Manulife Statement on Decision in Mosten Litigation
March 18, 2019
Toronto – Manulife Financial Corporation (“Manulife” or the “Company”) today provided the following statement in connection with the favourable Saskatchewan court ruling in the Mosten Investment LP (“Mosten”) case:
We are pleased with this ruling from the Saskatchewan court late last week, which found in favour of Manulife in the Mosten case, dismissing Mosten’s claims against Manulife. As we have previously stated, we were always confident we would ultimately prevail in this matter and that it would not have any material impact on the Company’s business.
In his decision, Judge Scherman of the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench stated that the policy in question “does not provide for unlimited stand-alone investment opportunities within the Carrier Fund.” Specifically, the Court held that payments to the Contract are “limited to funds paid or invested to pay current and future costs of insurance, related premium taxes, specified administration fees, and the permitted accrual tax-exempt investments.”
This is consistent with our position that this case was legally unfounded and commercially absurd, and that consumers purchasing universal life policies, and the insurers issuing these policies, never intended to have the policies function as deposit or securities contracts.
The decision has also received support from the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) which said “This ruling is firmly in the public interest and further reinforces the important division between banking and insurance that continues to be core to the legal and regulatory framework governing the Canadian financial services industry.”
About Manulife
Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. We operate primarily as John Hancock in the United States and Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance, as well as wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2018, we had more than 34,000 employees, over 82,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving almost 28 million customers. As of December 31, 2018, we had over $1.1 trillion (US$794 billion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made $29.0 billion in payments to our customers. Our principal operations in Asia, Canada and the United States are where we have served customers for more than 100 years. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong.
