17383_RBCI 05 Corporate profile ENG - RBC Insurance

6 2005 CORPORATE PROFILE RBC INSURANCE 7Life and healthRBC Insurance offers life and health insurance, as well aswealth accumulation solutions to individual and groupclients in Canada and the U.S. This includes term anduniversal life, critical illness, disability and long term careinsurance, as well as group benefits. We also offer variable lifeinsurance, and fixed and variable annuities in the U.S. InCanada, these products are distributed through more than17,000 independent brokers affiliated with producer groups,financial planning companies and stock brokerage firms, aswell as through direct sales and a network of more than 350career sales representatives. Distribution in the U.S. is throughregional and independent broker-dealers, national marketingorganizations, RBC banking and investment channels, theInternet, other direct marketing channels and a field force ofapproximately 300 sales agents, operating primarily in thesoutheastern United States.In 2005, we launched a number of initiatives to further growand expand our life and health insurance business, includingintroducing new products, further integrating our distributionnetwork and improving the overall efficiency of our operations.From a product perspective, the new Term 10 and Term 20plans provide Canadians with affordable term life insurancechoices. These plans may be renewed to provide coveragethrough to age 80, or converted to a permanent life insuranceplan at any time prior to age 70. They also allow for simplified,preferred underwriting classes, criteria and requirementsand provide the option for tele-application completion onterm plans of $100,000 or more.RBC Insurance, in partnership with The Edge Benefits Inc.,also launched The Edge Critical Illness Plan, which providessimplified and enhanced coverage alternatives to protectCanadians from financial hardships should they be diagnosedwith a critical illness.We also completed the integration of our group insuranceproducts with those of the former UnumProvident Canada tooffer the most comprehensive and competitive group insuranceoptions to distributors and their clients. By bringing togetherthe management teams, brokerage networks, group productsand systems of both companies, we delivered outstandingresults in 2005 and continue to build and maintain our marketleading positions in key insurance markets.As part of our ongoing effort to create operational efficiencies,we announced the consolidation of our facilities in Calgaryand made changes to our western region organizationalstructure. We appointed new regional vice-presidents forthe western and prairie regions and going forward, we willcontinue to seek opportunities to align our third-partydistribution field resources more directly with our customers.In addition, we introduced a number of initiatives to helpour distributors better meet their clients’ insurance needs.In June, we relaunched the Sales Resource Centre for insurancerepresentatives. The newly redesigned site, which is accessiblethrough the RBC Insurance website, provides more efficientand user-friendly access to valuable life and health insurancesales, marketing and product information.Our life and health business provides a wide range of individual and group life andhealth insurance solutions to individual and business clients in Canada and the U.S.We are one of the top 10 Canadian life insurance producers and a leader inindividual disability insurance.