Talk:Manulife/Archive 3

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Archive 4

History Section Revisions and Updates

Disclosure: I work for Manulife in a communications role, and have engaged with the Wikipedia community over the past several months to update this entry. I would like to propose changes to the structure and content of the History section, including revising content and adding new sub-section headers. The reason for these proposed changes is that some of the information is incomplete and lacks coherence – these proposed edits will more accurately convey the company’s history. I have researched and verified the sources for these changes with Manulife's Manager of Corporate Archives, and can provide source PDFs if needed.

Below are the proposed changes – I would appreciate the community’s feedback on these, and if you have any questions I am more than happy to discuss with you either here or via my Talk page.

• Remove sub-headers “Private Stock Company” and “Mutual company,” and replace with new sub-section header: “Initial Expansion and Growth”

• Under new sub-section “Initial Expansion and Growth” include the following text (bold indicates existing, unchanged copy that I am requesting simply be moved):

“In 1887 Manulife Financial was founded as The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company and Sir John A. Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada, was elected President. The company’s first international expansion occurred in 1893, when its first policy was sold outside of Canada in Bermuda. By 1897, the company had expanded its operations into Asia, including China and Hong Kong, and later established an agency in the Philippines.

In 1901, the company amalgamated with Temperance and General Life Assurance Co. of Toronto, forming the third-largest company in Canada at the time. In 1903, Manulife expanded its operations into the U.S. with a license to sell insurance in Michigan. The company later expanded across the States.

In 1931, Manulife opened its first southern China branch in British Hong Kong. Shortly thereafter, it established itself as a leading life insurer in the region with branches in Macau, Shantou and Amoy.

In 1958, shareholders voted to change the company’s legal form from a joint stock company to a mutual organization, making the company privately owned by its policyholders.”

• Change sub-section header “Demutualization and public company” to “Public Company and Leadership”

• Move paragraph beginning with “In 2013 Richard DeWolfe became the Chair of the company’s board…” and ending with “…making it difficult for the share price to reach the target levels needed to vest” up underneath the first paragraph of this section (so that it becomes the second paragraph).

• Add new sub-section: “Manulife in China” and include the following text (again, bold indicates existing, unchanged copy that I am requesting simply be moved):

Manulife originally operated in China from 1897 – 1941, opening several representative offices from 1992 – 1996. In 1996, the company entered an agreement with Sinochem to form Shanghai -based Zhong Hong Life Insurance Co. Ltd., China’s first joint venture life insurance company, and was granted a license that made it the second foreign insurer to be allowed re-entry into China.

In 2002, Manulife-Sinochem was granted approval by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) to open a branch office in Guangzhou, China, the first branch license granted to a foreign invested joint-venture life insurance company. In 2003, Manulife-Sinochem received approval for a branch office in Beijing, the first multiple-branch license granted to a foreign-invested joint venture life insurance company. The firm is now licensed to operate in more than 50 Chinese cities.

In 2005, Manulife became the first Canadian insurer to receive approval to expand its license in China to include Group Life and Health and non-tax benefit pension business.

• Add new sub-section: “Mergers and acquisitions” and add / include the following text (again, bold indicates existing, unchanged copy that I am requesting to be moved):

In 1901, Manulife amalgamated with the Temperance and General Life Assurance Company , a Toronto-based Canadian life insurer that provided preferred rates to abstainers of alcohol. Manulife continued to offer abstainers rates into the 1920s. George Ross, Premier of Ontario and President of Temperance and General, became President of the newly amalgamated company.

In 1984, Manulife announced that it had acquired Waterloo, Ontario-based Dominion Life Assurance Company: a deal that included the purchase of all of the outstanding stock of the company from Lincoln National. Dominion Life was founded in Waterloo in 1889, and Manulife made a commitment to the community to retain a significant presence in Waterloo. In 1988, Manulife opened a new five-storey office building at 500 King St. North in Waterloo to house its Canadian Division.

Manulife amalgamated with the North American Life Assurance Company in 1996, and then in 2003, Manulife Financial Corporation and John Hancock Financial Services, Inc. (including its Canadian subsidiary Maritime Life) announced a tax-free stock-for-stock merger of the companies , creating a global insurance franchise. Completed in April 2004, the merger created the largest life insurer in Canada, second largest in North America, and fifth largest in the world at the time.

In September 2009, the company purchased AIC’s Canadian retail investment fund business. In October 2009, it purchased Pottruff & Smith Travel Insurance Brokers Inc., a Canadian broker and third party administrator of travel insurance.

In 2010, the company announced that it had purchased Fortis Bank SA/NV’s1 49 per cent ownership in ABN AMRO TEDA Fund Management Co. Ltd. The new joint venture, Manulife TEDA Fund Management Company Ltd. (Manulife TEDA), provides traditional retail and institutional asset management for clients in China. The other 51 per cent is owned by Northern International Trust, part of Tianjin TEDA Investment Holding Co., Ltd. (TEDA).

• Add new body section: “Manulife Today” and include the following text immediately underneath (bold indicates existing copy that I am requesting be moved to this new section): In 2012, Manulife celebrated its 125th anniversary, and the 150th anniversary of John Hancock. In June 2012, the company opened Manulife Cambodia, with headquarters in Phnom Penh.

References

Jnuwame (talk) 18:25, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

Hi there. I saw your post in the COI noticeboard, and I appreciate your disclosure and also that these appear to be noncontroversial changes. However, as I go through them (and I haven't quite gone to the end) I question whether they are necessary. Some of your changes introduce jargon where it is not necessary. Can you please help us out by pointing out anything that is inaccurate and any pertinent facts that are omitted? To be frank, that is preferable to suggesting language, both in terms of the amount of time consumed in dealing with these and also because wording in articles should not be composed by the subject of the article as a general proposition. Coretheapple (talk) 00:00, 11 December 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Coretheapple, for your reply and for your assistance with this. I do appreciate and understand the value of fact over nuance of language. The reason I had recommended modifying / re-ordering the existing copy in some cases is that it helps to add some clarity to the entry, which seemed to be confusing. That said, I understand the community’s position on this, and would be more than happy to call out those elements of what I suggested above that are the pertinent facts or omissions that will help to strengthen the entry. And again, please note that I have been working closely with Manulife’s Manager of Corporate Archives, who has been instrumental in sourcing secondary references. Please see the following proposed amendments to the History section, and advise if you feel these are appropriate and can be implemented, or how I can improve further. Thank you again for your help.

1. Omission: Add to the end of the last sentence in the first paragraph under Private stock company, and later established an agency in the Philippines.
   
2. Omission; point of interest: Update second paragraph under Private stock company to the following: In 1901, Manulife amalgamated with the Temperance and General Life Assurance Company, a Toronto-based Canadian life insurer that provided preferred rates to abstainers of alcohol . Manulife continued to offer abstainers rates into the 1920s.. George Ross, Premier of Ontario and President of Temperance and General, became President of the newly amalgamated company.
   
3. Omission: Add the following sentence to the second paragraph (beginning with "In 1901...") under Private stock company: In 1903, Manulife expanded its operations into the U.S. with a license to sell insurance in Michigan. The company later expanded across the States.
   
4. Omission: Under Mutual Company, add the following sentence: Manulife originally operated in China from 1897 – 1941, opening several representative offices from 1992 – 1996.
   
5. Omission: Also under Mutual Company, add the following sentence (omission in italics): In 1996, the company entered an agreement with Sinochem to form Shanghai -based Zhong Hong Life Insurance Co. Ltd., China’s first joint venture life insurance company, and was granted a license that made it the second foreign insurer to be allowed re-entry into China.
   
6. Pertinent fact: Under Demutualization and public company, second paragraph: statistic citing "40 Chinese Cities" needs to be updated to 50.
   
7. Omission: Add the following sentence under Demutualization and public company, third paragraph: In 2005, Manulife became the first Canadian insurer to receive approval to expand its license in China to include Group Life and Health and non-tax benefit pension business.
   
8. Omission; point of interest: Add paragraph under Mutual company: In 1984, Manulife announced that it had acquired Waterloo, Ontario-based Dominion Life Assurance Company: a deal that included the purchase of all of the outstanding stock of the company from Lincoln National. Dominion Life was founded in Waterloo in 1889, and Manulife made a commitment to the community to retain a significant presence in Waterloo. In 1988, Manulife opened a new five-storey office building at 500 King St. North in Waterloo to house its Canadian Division.
   
9. Omission: Add to Mutual company: Manulife amalgamated with the North American Life Assurance Company in 1996.

Jnuwame (talk) 17:12, 27 December 2013 (UTC)

OK, thanks for your reply. I was focusing on inaccuracies, as that is the first priority. What you are requesting is addition of minor points of corporate history: uncontested, routine acquisitions, the opening of an office in the Philipines, the construction of a five-story building in Waterloo, Canada, etc. You refer to these as "omissions" but candidly I think that "trivia" might be a more apt description of what you are requesting. Coretheapple (talk) 19:14, 27 December 2013 (UTC)

Based on feedback from the Wikipedia community (via the COI Noticeboard and Teahouse) to my original requests, I have verified and made the following edits to this article – all of which are well-supported and documented by secondary sources, including news articles and additional encyclopaedic references. If anyone would like to discuss these edits further, please feel free to reach out to me via my Talk page. I sincerely appreciate all of the efforts the community has made to help me become familiar with the processes, protocols and how best to navigate.

1. Updated from 40 Chinese cities to 50, based on direct information from the company.
2. Modification: In 1901, Manulife amalgamated with the Temperance and General Life Assurance Company , a Toronto-based Canadian life insurer that provided preferred rates to abstainers of alcohol.
3. Addition: In 1996, the company entered an agreement with Sinochem to form Shanghai -based Zhong Hong Life Insurance Co. Ltd., China’s first joint venture life insurance company, and was granted a license that made it the second foreign insurer to be allowed re-entry into China.
4. Addition: In 1984, Manulife announced that it had acquired Waterloo, Ontario-based Dominion Life Assurance Company: a deal that included the purchase of all of the outstanding stock of the company from Lincoln National. Dominion Life was founded in Waterloo in 1889, and Manulife made a commitment to the community to retain a significant presence in Waterloo. In 1988, Manulife opened a new five-storey office building at 500 King St. North in Waterloo to house its Canadian Division.

Jnuwame (talk) 15:27, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

Awards and Sponsorship

Disclosure: I work for Manulife in a communications role, and have been working with the Wikipedia community on a regular basis to update this article. At this time, I'd like to introduce some content that will help provide a more complete view of Manulife as a company: specifically, with respect to Awards and Sponsorship. I'm presenting the suggested content below for the community's consideration. Please review and advise if we can include.

Awards: Based on previous statements made over the past year (see comments by user DGG on Feb. 24, 2013), I’d like to submit the following list of awards for posting to this article, preferably as a sub-section under History. Please note that these awards are all significant and well-referenced – I have omitted any that do not follow these criteria. Please consider and post if you agree they are appropriate:

• 2013 and 2014 – named to the Dow Jones Sustainability North American Index (Canada)
• 2013 – Fund House of the Year award for the Indonesian market, AsianInvestor’s Investment Performance Awards (Indonesia)
• 2013 – The Manulife LPGA Classic received the Tournament Owners Association Gold Driver Award for Charity Promotion, with St. Mary’s General Hospital Foundation’s Red Day
• 2013 – The Manulife LPGA Classic received four Silver Driver Awards from the Tournament Owners Association in the following categories: Event Advertising, Marketing Materials, TV Advertising and Website
• 2013 – Manulife’s Synergy marketing campaign received silver in the Digital category at the Canadian Marketing Association Awards Gala (Canada)
• 2012 and 2013 – named one of Canada’s Top Employers for Young People (Canada)
• 2010 through 2013 – named one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers (Canada)
• 2012 – Chairman’s Appreciation Certificate Award from the Tokyo Council of Social Welfare in recognition of contribution to recovery efforts in the area affected by the 2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake. (Japan)
• 2012 – Women’s Executive Network named Dr. Gail Cook-Bennett, Board Chair and Lynda Sullivan, Executive Vice President and Controller among its 2012 Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 award winners. (Canada)
• 2012 – Silver award in the Member of the Year category at the 2012 Canada China Business Council’s Business Excellence Awards. (Canada)
• 2012 – Women of Influence recognized four Manulife senior leaders as 2012 Canadian Diversity Champions. (Canada)
• 2012 – Manulife Investments received the Order of Excellence Award from Excellence Canada (Canada)
• 2012 – President and CEO Donald Guloien named 2012 International Business Executive of the Year (Canada)
• 2011 – Gail Cook-Bennett, Chair of Manulife’s Board of Directors and Cindy Forbes, EVP and Chief Actuary named recipients of 2011 Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Awards by the Women's Executive Network. (Canada)
• 2010 – Manulife Financial recognized on the 2010 Investor 500 ranking by Canadian Business magazine (Canada)
• 2010 – Manulife-Sinochem received an award of excellence from the State Council National Economic Census Commission (China)

Sponsorship: The current “sponsorship and naming” section of this article is missing some key facts about Manulife’s sponsorships – it’s quite a thin section, and (I think) strangely named. I’d like to propose that we update the content to include the following brief bullets, and bullet out the existing content – please see below for my proposed changes, and advise if these could be made to the article:

1. Re-name the section “Sponsorship.”
2. Bullet the two facts already there (and add the facts below).
3. In 2010 , Manulife partnered with Volunteer Canada and launched its “Get Volunteering” platform to provide Canadians with tools to find volunteer experiences, officially adopting volunteerism as the signature cause of its corporate social investment program.
4. Each year, Manulife gives Canadian employees a paid day off to volunteer for a charity of their choice.
5. Manulife offers an employee grant program called Helping Hands for those who offer 25 or more hours of community service.
6. Manulife will match employee donations to registered charities including the United Way, and its PowerMatch program matches an employee’s fundraising dollars up to $150.
7. Title sponsor of the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic since 2012.
8. Manulife is the parent company of John Hancock Financial, which has been a principal sponsor of the Boston Marathon since 1986.
9. Sponsor of Pathways To Education Canada, a program focused on reducing high school dropout rates in low-income communities.
10. Manulife Japan is a sponsor of Hoshi General Hospital’s “Manulife Waku Waku Room” project, providing psychological support for children receiving medical care.
11. Title sponsor of the Manulife Walk for Memories, benefitting the Alzheimer Society of Toronto.
12. Principal sponsor of 24 Hours of Skiing, benefiting children’s causes.

References

Jnuwame (talk) 18:15, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

As for awards: General considerations:

1. awards need to be proven by 3rd party published sources,
2. for a major company, there should be national level awards, and listing minor ones is not helpful---a company making smuch of small prizes implies it has nothing better to show.
3. being on a list is not an award, though there are some recognized lists that do imply distinction.
4. awards that don;t make clear what they are for (e.g. charity promotion) need to show it by a 3rd party published source
5. first place means more than 2nd; One of many means very little; Finalist means nothing.
6. individuals winning awards belong on their pages.

As for charities, as a preliminary:

1. again, this needs 3rd party sources & what is covered only in local newspapers is not significant.
2. for major companies we expect major internationally or nationally recognized-- minor ones are not helpful
3. sponsoring employee programs or matching them is pure routine and trivial.

The general rule about promotionalism is that what the general reader will want to know is encyclopedic information. Other things that the company might want to say belongs on their own web site.

I'd suggest revising the list and suggest what you think should best be included, DGG ( talk ) 23:30, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks so much for the feedback on this, it was very helpful. I’ve carefully reviewed the lists and have revised them based on the criteria, and have made the edits directly to the page, including appropriate references / links. If you have any concerns with the edits I’ve made, I’d invite you to please send me a message via my Talk page, and I’d be more than happy to discuss. Jnuwame (talk) 14:11, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

Lede and summarizing

Just a reminder that content in the lede should be described primarily in the body, and references generally aren't needed in the lede because of that per WP:LEDE. I might get around to it someday, but I was mainly here originally for an edit request, so I'll probably let someone interested in the topic take charge on fixing the lede. Kingofaces43 (talk) 15:29, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Correction

Disclosure: I work for Manulife and am looking to engage with the Wikipedia community to help improve this article. I have just made a small edit to the opening paragraph, which references 84,000 employees – this should actually be agents AND employees (as a matter of factual accuracy), so I have adjusted it accordingly. If anyone would like to discuss, please reach out via my Talk page. Thanks very much! KABannister (talk) 13:43, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

This page currently states that Manulife Financial has 84,000 employees, which is inaccurate. Manulife currently has more than 29,000 employees and 53,000 agents under contract, which is an important distinction. To improve the accuracy of the article, I request that an editor list employees and agents separately in both the infobox and the body text.

For reference, I’m providing a link to the Company Overview on the Manulife website, which outlines the number of employees. Please let me know if you have any questions.

COI Disclosure: I am an employee of Manulife Financial. KABannister (talk) 18:18, 20 November 2014 (UTC)

I Came here from the COI board. I may not be an expert on such terminology, but wouldn't it still be correct to say they employ 82,000 people then? It's a bit too technical to specify different classifications, so it seems more concise to just say something like "employs 82,000 people" and leave it at that. Kingofaces43 (talk) 17:42, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

I disagree, this seems an important distinction to me. A contractor is not an employee. Kendall-K1 (talk) 03:35, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

Yet the company employs both (the definition of employ is at it's simplest to pay someone for work). It seems like it would be the simplest way to take things. If someone is really concerned over additional distinctions, they can follow the source. Kingofaces43 (talk) 03:54, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

I could go along with "employs 82,000 people". But right now the infobox says "Employees: 29,000" and the text says "84,000 employees." I'm going to change it to your wording. Kendall-K1 (talk) 00:11, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

@Kingofaces43 and Kendall-K1: Thanks for taking the time to discuss this. Agents distribute Manulife products. Since insurance companies do not have bricks and mortar stores or branches, they use agents who sell products from a variety of partners, such as Manulife. Insurance companies use the number of agents to show their distribution capacity much like banks say how many branches they have. Saying that agents are employees would overstate the size of the company and make Manulife appear larger than it actually is. As a result, I propose listing more than 29,000 employees and, if you think that Manulife’s agent network is a sufficiently noteworthy attribute, to list the 53,000 agents separately.

Please let me know if this raises any questions, or if you need any clarification.KABannister (talk) 14:26, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Ah I see where you're coming from. That's a bit more clear now. I'd say agents wouldn't be notable for this then since by nature they wouldn't be solely selling policies from one company. I'll take the exact number from the source and make the change for now. I also removed the largest company bit. It may be true, but we need need an outside source reporting on that one. Kingofaces43 (talk) 15:23, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

@Kingofaces43: Thanks again for working with me on this front. One last piece, as you can see, the fact sheet you’ve cited is out of date. Our most recent version is from November 2014 and shows that our employee number is currently 29,800. I know it’s a small thing, but I’m sure we both want to be as accurate as possible. Thanks! KABannister (talk) 16:13, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Honestly, I hate putting information in articles that needs to be updated every year even. I've run out of time, but I'd say if you want to make the change, just updating the source and the numbers only would not be a convtroversial COI edit since you have approval for that specific edit here from me at least. Kingofaces43 (talk) 16:19, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

I agree with the OP and have made the corresponding changes. CorporateM (Talk) 07:28, 19 January 2015 (UTC)