• Newly launched academy propels advisors' careers, equipping them with digital skills needed to drive performance and help customers achieve their financial goals.
• Digitising and growing agency a priority, with advisors in Asia key to serving customers better.

HONG KONG, April 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Manulife has launched a region-wide training academy for its growing 115,000 insurance advisors in Asia. The initiative, known as Manulife Business Academy (MBA), is a unified learning and development platform that equips advisors with skills to succeed in digital environments, while helping them make customers' lives every day better.

MBA consolidates learning activities from across the markets in Asia where Manulife operates. The facility provides recruits with the training and support needed to become a top insurance advisor in their markets through online learning and end-to-end career development journeys, rather than relying on one-off classroom training sessions.

"The establishment of Manulife Business Academy demonstrates our continuing commitment to digitise, grow and develop our agency force, which is a backbone of our Asia franchise," said Anil Wadhwani, President and CEO, Manulife Asia. "Our highly professional agents, advisors and world-class bank partners have been key in engaging our customers and offering them the right insurance solutions to make their every day better."

In addition to providing best-in-class financial advisory training, MBA also facilitates the sharing of best practices and conducts practical workshops for both advisors and bancassurance partners, further strengthening insurer-bank relationships across the region.

To date, Manulife has 10 exclusive bank partners in Asia that provide access to over 30 million customers. In 2020, Manulife increased its agency force in Asia by a record 21% to over 115,000 agents. The number of Manulife agents who are Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) members has also grown to around 3,600 in 2019 and is expected to increase significantly in 2021.

"We are extremely pleased to see the tremendous, high-quality growth in our agency force across Asia. While Covid-19 has challenged all of us, we are also seeing people in our markets stepping into the life insurance industry, with many keen to join Manulife," said Vibha Coburn, CEO, Manulife Insurance Berhad, and former Chief Distribution Officer, Manulife Asia.

"Digitising and growing our agency force, including providing the right training and technology for our advisors ultimately helps serve our customers better," added Coburn. "From experience, we know that more advisors on the ground benefits customers, as they provide more in-depth conversations and professional advice to address our customers' health, protection and retirement needs.

About Manulife

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we operate as Manulife across our offices in Canada, Asia, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States. We provide financial advice, insurance, and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2020, we had more than 37,000 employees, over 118,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving over 30 million customers. As of December 31, 2020, we had $1.3 trillion (US$1.0 trillion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made $31.6 billion in payments to our customers. Our principal operations are in Asia, Canada and the United States where we have served customers for more than 155 years. We trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong.