelerating a sustainable future to preserve the planet we all share. I’m proud to share the highlights that demonstrate our progress.

To empower sustained health and well-being, we hosted the Longer. Healthier. Better. longevity symposium, focused on helping our customers live better lives. The symposium convened global leaders, academics, health and wellness experts, and media, to share the latest trends, research, science, and innovations shaping the future of the longevity economy.

In our Group Benefits business in Canada, we launched a new partnership with League, a leading healthcare technology provider, to give members a personalized and digital healthcare experience that is fully integrated with Manulife’s group benefits ecosystem. 

We also enhanced our Behavioural Insurance offerings, expanding access to the GRAIL Galleri® multi-cancer early detection test through our John Hancock Vitality Program. The impact we have on customers is clear from the stories our customers share with us. Take one of our John Hancock customers, whose Vitality policy gave him access to the GRAIL test that led to the diagnosis of his cancer early enough to create a treatment plan and improve his chance of survival. 

We are proud to be the first life insurance carrier to offer access to this technology. When cancer is diagnosed before it has time to spread, the overall 5-year cancer-specific survival rate is four times higher.

To drive inclusive economic opportunities, we believe our winning team and culture are our competitive differentiators, and we remain committed to embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion to create a safe workplace and resilient workforce. We invest in our colleagues at every stage of their career by providing them with flexibility, benefits to make better health and wellness choices and continued development by offering best-in-class digital learning experiences and internal leadership and training programs.

For our customers, we design our products and services with similar values in mind. We became the first insurer to offer life insurance for people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Indonesia, building upon similar offerings that we have been providing in the United States and Canada since 2016. We also expanded beneficiary eligibility, allowing customers to appoint a same-sex partner as a beneficiary, improving our customers’ rights to protection and security. This inclusive offering was launched in Hong Kong in 2022 and has since expanded into Japan.

Providing access to financial tools and resources within the communities where we operate is key to advancing our diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy. We announced a $1 million commitment to Kiva, a global crowdfunding microlending platform. Through this partnership, we are helping scale up Kiva’s lending partners in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia select markets in Asia by increasing their funding capacity. A Manulife Match Fund was also created to provide capital to microentrepreneurs around the world who would otherwise not have traditional access to financial services. 

To accelerate a sustainable future, we continued to make progress on our Climate Action Plan. We strengthened our commitment to reducing emissions in our operations through an increased ambition to reduce our absolute scope 1 and 2 emissions target from 35% to 40% by 2035. We released our Climate Action Implementation Plan which lays out our approach to managing the climate transition across our operations, owned investments, and products and services.

And we announced the first close of our Forest Climate Strategy, securing commitments totaling up to $224.5 million towards its $500 million targeted offering. Our forest climate strategy offers qualified investors the ability to participate in natural climate solution markets, amplifying their potential benefits.

I am proud to lead a company with such an incredible mission.

When it comes to making decisions easier, and lives better, we know our work is never done. As a global life insurer, we care deeply about how long and well our customers live. And, as the world's largest manager of natural capital[1], we have a fundamental interest in how biodiversity loss impacts our planet and economy. As we enter 2024, we see two trends shaping the world around us where we can contribute maximizing value for our customers and clients, while minimizing business risk:

People are living longer, but not healthier, as individuals are now spending approximately 50% of their lives in less-than-good health[2]. Solving the longevity challenge calls for a comprehensive approach that advances the longevity economy by promoting healthier lifestyles, addressing socioeconomic inequalities, and investing in innovation, research, and technologies. Across our global footprint, we intend to take the long view as we address each of these important areas of action to help drive the future of health and well-being.

Biodiversity is degrading faster than at any other time[3] and nature loss, if left unaddressed, will expose companies, communities, and customers to more financial and environmental risks. As we have shared in prior years, we must address nature loss, which is why we will continue to make investing in nature possible by developing investment methods focused on real asset classes that move the dial on sustainable investing and achieving nature-positive goals. And we’ll use those tools, learnings, and resources to drive collective action, centered around a widespread recognition that nature plays a vital role in sustaining our societies and economies. 

Reflecting on what we’ve achieved this year, I am confident that through our all-weather strategy, our geographic footprint, and our winning team and culture, we’ll continue to make great progress for our customers, communities, and the future we all share.

Sincerely,