Merger of Excellence Life Insurance Company and Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc.

iA Financial Group today announces the merger of two companies of its group: Excellence Life Insurance Company (hereinafter “Excellence”) and Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. (hereinafter “iA Insurance”). Subject to regulatory approval, the merger will take effect on January 1, 2020.

For the approximately 175,000 Excellence clients, this merger will be done with full transparency and no action on their part will be required. iA Financial Group will respect all commitments made by Excellence.
This merger will ensure the synergy of both companies’ operations and improve operational efficiency, and will have little to no direct impact on jobs.

“We are bringing the operations of Excellence and iA Insurance together under the iA Financial Group brand. The integration of the companies’ operations will provide gains in operational efficiency and facilitate continuous improvement in favour of a simpler client experience and a more fluid advisor experience by proposing single way of doing business with iA Financial Group”, highlights Renée Laflamme, Executive Vice-President, Individual Insurance, Savings and Retirement at iA Financial Group.

As a reminder, iA Insurance acquired Excellence in 2008. This acquisition allowed the former to break into the individual disability and health insurance market. At that time, Excellence did business exclusively in the province of Quebec and posted gross premium income in the amount of 90 million dollars. Today, Excellence operates across Canada with 173 employee and posts gross premium income of 135 million dollars.

The merger announced today is subject to approval by the Quebec Minister of Finance upon positive recommendation from the Autorité des marchés financiers.