Sun Life Financial Inc (SLF.TO)

Good company. Well run. About 3.5% dividend yield. They are trading at the higher end of their range of 1.5X Book. ROE will be lower than the banking sector because of the rate environment.

Long term interest rates should normalize in 12 to 18 months. Equity markets will grind higher over the next 12 months. 3.7% dividend will grow nicely. Revenues are well diversified between Canada and US.

(Top Pick Jun 18/13, Up 31.72%) There were concerns back then that their preferred would stop paying, but he disagreed. They get a lot of earnings from money management so less exposure to interest rates.

There are a bunch of catalysts on the rise for this. Will benefit from increasing their wealth management exposure. Will also benefit from a little increase in interest rates. Also, more and more companies are now having insurance companies manage their pension plans them.

One of the few spaces you can look at, which will benefit from rising interest rates. The mix of product they are in is a really good in terms of what they can offer clients as an alternative to a bank and other financial institutions. Recent results on the Canadian side were excellent. Have the highest dividend yield in the group with the potential to increase it. Yield of 3.76%.

12.3 times earnings and one of the higher dividend yields. He worries about the fact that insurance companies have had such a nice run. Thinks they need a much steeper yield curve. It is hard for them to make money in this environment. Would prefer a US lifeco name if you want to be in lifecos.

The dividend was good before it ran up. But as interest rate rise they will be a good catalyst for this one. Buy and hold it.

There is still upside in this stock. Earnings are poised to take a jump in 2015 for a variety of reasons. He is looking at this to increase its dividend again. In 2015 he is looking for 11X earnings which is still relatively cheap for a great company.

Chart shows a long uptrend from early 2012, but has recently had a breakdown. He would give it the benefit of the doubt because sometimes you get the breakdowns and as long as there is a support level ($35 on this one) the stock is still in reasonably good shape.

Has been under a little bit of pressure recently. This one is okay down here, but MFC is the more interesting one and he prefers it due to better growth prospects. Move on from SLF to MFC. He also likes JPM-N for financials. You could take a look at C-N also.

Has no real problems with this. Well-run company. Ran into some of the same problems that Manulife (MFC-T) had, but he likes their distribution of business better. Good company and the dividend is okay.

She does not own any lifecos right now. Her preference has been Cdn banks. Has a big asset management business in the US which benefits when markets appreciate and funds flow into wealth management business. Over the long run, this is a decent holding and is going to do well.

Getting a little bit more expensive. Trading at Price to Book at about 1.5X. Thinks ROE should improve. If you own, he would continue to Hold and sell Calls.

Out of this whole sector, this is the company he likes the best. It offers one of the more stable profiles. The whole sector is benefiting twofold from 1) equity markets going up and 2) yields going up. Valuation is not that extreme. Still has a little more room to run and he can see another 10%.

(A Top Pick Jan 31/13. Up 29.64%.) Bought this when people thought the North American life insurance companies were going out of business. This one was less exposed to variable annuities which were a problem. Has a really good asset management division. Now that interest rates have come back up some, the lifecos, including this one, have responded well. Outlook continues to be very good.