Great-West Lifeco Inc. today announced that its U.S. subsidiary, Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Co., has reached an agreement to acquire the bundled, full-service, defined contribution business from U.S. Bank.

The agreement includes the transfer of nearly 1,900 daily valuation and balance-forward plans, representing approximately 195,000 participants and more than US$9 in retirement plan assets. The assest are primarily in 401(k) plans.

The transaction is scheduled to close at the end of 2006, subject to regulatory approval in the U.S. Lifeco expects the transaction will be accretive to earnings in 2007 and subsequent years.

“This acquisition moves us significantly closer to our goal of becoming one of the top retirement plan providers in the United States,” said Raymond McFeetors, president and CEO of Lifeco. “It further enhances our presence in the corporate retirement plan marketplace, where we’ve earned a reputation as an innovative and growing player.”

“We will be retaining the U.S. Bank relationship managers, sales and client service specialists,” said McFeetors, “so clients will transition to the Great-West platform with their service team intact, which will be of significant benefit to them.”

Additionally, Great-West Life & Annuity and U.S. Bank will establish a preferred provider relationship to support the ongoing 401(k) needs of U.S. Bank customers.

In addition to its full-service 401(k) business, Great-West Life & Annuity provides a range of retirement products and services to the corporate, government, healthcare and education markets, and to institutional clients.

Last month Great-West Life & Annuity closed on its agreement to acquire from Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and its affiliates, several parts of their full service-bundled small and midsize 401(k) as well as some defined benefit plan business. Following this latest transaction with U.S. Bank, Great-West Life & Annuity will provide products and services for 401(k), 401(a), 403(b), and 457 retirement plans, to approximately 21,000 plans representing nearly 3.5 million participants in the U.S. with more than US$104 billion in assets.