The insurance and wealth management company reported its net earnings attributable to common shareholders reached
That compared with
Its base earnings, which exclude certain items, amounted to
Great-West beat analyst estimates of
Chief executive and president
"To a large extent, we saw a good recovery in equity markets," he said.
"What we found is that our business model is very resilient...There is obviously going to be downsides related to economic impacts but we always believe they will be moderated because of our risk sense."
Great-West — which operates the Canada Life brand, among other things — saw lower health and dental claims and reductions to premiums while medical offices were closed during the early stages of the pandemic in
The closures were coupled with an increase in disability claims, lower levels of disability claim terminations and strong sales of life insurance sales.
The public's gravitation towards virtual offerings, which insurance companies have been ramping up in recent years, also helped, Mahon said.
His remarks came a day after Great-West announced it is selling its Canadian subsidiary
As part of the deal with
That will result in Lifeco receiving net cash of
"We believe successful wealth managers need to control their product shelf and customer solutions, but they also need access to asset managers with consistent, high-performance skill mandates and product innovation and breadth," said Mahon.
"By combining GLC with
News of the deal and Great-West's earnings pushed the company's stock to close at
Looking ahead, Great-West is seeing encouraging signs.
Claims levels in
"We are starting to see reasonable recoveries in sales activities in markets where some of the limitations of physical distancing have been lifted...but we can't really estimate what will happen in the external market," Mahon said.
"You don't know what will happen to the economy going forward."
This report by
Companies in this story: (TSX:GWO, TSX:POW)
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