Breakthrough in underwriting disrupts traditional approach to insurance

Waterloo - Manulife today announced that it will now accept life insurance applications from persons who have tested positive for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the first insurer in Canada to do so.

'Manulife was the first insurer to underwrite people with diabetes, and we are continuing in that tradition by making life insurance a possibility for the more than 75,000 Canadians* who have tested HIV positive,' said Marianne Harrison, President and Chief Executive Officer, Manulife Canada. 'This is the result of work completed by our Research and Innovation team and working closely with our colleagues in the United States at John Hancock.'

Manulife looked at the latest mortality and long-term survival rates of HIV-positive Canadians and with enhanced analytics, gained a better perspective on individual risk profiles. As we continue to build on the strength of our analytics, we will rely less on traditional underwriting - leading the industry in providing coverage customized to consumer risk.

Applicants who have tested HIV positive, are between the ages of 30 and 65, and meet certain criteria, can apply for individual life insurance for up to $2,000,000.

About Manulife
We operate as John Hancock in the United States, and Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2015, we had approximately 34,000 employees, 63,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving 20 million customers. At the end of December 2015, we had $935 billion (US$676 billion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made more than $24.6 billion in benefits, interest and other payments to our customers. Our principal operations are in Asia, Canada and the United States where we have served customers for more than 100 years. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong. Follow Manulife on Twitter @ManulifeNews or visit www.manulife.com or www.johnhancock.com

* http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/aids-sida/publication/survreport/2012/dec/index-eng.php

Media contact:
Bev MacLean
Manulife
416-852-8501
Beverley_Maclean@manulife.com
@ManulifeNews

Anne-Julie Gratton
Manuvie
514 499-7999 poste 308150
Anne-Julie_Gratton@manuvie.com

Manulife Financial Corporation issued this content on 22 April 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 27 April 2016 13:48:06 UTC

Original Document: http://www.manulife.com/public/news/detail/0,,lang=en&artId=148769&navId=630002,00.html