The Company’s hedging strategies will not fully reduce the market risks related to the product guarantees and fees being hedged, hedging costs may increase and the hedging strategies expose the Company to additional risks. • Our hedging strategies rely on the execution of derivative transactions in a timely manner. Market conditions can limit availability of hedging instruments, requiring us to post additional collateral, and can further increase the costs of executing derivative transactions. Therefore, hedging costs and the effectiveness of the strategy may be negatively impacted if markets for these instruments become illiquid. The Company is subject to the risk of increased funding and collateral demands which may become significant as equity markets increase. • The Company is also subject to counterparty risks arising from the derivative instruments and to the risk of increased funding and collateral demands which may become significant as equity markets and interest rates increase. The strategies are highly dependent on complex systems and mathematical models that are subject to error and rely on forward-looking long-term assumptions that may prove inaccurate, and which rely on sophisticated infrastructure and personnel which may fail or be unavailable at critical times. Due to the complexity of the strategies, there may be additional unidentified risks that may negatively impact our business and future financial results. In addition, rising equity markets and interest rates that would otherwise result in profits on variable annuities will be offset by losses from our hedging positions. For further information pertaining to counterparty risks, refer to the risk factor “If a counterparty fails to fulfill its obligations, we may be exposed to risks we had sought to mitigate”. • Under certain market conditions, which include a sustained increase in realized equity and interest rate volatilities, a decline in interest rates, or an increase in the correlation between equity returns and interest rate declines, the costs of hedging the benefit guarantees provided in variable annuities may increase or become uneconomic. In addition, there can be no assurance that our dynamic hedging strategy will fully offset the risks arising from the variable annuities being hedged. • Policy liabilities for variable annuity guarantees are determined using long-term forward-looking estimates of volatilities. These long- term forward-looking volatilities assumed for policy liabilities meet the CIA calibration standards. To the extent that realized equity or interest rate volatilities in any quarter exceed the assumed long-term volatilities, or correlations between interest rate changes and equity returns are higher, there is a risk that rebalancing will be greater and more frequent, resulting in higher hedging costs. • The level of guarantee claims returns or other benefits ultimately paid will be impacted by policyholder longevity and policyholder behaviour including the timing and amount of withdrawals, lapses, fund transfers, and contributions. The sensitivity of liability values to equity market and interest rate movements that we hedge are based on long-term expectations for longevity and policyholder behaviour since the impact of actual policyholder longevity and policyholder behaviour variances cannot be hedged using capital markets instruments. The efficiency of our market risk hedging is directly affected by accuracy of the assumptions related to policyholder longevity and policyholder behaviour. Changes in market interest rates may impact our net income attributed to shareholders and capital ratios. • A prolonged low or negative (nominal or real) interest rate environment may result in charges related to lower fixed income reinvestment assumptions and an increase in new business strain until products are repositioned for the lower rate environment. Other potential consequences of low interest rates include: O Low interest rates could negatively impact sales; O Lower risk-free rates tend to increase the cost of hedging and as a result, the offering of guarantees could become uneconomic; O The reinvestment of cash flows into low yielding bonds could result in lower future earnings due to lower returns on surplus and general fund assets supporting in-force liabilities, and due to guarantees embedded in products including minimum guaranteed rates in participating and adjustable products; O A lower interest rate environment could be correlated with other macroeconomic factors including unfavourable economic growth and lower returns on other asset classes; O Lower interest rates could contribute to potential impairments of goodwill; O Lower interest rates could lead to lower mean bond parameters used for the stochastic valuation of segregated fund guarantees, resulting in higher policy liabilities; O Lower interest rates would also reduce expected earnings on in-force policies; O A prolonged low or negative interest rate environment may also result in the ASB lowering the promulgated URR and require us to increase our provisions; O Lower interest rates could also trigger a switch to a more adverse prescribed interest stress scenario, increasing LICAT capital. See “LICAT Scenario Switch” above; O Lower interest rates could reduce the ability of MFC’s insurance subsidiaries to pay dividends to MFC; O The difference between the current investable returns and the returns used in pricing new business are generally capitalized when new business is written. Lower interest rates result in higher new business strain until products are re-priced or interest rates increase; and O Fixed income reinvestment rates other than the URR are based on current market rates. The net income sensitivity to changes in current rates is outlined in the section “Interest Rate and Spread Risk Sensitivities and Exposure Measures” above. • A rapid rise in interest rates could lead to customers surrendering policies and we may incur losses attributable to early liquidation of fixed income instruments supporting contractual surrender benefits. 71