B R I G H T PA P E R

SimPlE , EASy, EffEctivE: mysunlife.ca

technology has the power to change just about anything—including the frequency of change itself. that’s why mysunlife.ca is changing—and a best-in-class online experience now awaits your group retirement plan members. Here’s what we’ve done, why we did it, and why mysunlife.ca will continue to evolve in the years ahead.

OCTOBER , 2012

Twenty years ago, paper and telephones ruled when it came to plan member communication. Today, the online experience at mysunlife.ca is central to serving their information, communication and transaction needs.

Consider this:• 95% of Canadians under age 55 currently have Internet access1. • Almost 1/3 of Sun Life Financial Group Retirement Services plan members

regularly visit mysunlife.ca to conduct online queries and transactions.• The top 10 web activities (checking balances, transactions, investment

performance) on mysunlife.ca account for over 93% of the actions on the site.

The plan member website is no longer just an important channel for providing plan members with access to tools and information—it’s an essential channel.

But there are risks. As technology changes, so do the expectations of plan members, and a failure to evolve our offering can lead to frustration and, ultimately, dissatisfaction. That’s why we do assessments of plan member satisfaction levels with our services and tools—and make enhancements that not only align our offerings with evolving plan member needs and preferences, but move them a step ahead.

360 degree assessmentIn the fall of 2011, we engaged High Road Communications to lead an evaluation process of mysunlife.ca to better understand what people use the site for, and how it could be improved.

In addition to our primary plan member research via focus groups—split by generations to assess age-based preferences—we tapped into a variety of sources to gather further information to drive improvements to mysunlife.ca, including call centre data, website traffic and usage patterns, existing plan member feedback and a competitive analysis of the financial services online marketplace.

While each of the generational focus groups (one aged 25-40, the other aged 40-60) had some different priorities when it came to website usage, there were two strong threads of agreement between the groups, and we were able to map the points of consensus directly to website improvements designed to transform the plan member experience.

1. the experience—keeping it simplePlan members of all ages want a straightforward experience when visiting mysunlife.ca —including quick access to useful financial tools, less text-heavy content, easy-to-read instructions, and more graphs and illustrations to offer visuals of investment information.

Armed with this insight, we instituted a “less is more” approach to makeover mysunlife.ca. New features include:

• Visually consistent links and icons that aid plan members with step-by-step help through transactions

• More user-friendly content and instructions that align with plain language best practices

• Less content presented on each screen, reducing the need for scrolling

Online access: essential for all ages

Our previous research confirmed the growing importance of online access to plan information for all groups in the workforce. Younger, more web-savvy plan members, while less concerned than older members about saving for retirement, value having access to the ‘right’ information in the ‘right’ way—stating that this increased their level of confidence in the plan and encouraged them to participate. It is clear that plan members want to be able to do more online—it’s about convenience and taking action—now.

Plan members closer to retirement want to maximize the value of their group plan at this stage of their careers, and take advantage of much-needed information and services to help them transition to retirement.

For more information about the different generations in your plan, visit www.sunlife.ca/GRSmatters to read “Engaging employees in your group retirement plan: Speak to the generations in your workplace” in the Bright Papers section.

1 Ipsos Canadian Inter@ctive Reid Report, 2012 Fact Guide.1

2. Navigation—making it easy The plan members participating in the focus groups liked the easy access to account information already provided by mysunlife.ca, but shared a frustration with the website navigation, stating that it was sometimes difficult to find features and information on the website.

To address this, we introduced my financial centre, the new informational and transactional hub for mysunlife.ca. Within my financial centre, we added icons to allow for easier navigation, and added a “contextual” right-hand navigation menu that delivers useful information based on what the user is doing at the time. We also display tools that connect to multiple transactions, such as asset allocation, while maintaining the primary real estate of the web page as a dedicated space for plan-related information.

We also created value-added features within the right-hand navigation menu, such as custom content from Sun Life Financial and partners such as Morningstar®. And to further ensure a positive user experience, any external links open in a new browser window to avoid interrupting transactions or secure sessions.

Stay tuned—the evolution continuesTechnology shows no signs of standing still, and neither will we. The mysunlife.ca site will continue to evolve as plan member needs change—with greater mobility, personalization and functionality. Our ongoing focus on improvement ensures we stay a step ahead of expectations, continue to reflect best web practices and engage plan members to help them achieve their retirement and saving goals.

95% of Canadians under age 55 currently have

Internet access1

Group Retirement Services are provided by Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, a member of the Sun Life Financial group of companies. 2

About Sun life financialSun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organization providing a diverse range of protection and wealth accumulation products and services to individuals and corporate customers. Chartered in 1865, Sun Life Financial and its partners today have operations in key markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China and Bermuda. As of June 30, 2012, the Sun Life Financial group of companies had total AUM of $496 billion.

Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the ticker symbol SLF.

About High Road communicationsHigh Road Communications is an agency of innovators who take the world’s best brands forward by marketing who they are and communicating their stories through the right channels in the right mediums. One of Canada’s biggest digital shops, High Road is a truly integrated agency that gets it, creates it, and does it. With offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver, we solve marketing challenges, influence behaviours and deliver results to help the world’s best companies achieve awareness and build their brands. For more information, please visit www.highroad.com