Mr. Pierre Picard reports

INDUSTRIAL ALLIANCE JOINS THE ALLIANZ GLOBAL BENEFITS NETWORK - IMPORTANT GROUP INSURANCE PARTNERSHIP

Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. has signed a partnership agreement with Allianz Global Benefits, a world-leading employee benefits network.

This new partnership will allow Industrial Alliance to bring Allianz Global Benefits' expertise on stand-alone and captive fronting to its clients. Multinational pooling and captive fronting are systems under which the benefit plans of local subsidiaries and/or divisions in various countries are brought into a single unit or pool in order to reduce risk charges.

Industrial Alliance group insurance clients will enjoy the following benefits.

• Cost savings -- Multinational employers can reduce the overall cost of their local benefit plans without reducing benefit levels. By combining local employee benefit plans into a single pool, a multinational employer profits from the experience rating of the combined employee benefit plans. This reduces the multinational's risk charges, as the employer is able to spread the risk of adverse experience over a larger group.
• International dividends -- Multinational employers are able to take advantage of favourable claims experience on a global level. The surplus generated by the pool flows to the multinational employer.
• Greater control over benefits plans -- Multinational employers receive enhanced reporting on the overall costs and performance of their global plans, allowing for more effective management of the plans. By receiving detailed financial reports on a regular basis regarding the operation of the pool, multinational employers can identify any problem areas, such as cost escalation or claims incidence in a local benefit plan.

"We are very pleased to be the Canadian partner of Allianz Global Benefits," says Jacques Parent, senior vice-president, group insurance, at Industrial Alliance. "With this partnership, international organizations with employees in Canada will be able to benefit, through Industrial Alliance, from the value-added solutions provided by Allianz Global Benefits."

"Being there where our clients are is of key importance for us and is in alignment with our growth strategy in this important business segment of employee benefits. We are very proud to count Industrial Alliance as our new partner in Canada and welcome them warmly," says Dirk Hellmuth, chief executive officer of Allianz Global Benefits. Christian Scherff, senior network manager at Allianz Global Benefits who was leading the negotiations, adds, "Industrial Alliance is the ideal partner to offer our clients the full range of services and products they need in Canada, combined with strong financial security and sophisticated services."

About Allianz Global Benefits

Allianz Global Benefits is a member of Allianz Group, and provides employee benefit solutions to multinational corporations and global brokers at a global level. The spectrum of solutions encompasses the full range of corporate life, pension, health and asset management products and services via a global network of more than 100 Allianz subsidiaries and selected external insurance partners in over 80 countries. With headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, it has access to a team of international experts based in regional Allianz offices in Austria, United Kingdom, United States, Poland and Singapore.