AGM 2021

May 5, 2021

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Bill Anderson. I am the chair of your Board of Directors, and I'm pleased to extend a warm welcome to all of you. As the notices of the meetings have been duly given and a quorum is present, I call to order the annual meetings of Sun Life Financial, Inc. And its wholly owned subsidiary, Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada. The COVID-nineteen pandemic has been the world's reality for the last fifteen months, and it has been a difficult time for everyone, including our clients, communities, employees, and advisers. On behalf of everyone at Sun Life around the world, thank you to those who continue to serve on the frontlines, particularly our medical workers and those who have dedicated their professional lives to science. We are all grateful for your ongoing commitment, and I am inspired by the tremendous speed, urgency, and progress that continues to be made to find a solution to this global health crisis. Everyone at Sun Life has also been operating with a sense of urgency and innovation, guided by our purpose to help our clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives, whether that means helping people with their health and wellness needs, such as mental health and virtual health care, or providing advice to achieve their financial goals. In any given year, leadership really matters. But if 2020 taught us anything, it's that great leadership is critical, especially during challenging times. On behalf of the Board, thank you to Dean Connor and the Sun Life executive team for their leadership and vision to navigate our company through this extraordinary period of history. Also, thank you to all Sun Life employees and advisers around the world. Sun Life was built to succeed in times like these, and you have been there for our clients when they have needed you the most. I would also like to personally thank my colleagues on the Sun Life Board of Directors, who were called upon more in 2020 than perhaps ever before. Your Board remains focused on providing strategic counsel, governance and guidance, while giving room and runway for management to do what they do best, which is leading the day to day business operations. Sun Life continues its strong emphasis on measures that have supported our success for the last one hundred and fifty six years, which includes having a diversified, balanced business model, a prudent approach to risk management, and a focus on growth and innovation. Our focus on these measures has continued to keep Sun Life in a position of strength, even under the backdrop of a global pandemic. In addition, being nimble and agile have allowed Sun Life to adapt its business strategy when faced with unexpected events outside of our control. This practice has proven successful and has provided long term value to our shareholders and to our policyholders. And now I would like to thank everyone for once again joining our virtual annual meeting and welcoming us into your homes. We wish we could have connected with you all in person, but we are thankful for the ability and the opportunity to virtually engage with all of you, our shareholders and voting policyholders, at this year's event. Similar to last year, I invite you, our registered shareholders, voting policyholders and duly appointed proxy holders, to submit questions and vote on each of the matters of business as if you were attending our meeting in person. Our continued goal is to provide an experience similar to our usual meeting format as much as possible. In accordance with Sun Life's bylaws, I will chair the two meetings. This afternoon, I am joined by Dean Connor, Chief Executive Officer Kevin Strain, President and Troy Kuchel, Vice President of Social General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Troy will act as Secretary of the meetings. Although Dean, Kevin, Troy and I are the only people you will see and hear from, also joining us remotely are our other directors, members of our executive team and senior management. I would first like to acknowledge that Hugh Siegel and Sarah Gudwas St. Louis are retiring from our Board at the conclusion of today's meetings. Hugh has been a Director of Sunlight since 02/2009 and Sarah since 2014. We will miss each of their many valued contributions to the Board and the Board committees on which they have served. On behalf of Sun Life, thank you, Hugh and Sarah, for your dedicated service. I would also like to note that we have two new director nominees standing for election excuse me, for the first time at today's meetings, Deepak Chopra and David Ho. I know if we were all together, you'd join me in wishing a warm, sunlight welcome to each of them. I will now outline today's proceedings and go through some of the procedural matters for the virtual platform. We are holding two annual meetings today, the Annual Meeting of Common Shareholders and Sun Life Financial and the Annual Meeting of Voting Policyholders and the sole shareholder of Sun Life Assurance. There will be two sets of formal business, one for each company. And after all the votes are taken, Dean will provide an update on Sun Life's business progress in 2020, and Kevin will speak about the company's future and its priorities. A joint question and answer period will be held after the formal portion of the meeting has been completed. We will conduct the business of Sun Life Financial first and then Sun Life Assurance. As with a physical meeting, only registered shareholders, voting policyholders and duly appointed proxy holders who are standing at the meeting will be able to address the meeting and submit questions during the formal conduct of business. You can submit a question any time during the meeting by clicking on the messaging icon on the platform and following the instructions. To allow us to address your question at the appropriate time in the meeting, please submit your question and comments as early as possible. And when submitting a question, please identify whether it relates to a motion being considered as part of the formal business or whether it is more general in nature. As with our in person meetings, please keep your questions and comments brief. Troy, our Corporate Secretary, will receive the questions and read them out at the appropriate time, and Dean, Kevin or I will address them. Each item of business will be open to submit questions or comments before a vote is taken. If your questions do not relate to the items of business on the agenda, they will not be addressed until the joint question period at the end. We will also observe the same protocol of appropriateness and relevance to the meeting. Rest assured, we will not be attempting to limit or filter legitimate questions, and we'll do our best to address all issues raised. In an online format, we may receive questions of a similar theme, and your specific question may be paraphrased in the interest of efficiency and addressing as many questions as possible. Similar to last year, registered shareholders, voting policyholders and proxy holders who wish to vote at the meeting will be able to vote on each motion by online poll instead of in person by ballot. As in past years, the majority of all votes were cast in advance of the meeting by proxy and through the various available channels, with only a small number opting to vote their shares at the meeting. Similar to last year, the vote on each motion will be conducted by online poll instead of in person by ballot. On a poll, every shareholder or policyholder entitled to vote on the matter has one vote in respect of each share entitled to be voted and held by that shareholder or policyholder. The poll will be opened for all resolutions at the same time. This will allow you to choose to vote on each resolution immediately or wait until conclusion of the questions or comments submitted on each resolution prior to casting your vote. You may vote at any time until the last item of business has been put to a vote, and I declare the voting closed. More importantly, if you have voted in advance of the meeting and do not wish to revoke your previously submitted proxies, then you do not need to do anything. Once the poll is closed, the preliminary results of votes cast and proxies received prior to the meeting will be provided to Troy, and he will read them out to the meeting, the final results will be posted on our website. To facilitate proceedings since the meeting is conducted in a virtual only format this year, I have asked Troy, who is also a shareholder and a duly appointed proxy holder, to move all of the motions, and I will call on him at the appropriate time. I now appoint AST Trust Company Canada by its representatives Pat Lee and Jennifer Anderson, who are joining us remotely to act as scrutineers for each meeting. I have the preliminary attendance report of the scrutineers. There are 3,704 shareholders holding 309,924,568 common shares of Sunlight Financial represented by proxy. This represents 52.9% of the issued and outstanding common shares as of the record date of 03/12/2021. There are 4,094 voting policyholders of Sun Life Assurance, represented by proxy. This represents 22.7% of the voting policyholders who asked to receive the materials for this meeting as of the record date 03/12/2021. The sole shareholder of Sun Life Assurance, being Sun Life Financial, is represented by proxy. The quorum is present for each meeting, and I declare these meetings to be properly constituted and declare the polls open on all resolutions. Our auditor, Deloitte LLP, is represented virtually today by Toni Cocuzzo and Margaret Tang. Copies of the auditor's report and annual financial statements of Sun Life Financial were published and sent to the shareholders who requested them. We would be pleased to take any questions on the annual financial statements of Sun Life Financial at this time. An opportunity to submit questions about the annual financial statements of Sun Life Assurance will be provided later in the meeting. Please hold questions unrelated to the annual financial statements until the general question period. Troy, are there any questions or comments from participants on the annual financial statements? Chair, there were no questions or comments on the annual financial statements. We will now proceed with the election of directors of Sunlight Financial. I will ask Troy to nominate the individuals proposed for election as directors. I'm pleased to nominate the following individuals to serve as directors of Sunlight Financial, Inc. Until the close of the next annual meeting or until the successors are elected or appointed: William Anderson, Deepak Chopra, Dean Connor, Stephanie Coyles, Martin Glynn, Ashok Gupta, Mary Anne Harris, David Ho, James Peck, Scott Powers, Kevin Strain and Barbara Stimist. Thank you, Troy. The company did not receive advance notice of any other nominations of directors, and therefore, I declare the nominations closed. Troy, are there any questions or comments from participants on the nominations? Chair, there were no questions or comments on the nominations. Shareholders may now proceed to vote on the election of directors of Sunlight Financial by selecting your choice on your display screen. As a reminder, if you have already voted or sent in a proxy, there is no need to do anything unless you would like to change your vote. Please vote now. The next item on the agenda is the appointment of our auditor. I'll ask Troy to make a motion for the appointment of our auditor. I'm pleased to move that Deloitte LLP be appointed as the auditor of Sun Life Financial Inc. Until the close of the next annual meeting. Thank you, Troy. Are there any questions or comments from participants on the appointment of the auditor? Chair, there are no questions or comments on the appointment of the auditor. Thanks. Shareholders will now proceed to vote on the appointment of the auditor of Sun Life Financial by selecting your choice on the display screen. Again, if you have already voted or sent in a proxy, there is no need to do anything unless you would change your vote. Please vote now. The next item on the agenda is a special resolution to amend Section 2.7 of Bylaw No. One to increase the limit on the maximum amount of compensation payable in aggregate to all directors disclosed in the management information circular. The proposed change raises this limit from 1,600,000.0 per year to 2,600,000.0 per year. The resolution is set out on Page 22 of the circular. To be effective, the resolution must be approved by at least twothree of the votes cast. I will now ask Troy to make a motion approving this resolution. Sorry, Troy, if you could Troy, you're on mute. If you could just start no, no problem. Move that the resolution, the full text of which is set out on Page 22 of the management information circular, dated 03/12/2021, be adopted by the shareholders of Sun Life Financial Inc. Thanks, Troy. Are there any questions or comments from participants on the special resolution on the amendment to Section 2.7 of Bylaw one? Chair, there were no questions or comments on the special resolution on the amendment to Section 2.7 of Bylaw one. Thanks. Shareholders will now proceed to vote on the special resolution on the amendment Section 2.7 of Bylaw one using the online poll. As a reminder, if you have already voted or sent in a proxy, there is no need to do anything else unless you would like to change your vote. Please vote now. The next item of the Sunlight Financial business is an advisory vote on the approach to executive compensation disclosed in the management information circular. The resolution is set out on Page 22 of that circular. I now ask Troy to make a motion approving this resolution. Chair, I make a motion approving that resolution. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments from participants on the advisory vote on the approach to executive compensation? Sharer, there are no questions or comments on the advisory vote and the approach to executive compensation. Shareholders will now proceed with the advisory vote on executive compensation using the online poll. If you have already voted or sent in a proxy, there is no need to do anything unless you wish to change your vote. Please vote now. We will now proceed with the items of business to the annual meeting The audited financial statements of Sun Life Assurance were mailed to voting policyholders who requested them. Tory, are there any questions or comments from participants on the annual financial statements? Chair, there are no questions or comments on the annual financial statements. The next item of business is the election of directors of Sun Life Assurance. In accordance with the Insurance Companies Act, at least one third of the directors must be elected by voting policyholders only. Five of the 12, Stephanie Coyles, Martin Glynn, Mary Anne Harris, Scott Powers, and myself, are proposed as nominees for election as policyholder directors. Troy, will you please nominate the individuals proposed for election as policyholder directors? I am pleased to nominate William Anderson, Stephanie Coyles, Martin Glynn, Marianne Harris and Scott Powers to serve as policyholder directors of Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada until the close of the next annual meeting. Again, the company did not receive advance notice of any other nominations of policyholder directors, and therefore I declare the nominations closed. Troy, are there any questions or comments from participants on the nominations? Sure, we have one question coming in about the nomination of Dean Connor asking, how would it work if Dean Connor was retiring on August 6? In other words, instead of retiring on the date of the meeting, he's retiring three months from now. Yeah, and I think it's clear that while we did say until close of the next meeting, that related to the directors that were nominated to be policyholder directors. Dean will be elected by Sun Life Financial, which we'll get to in a minute, but he will step down from both the Board of Sun Life Financial and Sun Life Assurance on August 6, which is his retirement date. Troy, I think that answers the question. Is that fair? That is. Okay. The company did not receive any notice of any other nominations, so we have done that. I apologize. The nominations are closed. So having dealt with that issue, we'll then talk about the policyholders voting on the election of policyholders' directors. And, again, I'll just repeat them. William Anderson, Stephanie Coyles, Martin Glynn, Mary Anne Harris, and Scott Powers are the policyholder directors, and you can vote using the online poll. Again, if you have already voted or sent in a proxy, there is no need to do anything unless you would like to change your vote. Please vote now. And I now turn to the election of shareholders' directors of Sun Life Assurance by the sole shareholder, being Sun Life Financial. Seven shareholders' directors are proposed to the election. Sun Life Financial has, by written resolution, elected the following shareholders' directors to serve until the close of the annual meeting to be held in 2022: Deepak Chopra, Dean Connor, Ashok Gupta, David Ho, James Peck, Kevin Strain and Barbara Stanis. The next item on the agenda is the appointment of our auditor. I'll ask Troy to make a motion for the appointment of our auditor. I'm pleased to move that Deloitte LLP be appointed the auditor of Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada until the close of the next annual meeting. Thank you, Troy. And again, are there any questions or comments from participants on the appointment of the auditor? Chair, there are no questions or comments on the appointment of the auditor. Thanks, Fred. Policyholders will now proceed to vote on the appointment of the auditor of Sun Life Assurance, again using the online call. I'll remind you again, if you have already voted or sent in a proxy, there is no need to do anything unless you would like to change your vote. Please vote now. The next item on the agenda is a special resolution to amend Section 2.7 of Bylaw No. One to increase the limit on the maximum amount of compensation payable in aggregate to all directors disclosed in the policyholder booklet. The proposed change raises this limit from $1,600,000 per year to $2,600,000 per year. The resolution is centered on page 17 of the booklet. To be effective, the resolution must be approved by at least two thirds of the votes cast. I will now ask Troy to make a motion approving this resolution. I move that the resolution, the full text of which is set out on Page 17 of the policyholder booklet dated 03/12/2021, be adopted by the policyholders and the sole shareholder of Sun Life Insurance Company of Canada. Thanks, Troy. And are there any questions or comments from participants on the special resolution? Yes, Bill. We do have one question coming from policyholder Kathleen Hartman on the resolution to amend the bylaw. Her question is, the amount per director per year seems like more than enough money considering we are in a pandemic year. Can it not be tabled? So just to be clear on this resolution, and I would also just to be also very clear, this resolution is the same one as we had for Sunlight. So we're talking about an aggregate for the two companies today of $3,200,000 increasing in aggregate to 5,200,000.0 And because we split all directors' fees equally between the two companies, that's why we see the amounts in the resolutions. The setting of this maximum is a requirement of the Insurance Companies Act, and there's a similar requirement under the Banking Act. The current limit in aggregate of the $3,200,000 was actually set in 02/2004. And in order to provide more flexibility to ad directors for payments, we feel that we need to increase the limit, given it hasn't been increased for seventeen years. The way we chose the amount of $5,200,000 it is the average of the five Canadian banks and Manulife that they have in their caps. And for that reason, we felt it was appropriate. It does not, though, indicate any increase in compensation being contemplated. We look at our directors' compensation every two years. It was reviewed again in January of this year. And to your point, because of the pandemic, it was felt that it would not be appropriate to increase directors' fees at this time, even though we have fallen behind our peer group a little bit in terms of our target of being at media. So I think the directors have been responsible in the way they've looked at compensation this year. This does set an amount which is consistent with what our peer group does, and we will only look at compensation increases in the future to the extent that we feel they're merited. So I think we have actually dealt with your concern appropriately, and therefore, I would propose to go ahead with the vote. Sure, there are no more questions on this motion. Okay. So policyholders will now proceed to vote on the special resolution to amend section 2.7 of bylaw one of Sun Life Assurance using the online poll. And for the final time, if you have already voted or sent in a proxy, there is no need to do anything unless you would like to change your vote. Please vote now. For those of you who have not voted on all the resolutions, if you could do so now, I will shortly close the poll. It is now 05:24. I will close the polls on all resolutions in another minute just to allow online viewers time to catch up. A minute always seems to take a lot longer when you're staring at your watch. That has been a minute now, and I declare that the polls are now closed. While we wait for the preliminary report of the scrutineers, Dean will provide an update on Sunlight's business progress in 2020. And as I said, Kevin will speak about the company's future and its priorities. So Dean, over to you. Thanks, Bill. Welcome, everyone. The past fifteen years, fifteen months, feels like fifteen years, the past fifteen months have been extraordinary to say the least. And I too want to thank those who put their health at risk to support others, including health care workers, personal care workers, and many other essential workers. We owe them our deepest thanks and continued support as we work our way through this pandemic. And today, our thoughts are also with our friends, colleagues, clients, and their families in India as the country grapples with this very large wave of infections. While our India employees have been working from home since the start of the pandemic, their health and safety remains our priority and we're making every effort to provide much needed support. Today I'll speak to Sun Life's progress in 2020 and then Kevin Strain will share his views on the road ahead. It was nearly ten years ago that we set out to shift Sun Life to a balanced and diversified business with four strong pillars. Since then, we sold businesses, doubled down in others, reduced risk, improve capital and cash generation and allocated capital with an owner's mindset. We changed the culture to one that truly obsesses about clients, a culture that sets ambitious but achievable goals with personal accountability, a culture of playing to win. We also preserved and reinforced long standing positive aspects of our culture, including integrity, collaboration, caring for people, and strong risk management. We worked hard on talent, helping people to grow new skills, stretch themselves, raise the bar on recruiting, and positioning Sun Life as a destination for top talent. And taken together, this strategy and more importantly, the execution of the strategy through people and culture positioned us well as we entered 2020. As the pandemic hit, our employees and advisers moved quickly to provide much needed advice, support and financial relief to clients and communities. And I won't take you through all the different actions we took. They're well detailed in the annual report. But what is so striking is the sheer number of changes we made on the fly across a wide spectrum, including investments, claim payments, extra coverages, special communications and advice, community donations and so on, and all delivered with great speed. This past year has also shone a very bright light on your company's purpose, helping clients achieve lifetime financial security and living healthier lives. We'd like to show you a short video now that puts our purpose in action. Hi, I'm Ceci Lim. At the start of the year, January 2020, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Our decision was to start with chemotherapy first, then surgery, then continue with the chemotherapy after. It was a very trying time, particularly with finances. We, of course, had to look at our savings. And then we also decided to sell some of our stuff. And then when that's still not enough, I remembered that I have a Sun Life Plan that I got fifteen years ago. So I decided to contact Christine, my agent, who's also a good friend. Initially, when I got the call from my client, the first thing I had to do was to review her policy again just to make sure that she has riders or benefits for her plan. And fortunately, we were able to have two sets of things for her condition. One was the female critical illness, and then the other one was the critical illness condition. We were able to transfer the funds to her, and then she was so happy receiving it. She would message me and tell me, okay, Christine, I got the check, and it's, really big help to my family. I was so, so, so happy when Christine said that there's a rider for my insurance plan and that breast cancer is covered. It was during the pandemic period quite a challenging period for everybody because people lost their jobs. Her husband is also a doctor, so they also had to cut down in terms of their work. So the financial assistance that Sun Life was able to give was truly a blessing to them. So I decided to stop working and then just concentrate on healing. And it paid off because I'm not handsome. What I realized is really the importance of planning ahead. During the time that she got her plan, there was no history. There was no even prior medical concerns on her part, but it's really about planning that it's something good to have. You hopefully don't get to use it, but when it does happen and life happens, she was prepared. She was ready because of Sun Life. It's easy to be there for our friends or clients or family when things are great. But I think the most fulfilling thing about being in Sun Life is being there on the most difficult times of our clients' lives. My longtime friend, Christine, was really a gutsen during this time. Well, is an absolutely wonderful story. We thank Cecile for sharing it with us. It's why we're in business, to help clients like Cecile. As another example of our purpose in action, last year we delivered nearly $200,000,000 of claim payments to the families of clients who sadly succumbed to COVID-nineteen, and in the first quarter of this year, a further $150,000,000 And in addition, we've paid tens of millions of dollars in COVID related health claims, and we've helped millions of clients navigate extremely volatile investment conditions. So this is why we exist as a company, to be able to support our clients in these most challenging moments. Shifting to your company's financial results, we should first acknowledge the critical role played by governments. The speed and scale of fiscal and monetary support made a big difference for households and businesses alike. In 2020, we achieved solid results in a tough environment. Underlying net income grew to over $3,200,000,000 and underlying return on equity increased to 14.4%. While reported net income declined to $2,400,000,000 driven by market conditions, assets under management reached a new milestone of $1,250,000,000,000 Insurance sales were level with 2019, while wealth sales grew 39%. We returned $1,500,000,000 to common shareholders through regular quarterly dividends and buybacks and committed a further $1,400,000,000 to acquisitions and partnerships. In Vietnam, we signed a fifteen year exclusive bank insurance deal with Asia Commercial Bank, which will bring a range of innovative insurance solutions to our clients in Vietnam. In our alternative asset management business, SLC Management, we acquired a majority stake in InfraRed Capital Partners, a London based global infrastructure manager. We also acquired a majority stake in Crescent Capital Group, a global alternative investment manager in Los Angeles. And with these two additions, SLC management reached 154,000,000,000 of assets under management. Sunlight's total shareholder return of 9.6% compounded annually over the past five years to December 31 puts your company in the top quartile among global industry peers. Our first quarter results were just released this afternoon and I'm pleased report that the momentum continues. Underlying net income grew 10% to $850,000,000 and reported net income of $937,000,000 benefited from improved market conditions. Assets under management are up 26% over Q1 of twenty twenty to 1,300,000,000,000 This performance all boils down to the people and culture that I spoke about earlier. This past year, we increased our focus on mental health and well-being and provided employees with more time off, support and more resources. I'm so proud of how our people came together to support each other and to support clients. And so perhaps it's no surprise that our employee engagement scores and client experience scores both reached new heights in 2020. When I look ahead, I see a sparkling future for Sun Life and for the industry, and I say that for a few reasons. First, the demand for what we do has never been higher. For millions of people, the pandemic has underscored the importance of their health and financial security, and we are here to help. Second, Sun Life is well placed to compete on the global stage. We started business in Asia in 1891, the UK in 1893, the US in 1895, and today two thirds of our business is outside of Canada. Of the top 12 publicly traded life insurance companies globally, three are Canadian, which is including Sun Life, of course, which is a remarkable achievement. So as an industry, we compete well on the global stage and that's something of which Canadians should be proud. Third, there's so much more opportunity still to help clients. There's still too many ways that life insurers are difficult to do business with. Medical underwriting can be invasive and time consuming, so we're working hard to change that, to accelerate and automate the process. We sometimes cold call prospective clients at awkward times to discuss their financial needs. We use jargon that confuses people sometimes. But these challenges are all opportunities. And at Sun Life, we're making great progress combining digital data and analytics with human contact in ways that are scalable, deliver amazing client experiences and can turbocharge productivity. Looking ahead, your company is in great hands under Kevin Strain's leadership. I've had the privilege of working closely with Kevin over these past fifteen years. I know he has the dynamism, the vision and the character to take Sunlight forward to even greater heights. It has been the privilege of a lifetime to lead this amazing company for the past nearly ten years. I hope that you are as proud of Sun Life as I am. You are invested in a company that has an incredibly important purpose that makes such a difference to millions of people in developed and developing nations around the world. You're invested in a company that is serious about its obligations to society. You're invested in a company chock full of bright, talented, great people who are joined together in our grand ambition to build one of the best insurance and asset management companies in the world. So thank you to our clients. Thank you to our investors for your ongoing confidence and support and trust in Sun Life. Thank you to Sun Life's Board of Directors for your guidance, challenge, support and friendship. We are blessed to have such a highly effective, high performing Board. And finally, thank you to our employees and advisers whose commitment to excellence has made my job an absolute joy. So thank you all. Merci beaucoup. And I'll now pass it over to Kevin Strain. Thanks, Dean. I really appreciate the kind words. I'm excited and humbled to become the next President and CEO of Sun Life. Following your footsteps makes this opportunity that much more special given our close working relationship over the past fifteen years. Going forward, I want to build on the success we have experienced under Dean's leadership and continue to make a positive impact for our clients, investors, employees, advisors, partners, and the communities where we live and work. We remain committed to our strategic priorities, which include earnings growth and returns, transforming digitally to better serve our clients, and areas of importance for our stakeholders, including diversity, equity, inclusion, and sustainability. I echo Dean's comments thanking all of those who have helped support our communities throughout the COVID-nineteen pandemic. What has separated us has also brought us closer together. We've talked about our balanced and diversified strategy, served as foundation through the pandemic. I want to spend a little time talking about Sun Life's future and how we'll take our strategy to the next level. Sun Life's future forward is based on four strategic priorities: our relentless client focus, acceleration of our digital strategy, a purpose driven sustainability plan tied to our businesses, and a competitive advantage fueled by our people and our culture. We will continue to intensify our client focus. We are client obsessed and will strive to keep them at the center of everything we do. Aligned with our purpose, it's about both financial security and how we help our clients access the tools, the resources and support they need to live healthier lives. We are offering new and innovative health services like virtual care in Canada and Asia, and healthcare navigation in The U. S. And we will continue to keep mental health in the spotlight expanding our offerings and solutions to address this growing need. Our Client for Life strategy has successfully guided Sun Life over the past six years. We want to be there when our clients need us the most throughout all of their milestones, offering personalized and proactive solutions when, where and how clients want them. A big part of how we serve clients is how we leverage technology to drive digital innovation. The global pandemic accelerated our digital focus. As Dean highlighted, throughout 2020, we rolled out digital solutions and collaboration tools for clients, employees and advisors. To continue to deliver on our purpose, we are becoming more digital at heart. That doesn't mean becoming a digital company. It means being able to anticipate our clients' needs so we can deliver simple, intuitive digital experiences. Building this capability requires everyone's help: technology, underwriters, actuaries, operations, sales force leaders, legal and compliance. It's an organizational effort across life, health and wealth solutions, all the touch points that clients have with Sun Life. Last year also shone a bright light on the urgency to build a more sustainable and equitable world, and we launched several initiatives to drive real change. Our clients, our communities and you, our shareholders, want us to make an impact when it comes to sustainability. We continue to embed sustainability into our business in the areas we know best and where we have the greatest impact: increasing financial security, fostering healthier lives, and advancing sustainable investments. This is underpinned by our commitment to operate as a trusted and responsible business. Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time. Sun Life included its first disclosures in line with the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures, TCFD. We describe these recommendations in our twenty twenty annual management discussion and analysis. In March, we announced sustainability commitments supporting our journey. Starting this year, business operations around the world for both Sun Life and MFS will be carbon neutral. Sun Life currently has close to CAD 60,000,000,000 invested in sustainable investments, combining assets through the general account and SLC Management's third party investments. We have set a goal to invest an additional CAD20 billion in sustainable investments over the next five years across our general account and third party investments. These additional investments may range from renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable buildings, clean transportation, water management, and social infrastructure projects such as hospitals. These projects will make a meaningful difference in the communities where we live and work. I want to close by talking about our biggest competitive advantage, our people and our culture. We're proud to be a home for and developer of top talent with a culture that is caring, inclusive, and purpose driven. Going forward, we want to embed the lessons we've learned from COVID-nineteen pandemic to shape the future of work. This will include future proofing our workforce, further evolving to a digitally enabled workplace with increased flexibility, workspaces that allow for high performing teams to collaborate and a focus on employee well-being. And a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment is a must. By 2025, we are committed to achieving gender parity among our senior leaders and having 25% of our senior leaders from underrepresented communities with specific goals for black, indigenous and people of color. While many things have changed over the years and will continue to change as we build for the future, we will be guided by the core principles that have served us well for the last one hundred and fifty six years: financial discipline, prudent risk management and a thoughtful approach to capital allocation, along with a team driven to deliver on our purpose of helping our clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives. In closing, it's an honor to be Sunlight's next CEO. I'm looking forward to working with our Board, senior leaders, employees, advisors and partners to build on the success realized under Dean's leadership. I want to thank our clients and shareholders for their ongoing trust and confidence in Sunlight. Thank you. I will now turn it back to Bill. Thank you. Thank you both very much. That was a great discussion. Ladies and gentlemen, the scrutineers have completed their preliminary tabulation of the votes cast in respect of each of the items of business on the agenda. And I will now ask Troy to speak to the preliminary voting results. Troy, over to you. With Sun Life Financial, the scrutineers have reported that over 52.9% of the eligible eligible shares have been voted at this meeting. I'm pleased to report that all 12 director nominees named in the circular have been elected with votes ranging from 91.6% to 99.8% in favor. Deloitte LLP was reappointed as our auditor, with over 94.4% of the votes in favor. Special resolution on the amendment to Section 2.7 of Bylaw one was passed with over 99.2% of the votes in favor. The advisory resolution on the approach to executive compensation was passed with over 94.5% of the votes in favor. For Sun Life Assurance, scrutineers have reported that over 22.7 of the eligible votes have been cast at this meeting. I'm pleased to report that all five policyholder director nominees named in the circular have been elected with over 93% of the votes in favor, and all seven of the shareholders' directors have been elected. Deloitte LLP was reappointed as our auditor with over 99.9% of the votes in favor. A special resolution on the amendment to Section 2.7 of by law number one was passed with over 99.9% of the votes in favor. Thanks, Troy. So that concludes the formal business portion of our meeting for this year. We are now pleased to entertain questions from registered shareholders, voting policyholders, and duly appointed proxy holders viewing the meeting by webcast. I'd like to remind you that questions should be of interest to all shareholders and not of a personal nature. If your question is related to a personal matter, a Sun Life representative will contact you after the meeting. Again, to submit a question via the webcast, click on the messaging icon on the platform. Troy, are there any questions? Bill, our first question is from Richard Sandbrook, a policyholder and shareholder. Richard actually has a statement he'd like us to read out first. First, congratulations to all of the Sun Life organization, especially its employees and advisers, for their remarkable service and results during a year of historic challenge. Also, a special note of appreciation to our retiring Board members, and in particular, to Dean Connor for his remarkable vision and leadership over this past decade. And finally, a warm congratulations to Kevin Strain as he takes over the hot seat this year. I'm certain his considerable depth of experience at both Therakah and Sun Life will provide great continuity and benefit to us all. Question from Richard reads as follows: In the recent twenty twenty pandemic year, digital connecting by necessity increased dramatically. Also dramatically increasing seem to be public reporting about growing cybersecurity and ransomware attacks at the highest levels. Richard noted that the Board held sessions last year on both cloud security and cybersecurity in a blended work environment. As clients, Richard thinks we may want to have their information and money to be protected and safe. Could you provide us an update? Well, thanks, Richard. As always, it's good to hear from you and unfortunate that we can't be together again this year. But thank you for your comments, obviously, and also for your question. And Dean, I'll turn it over to you, actually, to deal with that, please. Thanks, Bill. And Richard, thank you. Thank you for your kind words. I noted your comment, especially employees and advisers, and they do deserve the credit. So in terms of your question around digital, let me start by saying you're absolutely right to point out that in an increasingly virtual world, we have far more touch points with our clients, more devices connected to Sun Life Systems with a much more distributed technology stack, including more of it done in the cloud. And so we take this exposure seriously. And as you noted, we spent a lot of time, first as an executive team, but also with the Board reviewing this and managing it. It's a key element of our risk management framework, risk management systems. Over time, we have seen an increase in the volume and sophistication of the attacks in the external environment, and that has increased since the pandemic started, including ransomware and phishing. So how do we approach this? Well, there's an array of technology solutions, including data encryption that we use, intrusion detection and monitoring, layers of protection in terms of how we architect our systems. Like most other companies, we work with outsiders to test our systems and test our defenses and do a number of evaluations using third parties. There's also a big element of human training, so training our own employees on how to reduce the chance of a phishing attack and not accidentally open a door somewhere. So we're constantly changing the way we look at these things. There's new information almost every day. We're in the flow in terms of exchanging. Like no company has a competitive advantage in this area, and so there's a lot of exchange with other companies on best practices. The other thing I'd say is that we also role play in terms of how do we respond if and when there is a successful attack. Given the amount of criminal activity in this cyberspace, we have to plan as if we will be attacked. And so we practice, you know, how do we manage that and how do we simulate that. Last thing I'll say, it's less about cybersecurity and it's more about data governance and data ownership and data principles. We have laid out a number of principles, guiding principles for how we will treat our clients' data, including the fact that we will not sell clients' data. Those are on our website. I encourage you to have a look at them. I think data governance is going to be an increasingly important issue, and we've taken a very proactive step on that front. So I hope that's answered your question, and thank you for raising it. Troy, anything else? We have another question, Bill, from shareholder and policyholder Thelma Sandbrook. The question reads as follows: In 2020, the COVID-nineteen pandemic caused considerable financial market volatility. However, most markets ended the year with quite positive returns. Reviewing a recent policy statement, I noticed that the policyholder dividend scale was being decreased. Could you provide any further information on the basis of the change and specifics? I've been a very happy and very long term policyholder since 1990. Thank you very much. Thelma, thank you. Ahead. I think that no, no, that should be over to you for sure. Thanks. Selma, thank you for your question, and thank you for being a policyholder and shareholder for such a long period of time. The dividend interest rate on our participating whole life policy, the Sun Life Par policies, is currently 6% and it's both competitive relative to other insurance companies and I would say attractive. We review the dividends on participating whole life policies every year. We take into account the investment returns on the par funds. We look at mortality experience, expense experience, and a number of other factors before setting the dividend interest rate. As interest rates have declined so significantly over the past few decades, the return on the par assets has slowly reduced because we have to reinvest maturing bonds at lower rates, we have to reinvest maturing commercial mortgages at lower rates. But on the other hand, the equity returns in the par funds have been strong, the real estate returns have been strong, and combined with the smoothing of returns over time, it's meant a very gradual reduction in that par dividend interest rate. As I said, the rate is both attractive and competitive, and we are really pleased with how this has turned out for our clients because it's lined exactly lined up with our purpose. And the fact that we continue to sell quite a bit of par whole life is one kind of reflection of that. So thank you for your question. UNIDENTIFIED Troy, next question. The next question is from shareholder Jeff Carlson. I understand that restrictions have been put in place by federal regulators on insurance companies, which prevent those companies from raising their shareholder dividends. I also understand that those restrictions have not yet been lifted. I believe it is critical for Sun Life to resume such dividend increases as soon as possible. My question is, what is Sun Life doing, if anything, to convince regulators to remove these restrictions on increasing shareholder dividends? Once restrictions are lifted, what is Sun Life's timing to resume dividend increases and get back on track? Thanks. That's a great question. And it's also part of that OSFI mandate was not only that we can increase dividends, but we also can continue with the program of buying back our shares. Dean, you probably had the most recent discussions with OSFI on this matter. Maybe you could handle that. Yeah, thanks Bill, and Jeff thanks for your question. We do recognize the importance of dividends to our shareholders and we're proud of the track record we've had raising dividends as we've been growing our earnings. And so Bill is right to include buybacks in that declaration by OSFI about a year ago or so. You know, what's happened in the last year, and I'll just speak to life insurance companies, life insurance companies have come through this so far with very strong capital positions and strong earnings. And I think our view, and we've made this very clear to OSFI both as Sun Life, but also as a group of insurance companies, our view is that we have a very strong desire. We think it makes good sense. We understand why the role was put in in the first place, but we think as we go through this, as the pandemic stretches on, and again back to the capital strength and the earnings power of our companies, we think it makes sense for OSFI to relax those restrictions. So we've made that point very clear. And once they do ultimately change that, we will resume. Our plan is, our intent is to be recommending to the Board to resume dividend increases following the lifting of those restrictions. It is, Dean's right, it is something the Board considers every quarter, but we do have a stated dividend payout policy that we would continue to focus on. And we are obviously falling a little below that range when we can increase dividends, but we would look to continue with that policy and stay within that range, which, as Dean said, should result if things stay the same in some increases. Troy? Chair, there were no further questions raised. Okay. Thanks. Well, thanks, everyone. And actually, just before I close our meeting, I'd like to turn back to the topic of leadership that I started with in my opening remarks. As Dean commented, this is his last Sun Life Annual Meeting as he will retire in August after ten years as CEO and fifteen years with the company. Dean, under your leadership, Sun Life has experienced an outstanding period of success and growth with a purpose driven focus on delivering shareholder value and with strong outcomes for clients while nurturing a high performing, caring and very collaborative culture. So on behalf of the Sun Board, thank you for your vision, your passion, and your leadership. We will definitely miss you and your presence on the Board. And I have to say, as a personal note, it's been an absolute pleasure working with you, and particularly the last four years that I've been Chair. It's been a great collaboration. And you've as you said earlier, some people make your job easier. You've made my job easier. So, you very much. However, we are thrilled to congratulate Kevin Strain. And Kevin, of course, will succeed Dean as Sunlight's next President and CEO. Many of our shareholders and policies, Kevin, are familiar with you. You've been with the company for close to twenty years, and you've worked in so many different parts of the business, and of course, most recently as Chief Financial Officer. But Kevin's leadership character and innovative spirit, combined with his experience, will continue to drive Sunlight's growth, and the success will continue into the future. And as we have heard from Kevin's remarks, Sun Life future is certainly bright. So Kevin, you have the full support of the Board, and we're confident in your ability to continue the legacy on which Sun Life was founded. So in closing, thank you to everyone, our shareholders, policyholders. Thank you for joining us today. We're grateful for the trust and the confidence that you have in Sun Life. Please stay safe and healthy, and we truly hope to see everyone in person next year. Thanks again.