Mr. Paul Mahon reports

GREAT-WEST LIFECO REPORTS RECORD BASE EARNINGS IN THE THIRD QUARTER OF 2023

Great-West Lifeco Inc. has released its third quarter 2023 results.

"Lifeco delivered excellent performance in the third quarter, continuing a strong earnings growth trajectory driven by disciplined capital allocation and execution of our strategies," said Paul Mahon, president and chief executive officer, Great-West. "These strong results benefit from recent strategic transactions and operational improvements across our businesses. They are also supported by disciplined expense management as we focus on efficiency and effectiveness across the organization."

Record base earnings per common share were $1.02, up 17 per cent from 87 cents a year ago. The increase year over year was primarily due to business growth, as well as higher average equity markets and interest rates, which resulted in higher fee income and earnings on surplus. The third quarter of 2022 included several larger positive and negative items, including a provision for estimated claims related to hurricane Ian in capital and risk solutions, favourable tax impacts in Canada, and above-average trading gains in Europe.

Base EPS are up 3 per cent compared with 99-cent base EPS in the second quarter of 2023, primarily driven by the Canada and Europe segments. Growth in Canada resulted from strong group disability results while growth in Europe primarily stemmed from improved morbidity experience.

Net EPS from continuing operations was $1.01 compared with $1.06 a year ago. Compared with a year ago, the increase in base earnings and favourable impacts of rising long-term interest rates in Canada were offset by lower real estate valuations primarily in Europe and a contingent consideration provision release related to personal capital in 2022. In addition, although actuarial assumption changes implemented in the quarter have a net positive economic and capital impact on the company, the associated fair value adjustments negatively impacted net earnings in the quarter.

In conjunction with the transition to international financial reporting standard 17, the company made asset/liability management and accounting policy choices to increase the stability of regulatory capital. As a result, a certain amount of additional net earnings sensitivity was accepted to balance final life insurance capital adequacy test capital sensitivity, resulting in more stable capital positions. Over the time frame since transition, cumulative fluctuations in net earnings driven by market experience relative to expectations have been modest, and regulatory capital has experienced increased stability, consistent with management's expectations.

Return on equity was 16.4 per cent on base earnings and 11.2 per cent on net earnings in the third quarter of 2023.

Quarterly dividends

The board of directors approved a quarterly dividend of 52 cents per share on the common shares of Lifeco payable Dec. 29, 2023, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Nov. 30, 2023.

In addition, the directors approved quarterly dividends on Lifeco's preferred shares.

   PREFERRED SHARE QUARTERLY DIVIDENDS

First preferred shares   Amount, per share

Series G                           $0.3250          
Series H                          $0.30313         
Series I                          $0.28125         
Series L                         $0.353125        
Series M                           $0.3625          
Series N                         $0.109313        
Series P                           $0.3375          
Series Q                         $0.321875        
Series R                           $0.3000          
Series S                         $0.328125        
Series T                         $0.321875        
Series Y                          $0.28125         

For purposes of the Income Tax Act (Canada) and any similar provincial legislation, the dividends referred to herein are eligible dividends.

Third quarter conference call

Lifeco's third quarter conference call and audio webcast will be held on Thursday, Nov. 9, at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The call and webcast will be available through the Great-West website or by phone.

Participants in the Toronto area:  416-915-3239

Participants from North America:  1-800-319-4610

A replay of the call will be available until Dec. 9, 2023, by calling 604-674-8052 or 1-855-669-9658 (passcode: 9668). The archived webcast will be available on the Great-West website.

About Great-West Lifeco Inc.

Great-West is an international financial service holding company with interests in life insurance, health insurance, retirement and investment services, asset management, and reinsurance businesses. It operates in Canada, the United States and Europe under the brands Canada Life, Empower, Putnam Investments and Irish Life. At the end of 2022, the companies had approximately 31,000 employees, 234,500 adviser relationships and thousands of distribution partners -- all serving over 38 million customer relationships across these regions.

Great-West trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GWO and is a member of the Power Corp. group of companies.

We seek Safe Harbor.