Profit at Sun Life Financial Services of Canada rose during the fourth quarter ended December 31 despite the impact of charges for special items.

Canada’s largest insurer said net income during the quarter was $310 million, or 50¢ a share, up from $253 million a year ago.

Excluding special items, operating earnings rose to $361 million, or 58¢a share, from $243 million, or 57¢a share.

“Operating earnings reached a new record of $361 million in the fourth quarter,” said Donald Stewart, chairman and CEO. “Operating earnings for the year were over one and a quarter billion dollars, which also represents a new record for Sun Life Financial. This strong performance received an extra boost from the integration of Clarica, which remains on schedule.”

Clarica contributed $117 million to operating earnings and 4¢ to earnings per share during the quarter.

“Our Canadian operations earned $185 million in the fourth quarter, leading the way to a strong consolidated performance,” said James Prieur, president and COO. “Our sales performance was very strong, led by solid performances in U.S. and Asian operations.”

Sun Life said revenues climbed in the quarter to $6 billion from $4.9 billion last year.

Revenues for the year 2002 were $23.1 billion, up $6.3 billion compared to 2001. Revenues in 2002 included Clarica revenues of $2.8 billion and incremental Keyport Life Insurance Co. revenues of $4 billion.

Total premium, deposits and fund sales were $21.6 billion for the fourth quarter, an increase of $3.9 billion or 23% over the third quarter of 2002, reflecting growth from all operations. The growth was led by increases of $2.6 billion in managed fund sales and $1 billion in segregated fund sales.

The company also increased its quarterly dividend by 21%, or 3¢, to 17¢.