Here we are in a month where love and family are in the air! Two things that go together like peanut butter and honey! Taking the time to celebrate Valentine’s Day and Family Day are both high on my list this month. Family Day is a relatively new holiday here in Ontario and while it doesn't have any "traditional activities" associated with it, it's an opportunity to create your own traditions. This February is also a leap year! Did you know that Leap years are needed to keep our modern-day Gregorian calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the sun? It takes the Earth approximately 365.242189 or, 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds to circle once around the sun. This is called a tropical year. However, the Gregorian calendar has only 365 days in a year, so if we didn't add a leap day on February 29 nearly every four years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by around 24 days! According to an old Irish legend, or possibly history, Leap Day originated when St Brigid struck a deal with St Patrick to allow women to propose to men – and not just the other way around – every four years. This is believed to have been introduced to balance the traditional roles of men and women in a similar way to how Leap Day balances the calendar. . In some places, Leap Day is known as “Bachelors’ Day” for the same reason. A man was expected to pay a penalty, such as a gown or money, if he refused a marriage proposal from a woman on Leap Day. In many European countries, especially in the upper classes of society, tradition dictates that any man who refuses a woman's proposal on February 29 has to buy her 12 pairs of gloves. The intention is that the woman can wear the gloves to hide the embarrassment of not having an engagement ring. During the middle ages there were even laws governing this tradition. My, how times have changed, and thankfully so -- in more ways than one! Imagine trying to text while wearing gloves! LOL! One tradition that will continue to exist despite the changing of times is tax season. As we make our way through tax season, I'd like to remind you to review the RRSP deadlines posted on Repsource. We are in full swing of getting tax slips out to your clients and T4As to your advisors. We also have resources available to you and your advisors on Repsource to assist with reconciling compensation statements with the income reported on their T4A as well as information regarding reporting both Manulife and Standard Life income. In late January I sent you a communication updating you on APEXA and I encourage you to read the article included in this edition to become familiar with APEXA and what it means to you and your advisors. In the coming months we will share an APEXA resource centre on Repsource where all APEXA information and resources will be centralized for your ease of use. Finally, to help with your winter blahs, we're looking forward to having you at our annual Elite Marketing Assistant Forum and our Operations Conference which will be help back-to-back again this year from May 29th to June 3rd respectively, at beautiful Blue Mountain in Collingwood, Ontario. In closing I ask you this: Can you describe your life in a six word sentence? 
Featured News Manulife teams up with Vitality to integrate healthy living with insurance
Manulife is taking the next step towards modernizing the insurance business! Through its collaboration with Vitality, the global leader in integrated wellness programs, Manulife will combine the latest advancements in wearable technology with life insurance. Setting the stage for APEXA
We are excited to share that Manulife will be transitioning to the APEXA contracting and compliance administration platform starting in early 2016. APEXA offers many benefits to you as an MGA and your advisors by streamlining and standardizing contracting and compliance functions. Reconciling a T4A with a compensation statement - Manulife and former Standard Life
Reconciling the year-to-date taxable earnings amount on an advisor’s compensation statement with their T4A can be tricky. We'll help you with that and much more on this topic.
Insurance and Living Benefits Risky Business: Looking back and leaping forward
In 2015, our plans were about improving our service. As we hit the ground running in 2016, we have a number of projects and plans in motion to make the process easier for you and your clients. The new life insurance tax rules coming in 2017 don't have to be taxing
Encourage your advisors to regularly visit Manulife’s recently launched one-stop resource destination to learn about the 2017 federally legislated life insurance tax changes and how they could impact their business and clients. Help them get informed and stay informed with the 2017 Insurance Tax Changes Education Centre. Ez-app kits changed to make it easier to order the pieces you need
Ez-app is a great online tool for selling insurance and now we have changed our ez-app kits to make it easier for advisors to order only the pieces they need. Deposit Option enhancements for Performax and Security Builder policies
We’re enhancing Deposit Option payment rules to allow greater year-over-year deposit increases for Performax and Security Builder insurance policies. We’re also making important changes to the rules about skipping Deposit Option payments to make this option more customer-centric through greater payment flexibility. Pricing review: Sum insured adjustments for Dividend T100 insurance policies
We adjusted the sum insured for Dividend T100 insurance policies effective February 6, 2016. Confidently recommend a Manulife universal life insurance solution
Now advisors can spend less time comparing Manulife universal life products and more time confidently recommending a solution to meet clients’ needs using the new Manulife universal life product comparison brochure. This single piece highlights product advantages and key product features of Manulife’s comprehensive universal life product suite – no need to reference multiple sources!
Manulife Investments 2016 RRSP Deadlines
Important deadlines for submitting Manulife Mutual Funds and Manulife and former Standard Life Investments segregated funds, guaranteed interest contract (GIC), Manulife PensionBuilder, and Manulife RetirementPlus business have been posted to Repsource.
Manulife Bank Help clients score 3.00% interest from Manulife Bank
Your advisors’ clients can score a high 3.00% interest rate through May 31, 2016 on every new dollar added to their Manulife Bank Tax-Free Advantage Account or Registered Advantage Account by March 15, 2016. View the program FAQ. Reminders to ensure a smooth peak sales season
It’s peak sales season and we know you and your advisors are busy. Here are some reminders that will help ensure advisor’s applications are processed in a timely and effective manner. Their clients’ accounts will be activated sooner – which translates into a better experience. Understand the statement options for loans and deposits
Now that clients have the option to receive an e-statement for their loans and deposits, rather than a paper account statement, advisors have a role to play in ensuring that their client’s preference is met.
Learning & Development Self-serve module: Policy loans and withdrawals
Available now in the Insurance Training Corner > Training Resources > Self-serve modules During RRSP and tax season, there’s usually a high volume of policy loan and withdrawal requests for head office to process. This just-in-time introductory session is designed to help you streamline those submissions and ensure they’re in good order for quick turnaround during the fast-approaching tax season. Newly updated: Improved Insurance, Investment and Bank Training Corners
We’ve revamped our Insurance, Investments and Bank Training Corners to bring you fresh and relevant training material to streamline your training experience. Our updated content delivers improved support for your use of Manulife’s core applications, online tools, and your daily client and account servicing needs. Visit the Insurance, Investments and Bank Training Corners to see the changes Your feedback
Tell us how we can make our Training Corners better. Email us at ops_training@manulife.com. Note: While we do our best to tailor the details of these messages to you and your firm, from time to time, general topics may not apply to everyone. | 
Printer-friendly version
PDF version
