Standard Life (Canada)

Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada

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Type	Subsidiary of (Manulife)
Industry	Financial services
Founded	1833
Headquarters	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Key people	Charles Guay (President & CEO)
Products	Insurance
Number of employees	2,000
Parent	Manulife
Website	Standard Life - Canada

The Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada (also known as Standard Life) is an investment, retirement and financial protection company and is part of Manulife Financial Standard Life has been in the Canadian marketplace since 1833 and currently employs over 2,000 people across Canada.

History

Founded in Edinburgh (Scotland) in 1825, The Standard Life Assurance Company demutualized in 2006 and a new public company - Standard Life PLC - was born. Standard Life plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), under SL on July 10, 2006.

The Standard Life Assurance Company was established in 1825 and the first Standard Life Assurance Company Act was passed by Parliament in 1832. Standard Life was reincorporated as a mutual assurance company in 1925. The Standard Life group originally operated only through branches or agencies of the mutual company in the United Kingdom and certain other countries.

The Canadian branch was founded in 1833 and the Irish operations in 1838. This largely remained the structure of the group until 1996, when it opened a branch in Frankfurt, Germany with the aim of exporting its UK life assurance and pensions operating model to capitalise on the opportunities presented by “Third Life Directive” and offer a product range in that market with features which local providers were unable to offer.

In the 1990s, the group also sought to diversify its operations into areas which complemented its core life assurance and pensions business, with the intention of positioning itself as a broad range financial services provider.

Standard Life had as of December 31, 2013 $48 billion CDN in assets under management while providing financial products and services to over 1.4 million individuals, including group insurance and pension plan members.

On January 30, 2015, the Canadian operations of Standard Life plc joined Manulife.

Real Estate

Standard Life also owns and operates over 11,000,000 square feet (1,000,000 m²) of office, retail and industrial space through its Real Estate division.