Andrew Gault resigned and, in March 1887, he offered Macaulay his Sun Life shares at $30 per share. However, Macaulay successfully rallied the support of the agents and a few large shareholders, and his plan succeeded.
To counter this, Mathew Gault’s son, Andrew Gault, attempted to acquire more shares in the company to fight Macaulay’s move. In 1886, Macaulay again tried to recoup those losses by proposing to reduce shareholder profits for that year and the previous four years. Macaulay attempted, unsuccessfully, to get the directors of Sun Life (those involved in the losing investments) to reimburse the company. The losses that Sun Life had taken on meant that the company barely escaped insolvency (where debts exceed a company’s assets). As a result, Gault was asked to resign and Macaulay was made managing director and elected to the board. This conflict of interest created particular distress for the company. Sun Life faced its first crisis in 1882–83, when investments it had made into companies controlled by Mathew Gault (particularly the Exchange Bank of Canada, and the Montreal Loan and Mortgage Company) incurred considerable losses. Due to this international growth, as well as growth across Canada, the name of the company was changed, in May 1882, to The Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada. Sun Insurance Company’s first international growth occurred in 1879–80 when it expanded into much of the West Indies.
This distinguished Sun Insurance from its competitors, and sales by agents began to increase more quickly. In 1880, the company introduced the first unconditional insurance policy in Canada, in which all restrictions, prohibitions and limitations in the insurance contracts were removed. The company’s first secretary, Robertson Macaulay (appointed in 1874), presented a plan for growth that included expanding the number of selling agents and introducing innovative insurance products. However, death claims under its issued life insurance policies were low, so the company survived. Poor trade and economic conditions for Canada also slowed the company’s growth ( see Economic History). Sun Life issued its first insurance policy on. Gault was appointed as the first managing director, and the company engaged its first agents to sell Sun Life insurance in Toronto. Due to the uncertainty of government at the time, and with Confederation occupying the businessmen’s attention, it was not until six years later that the company actually began operations.
It was approved for operations by the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada on 18 March 1865. The company was formed by a group of Montréal’s leading businessmen as the Sun Insurance Company of Montreal.
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