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COVID-19 information

Updated: October 1, 2021

COVID-19 information

Updated: October 1, 2021

 

October 1, 2021

Looking to a brighter future

When it comes to vaccines, Canada has come a long way in a short time. We’re now one of the world leaders. However, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be in flux across the country.

 

Keeping the focus on mental health

While a full economic reopening moves closer, we expect the toll of the pandemic on mental health to continue. Canadians are reporting a 25% increase in a personal diagnosis of anxiety and depression.1

Our latest edition of Designed for Health, Disability claims in focus: mental health, COVID-19 and beyond, outlines that we have yet to see the full impact of mental health on disability claims. However, based on our prescription drug data, we know that more Canadians are seeking support. Prescriptions for drugs related to mental health increased 21% from 2019 to 2020.2

I encourage you to look at the supports available for your organization and your employees. We have resources for people leaders including our suite of mental health manager training videos. Our Mental Health Strategy Toolkit is a great place to begin organizational change.

For plan members, we have many in-plan solutions that provide mental health support. These include robust supports through Lumino Health Virtual Care. In addition, Lumino Health Guides offer free access to articles, videos and other resources to support well-being.

We’re here for you

Our support for you and your employees continues, as does our work in researching and piloting innovative new solutions. There’s more to come as we move into our post-pandemic new normal. As always, our goal remains to help you and all Canadians live healthier lives.

Stay safe and be well!

 

Dave
 

1 Mental Health Research Canada, Mental Health During COVID-19 Outbreak: Poll #5 of 13 in Series (Data collected in February 2021).

2 Sun Life block data, 2019, 2020

  • We’re available Monday-Friday. Plan members can reach us by phone at 1-877-SUN-LIFE (1-877-786-5433) from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET. They can also go to mysunlife.ca and live chat with us from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET.

    We’re here to help.

We are committed to keeping you up to date and will post new information as it becomes available

Sun Life is operating with an abundance of care to limit the spread of COVID-19 amongst our employees – and the world around us. Our top priority is the health and well-being of our employees, Clients, advisors, consultants and communities.

We are monitoring the global developments related to COVID-19 and adjusting our processes, practices and procedures as the situation evolves.

We want to ensure we continue to deliver for you, our Clients. We know that you need us now, more than ever. We will provide regular updates on this page to help keep you informed.

What's new

We've built our business on managing risks like economic changes

As the world responds to the COVID-19 health and financial crisis, we know there are many questions about where Sun Life stands financially. We’ve built the foundation of our business on managing risks that may happen due to economic changes. We also have 155 years worth of experience to back it up.

Sun Life is resilient.

The best measurement of Sun Life’s financial strength is through our:

  • Capital position
  • Risk framework
  • Financial strength ratings
  • Strong earnings performance and payment of dividends out of these earnings

You can feel comforted during this difficult time knowing:

  • We’re in a very strong capital position. We have a healthy level of capital to meet our financial commitments to Clients.
    • The Life Insurance Capital Adequacy Test (LICAT) ratio measures a company’s ability to meet its obligations. It’s one of several indicators used by Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) to assess an insurer’s financial condition. The minimum required is 90%. Sun Life’s LICAT ratio is 143% – well above the minimum.
       
  • We have a diversified business. With multiple product lines and services and operations around the world, we’re a diverse organization.
    • This helps us prevent over-exposure in any one market or region.
    • This diversity is also important to ongoing success, especially during challenging economic times.
       
  • We're leading in financial ratings. We’re proud to say that Sun Life’s ratings as a public life insurance company are amongst the best in North America. Our best in class ratings show Sun Life’s risk practices and strong financial flexibility.

Sun Life also continues to stay committed to worldwide communities. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we will be donating $1 million to support health care, elder care and address food security needs.

Business Continuity and Pandemic plans

At Sun Life, we are monitoring global developments related to coronavirus very closely.  We are following the guidance of trusted global agencies, as well as medical experts within Sun Life.  We are taking precautionary measures with our own employees in order to minimize any potential risk of disruption to servicing our Clients.

Our enterprise-wide business continuity policy governs business continuity (including pandemic planning) and disaster recovery planning for critical business functions performed at all our major business locations. The focus of our plans is to protect the health and safety of our employees, mitigate business and operational disruptions for our Clients and carry out our regulatory and contractual obligations in a responsible manner. The business continuity plan is flexible and can be adapted to a wide range of events.

Our approach includes building contingency plans founded on “all hazards” crisis management, business continuity, and disaster recovery services including support from vital external service providers and external business partners. Response plans include pandemic, facility outages, systems, power outages, etc.

Disaster recovery plans include offsite recovery and back-up data storage facilities. We also employ a dual recovery strategy which includes redirecting work and/or staff amongst multiple sites, or having staff work-from-home where possible. In some circumstances elements of our recovery plan include participation of major third party service providers. These elements are governed by contracts which include service level agreements.

Overall coordination, guidance and compliance monitoring for business continuity across Sun Life is a centralized function, and a crisis management team comprised of senior management across Sun Life with support teams for Human Resources, Legal and Compliance, Communications, Information Technology and Facilities, is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the business continuity and recovery activities.

Our business continuity policy requires all business continuity plans to be tested at a minimum on an annual basis.

Important details on plan administration

Our Billing Administration team is currently receiving a high volume of requests. We are working hard to answer your questions, but it may take us a little longer than usual.

To help educate plan members about COVID-19 and how it may impact them, we are continuously sharing information on the my Sun Life mobile app, mysunlife.ca, and on sunlife.ca.

Lumino Health offers great resources for plan members to help them stay healthy and well. The Healthy at Home Guide is for Canadians who are spending most of their time at home due to COVID-19. Topics covered include healthy mind, body, work from home and healthy kids. We encourage you to share this resource with your plan members.

We have launched a dedicated page for plan members at sunlife.ca/covid-19 that we will continually update with the latest information.

You can also visit the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) website for industry-related information.