The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, one of Canada's largest and oldest insurance business establishments, was founded in Toronto in 1887 with Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister, as first president.

Within ten years, The Manufacturers was hailed a "Young Canadian Giant". During its first decade, the company surpassed ten million dollars in assets, the first Canadian company to do so in such a short time. The new company quickly expanded to other parts of the world and policy owners were not just found across Canada but in such distant lands as China, Japan, the West Indies and Bermuda - where the company's first overseas policy was written in 1893.
 

     
1. The North Tower of The Manufacturers head office complex at 200 Bloor Street East in Toronto took two years to build and was completed in 1983. 2. The rotunda is the link between North Tower and the older South Tower, built in 1925.
 
As the company grew world-wide, so did its reputation for investment and underwriting expertise. A notable development during the 1930's was The Manufacturers' pioneer liberalization of underwriting for diabetics. Later, the company would routinely make insurance available to overweight, coronary disease and special occupational risks. Progress and innovation, The Manufacturers' hallmarks, continued into the fifties. The IBM computer installed at the company's Head Office in 1956 was the first in Canada. The Company's current computer facility is among the most sophisticated anywhere.

Today, The Manufacturers is a leading provider of life insurance and annuity products, group benefits, disability insurance, pension plans and retirement and estate planning services. The Manufacturers ranks 15th among the 2,000 North American Life insurance companies and is considered a major international financial corporation with 175 offices in 15 countries.

The Manufacturers' sales and services offices are located in major cities across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, The Pacific and the Caribbean.

First-class money management is The Manufacturers' specialty. Its active management style has won the company a reputation as a major leader in the industry. The Manufacturers' investment team delivers consistently good long term results, even during unstable economic periods.

As a long-term hedge against inflation, The Manufacturers has built a real estate portfolio with a value exceeding $2 billion. Across North America, its developments are among the newest, giving The Manufacturers a growing international reputation as a developer, owner and manager of a quality tradition.

Leadership in the financial services industry demands the necessary experience to excel in a world of deregulated markets, economic volatility and fierce competition. The Manufacturers is wellpositioned to capitalize on these trends. The financial services industry must anticipate and respond to changing needs. To accomplish this, companies must be flexible, bringing the talents of innovative people to bear on the design and distribution of products and services.

Entering its second century, The Manufacturers has cultivated the strengths necessary for sustained prosperity. Its performance in world markets, its solid financial base, its capacity to be flexible and innovative and the calibre of its people encourage The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company to provide leading edge products and services for its future customers.