Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX:SLF) is aiming to increase its annual operating net income to $2 billion by 2015 and plans to do so by focusing its resources on four growth areas.

President and CEO Dean Connor said the company’s objectives also include achieving a 12% to 13% operating return on equity by mid decade.

“We believe the targets for operating return on equity and operating net income are challenging yet achievable in the current environment,” Connor said in a release issued in conjunction with the company’s investor day.

“We are shifting more of our capital into businesses that have strong growth prospects, generate less volatility and can provide higher returns on shareholder equity.”

Last month the company reported disappointing fourth-quarter and full-year results in which, among other things, operating net income for the year was just $104 million, down from almost $1.48 billion in 2010.

The Toronto-based company posted a net loss of $525 million or 90 cents per share for the quarter, reversing a net profit of $504 million or 84 cents a year earlier. Analysts, on average, had expected a loss of about 59 cents per share.

Connor said at the time that the quarter had been “very unusual” because it included a $635-million non-cash charge associated with changes to reserves for its variable annuity and segregated fund insurance contracts liabilities.

On Thursday, Sun Life said it plans to concentrate resources on four pillars of growth, including becoming “the best performing life insurer in Canada by capitalizing on growing retirement market opportunities.”

That will include building the company’s group benefits and pensions businesses, increasing scale in wealth management and growing asset and insurance premium gathering capabilities by providing products and services to clients through the workplace.

The company also plans to focus on growing its U.S. group insurance business and becoming a top five provider of voluntary benefits. Additionally, the company wants to grow its asset management businesses globally and intensify operations in Asia by continuing to expand distribution channels for insurance and wealth management products and services.

Sun Life cautioned that the ability to achieve its financial objectives include a number of key assumptions. among them a steady rise in the annual level of key equity market indices by eight per cent, excluding dividends.

The company will also need to see a gradual increase in North American interest rates across the yield curve, a credit environment reflecting “the company’s best estimate assumptions” and stability in exchange rates between the loonie and other currencies, primarily the U.S. dollar.