Great-West Lifeco: Dividend Investors Take Note

Insurance and wealth-management company Great-West Lifeco Inc. recently reported that its second-quarter profit more than doubled due to a large gain connected to the sale of its U.S. health care business.

Even without the gain, Great-West’s results exceeded expectations set by the street. Most importantly for us dividend growth investors, Great West Lifeco managed to raise its dividend by 5 per cent to 30.75 cents a share in spite of a tough financial environment.  The inherent profitability, due to more conservative and principal guaranteed investments, is one of the reasons that I was touting insurance companies back at the beginning of the “Bank meltdown”.