Manulife has announced a refreshed enterprise strategy that includes an expansion into India’s life insurance market and a major investment in longevity research. The company is committing $350 million to launch the Manulife Longevity Institute, aimed at advancing research and community initiatives tied to longer, healthier lives.
BNN Bloomberg spoke with Phil Witherington, president and CEO of Manulife Financial Corporation, about the company’s new priorities, its global market ambitions and the long-term plan guiding its next decade of growth.
Key Takeaways
- Manulife is entering India’s life insurance market through a 50-50 joint venture with Mahindra and Mahindra.
- The company has launched the Manulife Longevity Institute with a $350-million commitment through 2030.
- Its refreshed enterprise strategy outlines five updated priorities focused on sustainable, long-term growth.
- Strong earnings momentum continues in Asia, including 29 per cent core earnings growth in the latest quarter.
- Manulife aims to enhance customer outcomes and operational efficiency as it accelerates its shift toward AI-driven capabilities.
Read the full transcript below:
ROGER: Manulife unveiled a new expansion strategy. The Canadian insurance and investing giant is launching the Manulife Longevity Institute, which will provide research and an investment platform backed by a $350-million commitment through 2030. The company is also expanding its footprint in India through a partnership with Mahindra and Mahindra to enter the Indian insurance market. Let’s hear more on this from Phil Witherington. He is the president and CEO of Manulife Financial Corporation. Phil, thank you very much for joining us today.
PHIL: Well, thank you, Roger. It’s great to be here.
ROGER: You’ve got a busy schedule. Let’s talk first about India, the expansion there. What has you eyeing India in this new agreement you’ve come to?
PHIL: Well, Roger, this is incredibly exciting. Manulife, as part of our refreshed strategy that we launched just two days ago, has expressed its intention to enter the India insurance market with a partner, Mahindra of India. They are a well-known, well-established, very strong, strongly branded conglomerate in India. And the way we see it is that there are really three mega economies of the next generation: the U.S., China and India. And in our existing business, we have strong scale and profitable businesses in the U.S. and China. But we identified India as a market where we had a relatively smaller presence. We have an existing asset management partnership with Mahindra, and effectively what we’re doing is building on that partnership to enter life insurance as a complement to our asset management operations. That gives us a presence in both insurance and asset management in all three mega economies of the future, and this is something we’re incredibly excited about.
ROGER: And now, with India, any concerns? Canada and India relations have been strained. They seem to be easing. We saw an agreement reached when it came to minerals today. Any concerns that that could play a role if the relationship suddenly goes south again?
PHIL: Well, I think it’s fantastic that great Canadian companies — and I do consider Manulife to be a true Canadian institution and national champion — can be outward-looking and international in our expansion, and that provides many sources of growth opportunity. And that’s great for Canadians. It creates jobs here in Canada. It’s great for Canadian investors. We remit capital from around the world back to Canada. And so I’m incredibly proud that Manulife can be a hugely international and diversified financial services group that is headquartered here in Canada.
ROGER: But optimistic about India, not concerned about any potential headwinds from that?
PHIL: I’m very optimistic. I mean, one of the reasons why we’re moving now — and we’ve had our eye on the India insurance market for many years — is that we see favourable developments from a regulatory perspective. We see rapidly growing wealth in India. And we know that we’ve got the right partner through Mahindra, and so this feels like the right time. I’m optimistic about India. I’m excited about the opportunities in China and across Asia, and I’m also optimistic about the opportunities here in our home market of Canada and the U.S. We have a great footprint around the world.
ROGER: All right, let’s talk about Asia. I think 26 per cent was—
PHIL: Twenty-nine per cent core earnings growth.
ROGER: Yeah, what fuelled that in Asia?
PHIL: Well, in recent years we’ve seen tremendous growth from our Asian markets. And, you know, if I just look over the past couple of years, the value of new insurance sales — we use a metric called new business contractual service margin; it’s a measure of the value that we get from new sales — that has been growing in excess of 30 per cent. And so it’s absolutely logical that earnings follow through, and we’re seeing earnings growth this quarter of 29 per cent year over year. And year to date in Asia we’ve seen strong double-digit growth in 2025, and that follows strong double-digit growth in 2024 as well. And if I look at the performance over the course of the last quarter, it really reflects the diversified nature of our business across Asia. We’ve seen strong growth in China. We’ve seen strong growth in Singapore, and continued value generation from key markets such as Hong Kong.
ROGER: So it’s been a good swing for you. Now, you did get some advantage from some lower taxes, credit recoveries that are gone now. How will that have an impact?
PHIL: Yeah, there were some favourable items that moved in our favour in the third quarter. But even when we strip those items out, it’s a very strong quarter. So when I think about the quarterly results, it’s been yet another quarter for Manulife of strong operating and financial results. And I think that is underpinned by the robust sales and growth in assets under management in our wealth and asset management business. And it really gives me a great deal of confidence in the future. And I think that really speaks to why this is the right time for us to unveil our refreshed strategy that sets Manulife up not just for the short term, not just to deliver on our near-term targets that we remain confident in delivering, but actually sets Manulife up for the next 10 years and beyond. And that’s been the lens that our organization has applied in refreshing our strategy.
ROGER: And let’s talk about one of the other things you’re bringing in — the longevity program. Touch a little bit on that and explain that.
PHIL: Right, so the Longevity Institute — this is a $350-million Canadian commitment to advance research, advocacy and community investment so that we can help people live longer, healthier and more financially secure lives. And this is something that is very closely connected to our strategy. One of the strategic priorities that we have identified in our strategic refresh is really about empowering our customers to live healthier, longer and more financially secure lives. And this is totally aligned, but we feel we can have an impact beyond our customers on the broader community.
ROGER: And how does that benefit Manulife?
PHIL: Well, it’s absolutely in our interests for our customers to live longer, and I think this is where we can put our money where our mouth is — that we want Manulife customers not only to live longer, but we want them to have longer health spans. So live longer in the healthy phase of life, and then have the shortest possible period of ill health. And when they do have ill health, we want to be there for them. So I think this is a great example of how we can turn the insurance industry on its head and actually promote health and wellness, rather than only think about a transactional life insurance contract.
ROGER: And just a big-picture question — we’ve seen some turmoil in the market, a little bit of concern about AI valuation. Where do you see Manulife going through all this over the next few months?
PHIL: Well, you know, when I look at our stock price and our performance, yes, I’m very proud. But it’s really a reflection of the period of transformation the organization has been through that reflects disciplined execution, disciplined management of capital and clear strategic priorities. And our objective is to make sure that when we look at this next chapter for Manulife, we have really clear priorities — not just for the next couple of years but for the next decade and beyond. And that’s exactly what we’ve done with this strategy revamp and the entry into new markets such as India.
ROGER: All right, Phil, thank you very much for joining us today. We appreciate it.
PHIL: Thanks, Roger. It’s a pleasure to be here.
ROGER: It was Phil Witherington, president and CEO of Manulife Financial Corporation.
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This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the Nov. 14, 2025 interview with Phil Witherington are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
