Sun Life Financial Inc. announced today that it is integrating its brand strategy in Canada to more effectively leverage the Sun Life brand. As part of the integrated strategy, the company also announced that it is retiring the Clarica name.

“With our rich history of more than 140 years and a customer base exceeding six million Canadians, Sun Life is one of Canada’s most recognized names,” said Donald Stewart, CEO, in a news release. “The Sun Life name is also well known and highly respected in many other markets around the world. Offering our customers, advisors and employees a more powerful brand promise will reinforce Sun Life’s position in Canada, and strengthen our platform for continued growth internationally.”

The integrated brand strategy will better enable the company to leverage the strength of the Sun Life name across its three key businesses in Canada. The strategy will also allow the company to realize greater economies of scale in marketing expenditures, and reduce brand duplication and complexity in the Canadian marketplace.

“The Clarica brand has served the company well and it has become known as a symbol of excellent service,” said Kevin Dougherty, president, Sun Life Financial Canada. “But looking to the future, we need to concentrate our branding efforts and our investments to maximize our presence in our markets. The core of Sun Life’s brand has the same values of excellence and integrity as the Clarica brand has become known for, and adds a distinct international quality which is increasingly relevant to our customers.”

“Sun Life is very highly respected by distributors and consumers, and this announcement is great news for the career sales force,” added Jack Garramone, president, Clarica Financial Services Inc. “Now we will be able to leverage the best the company has to offer from its diverse channels, complementary businesses and intensified brand equity.”

The Clarica brand was introduced in 1999 as the new brand for Mutual Life of Canada after it converted from a company owned by policyholders to one owned by shareholders. Clarica was acquired by Sun Life in May 2002. Nearly two million Canadians hold policies and accounts through Clarica, which has a sales team of approximately 3,500 in offices from coast to coast.

The transition will be completed by the first quarter of 2008 and will be supported by an increased investment in the Sun Life brand.

The change will not impact client service, advisor operations, existing policies, investments or current product offerings. The decision will also not affect McLean Budden, Sun Life’s investment management subsidiary in Canada.

As a result of this transition, the company will incur intangible asset write-downs in the range of $40 to $50 million after-tax in the first quarter of 2007. In addition, over the next 12 months Sun Life Financial will incur related charges for transition-related advertising, replacement signs and other matters associated with the name change in the range of $15 to $20 million after-tax.