Industrial Alliance Financial Group (IA) announced net earnings of $288 million in the third quarter of 2024, up 414% from $56 million in the same quarter in 2023.
IA’s year-to-date earnings were $736 million as of Sept. 30, up 38% from $533 million at the same time last year.
The increase was partially driven by IA’s contractual service margin — or the value of unearned profits — which rose by $100 million from new insurance business and $104 million from positive macroeconomic impacts.
The insurer had $249.7 billion in assets under management as of Sept. 30, up from $205 billion the same time last year. This was helped by strong sales in Canadian individual insurance and segregated fund inflows led to net premiums, premium equivalents and deposits of $4.9 billion, up by 25% compared to the same quarter in 2023.
Net income in the Canadian insurance segment for the quarter was $95 million, compared to $79 million the same period last year. The increase was mainly driven by price hikes, lower impact from employee plans and reduced expenses.
IA said it continued to rank first in Canada in gross ($1.3 billion) and net ($781 million) segregated fund sales for the quarter. The 51% year over year increase in gross sales was attributed to favourable market performance and clients opting for riskier asset classes.
Meanwhile, insured annuity and other savings products sales fell from $618 million in the third quarter of last year to $483 million this year. Mutual funds also experienced a net outflow of $163 million despite higher sales.
IA completed two acquisitions this quarter: Laurentian Bank Securities’ added over $2 billion in AUM in 15,000 client accounts and 25 advisors to IA Private Wealth; and two blocks of business from Prosperity Life Group added over 115,000 policies with US$100 million in annual premiums to IA’s U.S. business.
The insurer increased its dividends by 17% to $2.93.