At the end of june 2007, Clarica advisors will become Sun Life advisors — and many say they welcome the change.

“There’s no real downside in it for me as an advisor,” says Gordon Ross, a chartered financial consultant with Clarica in Calgary. “It’s a marketing issue,” he says, adding that there are inherent business inefficiencies involved in promoting two brands.

Sun Life Financial Inc. purchased Clarica in 2002, maintaining the latter’s career sales force and supporting its ongoing branding — including a highly successful series of television commercials.

“The TV ads were successful and served us well,” says Mark DeTora, senior vice president of individual insurance and investments for Sun Life’s Canadian operations. However, he says, Sun Life has decided to retire the Clarica brand as part of its overall strategy to leverage the Sun Life brand, which is known worldwide.

The reach of 140-year-old Sun Life Financial extends beyond Canada to the U.S., Britain, Ireland, Bermuda and several parts of Asia, including India, Hong Kong, Japan and China.

“Outside Canada,” says DeTora, “Clarica is not known — or is little known, at best.”

Barry Zapshalla, a Clarica advisor and president of Barry Zapshalla Investments & Insurance Solu-tions Inc. in Yorkton, Sask., says that building on the global reputation of Sun Life “is a great idea.”

Many of Zapshalla’s new clients are coming from countries outside Canada, where Sun Life is an established brand. Therefore, he says, the Canadian brand integration “provides reassurance to clients that they’re dealing with a company that has a global presence.”

Zapshalla says he felt “from the get-go” — when Sun Life acquired Clarica — that rebranding under the Sun Life name was inevitable, adding that it didn’t make sense to “shave off” the brands.

Within Canada, DeTora says, the brand integration will help Clarica advisors by reducing confusion. For example, he notes that Clarica advisors are often brought to workplaces at which Sun Life provides group benefits so they can offer their services to employees, especially soon-to-be retirees.

Individuals are looking for advi-sor-based information, says DeTora, and now the shift from Sun Life group coverage to Sun Life individual coverage can become more seamless. “This will also help to grow the company,” he adds.

Zapshalla agrees, noting that the move “pulls Clarica advisors into one large force. Group benefits is big — many companies have Sun Life Group Benefits. Establishing a link to us is a good thing. ”

The switch will occur during a period of record earnings for the company. Sun Life Financial announced record annual earnings of $2.1 billion for 2006, and record quarterly earnings of $545 million for the fourth quarter of 2006, ended Dec. 31.

Sun Life Financial Canada contributed to this success by increasing fourth-quarter earnings by $3 million, or 1.2% over earnings for the same quarter in 2005.

Individual insurance and investments increased 19% over the fourth quarter of 2005. Group wealth earnings increased 8% for the same time period.

Sun Life Financial’s management discussion and analysis, released on Feb. 8, cites “improved productivity from the Clarica sales force in insurance and wealth sales” as one of the key factors involved in this success.

Among the company’s strengths, the MD&A referred to “a multi-distribution strategy with the Clarica sales force [providing] a stable level of sales in the large mid-range market segment and the growing third-party channel capturing a bigger share of the high net-worth market.”

Sun Life “is still firmly committed to the multi-channel approach,” says DeTora. After Clarica advisors become Sun Life advisors, they will remain “career advisors” and continue to focus on the mid-market, he says.

It will be business as usual for advisors and their clients, says DeTora.

Client service, advisor operations, existing policies and investments will not be affected, he says: “The back office won’t change.”

The level compensation system, in which advisors are paid the same for new business as they are for maintaining existing business, will remain in place. This differs from the way independent advi-sors are compensated up front, in “heaped” commissions for finding new business.

The change will not affect McLean Budden, Sun Life’s investment-management subsidiary in Canada.

During the first quarter of 2007, Sun Life Financial will incur a writedown of $40 million-$50 million on the loss of goodwill created by the Clarica brand. The company also anticipates spending $15 million-$20 million to replace the Clarica logo and advertise the shift to the Sun Life brand.

@page_break@One ad will announce the coming of “sunny days ahead” due to “bringing two Canadian success stories together under one brand.” Another will proclaim a “fondness for the Clarica name” but cite “business realities” and Sun Life Financial’s “global reach” as reasons for the name change.

Clarica has been active in supporting local community sports teams and charities, says DeTora.

For example, says Ross, Clarica is an annual sponsor of events at the Spruce Meadows horse-jumping facility in Calgary. The Clarica umbrellas — a regular sight at the facility — will become Sun Life umbrellas, he says.

The Clarica brand was unveiled in 1999 as the new name and look for the former Mutual Life of Canada after it converted from a mutual company, owned by its policyholders, to a shareholder-held company. Clarica was subsequently acquired by Sun Life in May 2002. And while Sun Life decided to release its captive sales force, the Clarica salespeople have been maintained.

At present, there are approximately 3,500 Clarica advisors. Many of these advisors have been with the company since the days of Mutual Life, says Ross.

They have a strong set of ethics and long-established client relationships, he says. “We’re hoping those ethics and long-term thinking remains.”

Clarica advisors don’t anticipate any pressure to change just because of the rebranding.

“I would say 99% of Clarica people won’t have any objection, says Zapshalla. At a recent conference of Clarica advisors, he adds, “Everyone was saying, ‘This is great. Let’s go’.” IE