A MANULIFE WIN
A Saskatchewan court rules in favour of life insurers in legal battle against hedge funds,
Manulife Financial Corp. and other Canadian life insurers won a legal battle against hedge funds that contended the insurers should be compelled to take unlimited deposits into high-yielding investment policies.
A Saskatchewan judge dismissed claims by Mosten Investment LP and other funds that there should be no caps on investments in life-insurance policies from the late 1990s with guaranteed rates of at least 4 per cent.
Short-seller Carson Block, who runs investment firm Muddy Waters, said last October that he was shorting Manulife over the lawsuit, saying it could lead to billions in losses for Canada’s biggest life insurer. Bank of Montreal and Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. faced similar legal challenges.
“This important ruling unequivocally supports what insurers, their customers and regulators already know to be true: the purpose of an insurance policy is to protect the lives of the insured and their families,” the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association said Monday in a statement. “Insurance policies are not intended to offer an unlimited investment opportunity completely unrelated to insurance coverage.”
Justice B.J. Scherman said in the decision that the policy in question “does not provide for unlimited stand-alone investment opportunities within the carrier fund.”
Manulife has long said it ex- pected to win the case, with chief executive officer Roy Gori calling Mosten’s claims “commercially absurd” in November.
The ruling is “consistent with our position that this case was legally unfounded,” Manulife said Monday in a statement. “We were always confident we would ultimately prevail in this matter and that it would not have any material impact on the company’s business.”