About Index

About the Sun Life Unretirement^SM Index
The Sun Life Financial Unretirement^SM Index is a first-of-its-kind measure to track the changing attitudes and expectations American workers have regarding retirement. As a composite index, it derives its findings by questioning American workers on their projected retirement age and their confidence in a wide range of factors that influence their retirement plans, including the current state of the economy, personal finances, health, and future government and employer benefits.

The Sun Life Unretirement^SM Index measures attitudes and expectations American workers have towards issues that influence retirement. The index ranges from 0 to 100, and this inaugural study yielded an overall index score of 46. The lower the index number, the more negative or pessimistic people's outlook are on issues that influence retirement. The overall index is a composite score based on the performance of five issue-specific indices, including: the "economic index" (score = 30), the "personal finance index" (score = 48), the "health index" (score = 69), the "government benefits index" (score = 42), and the "employer benefits index" (score = 43).

Methodology
The study was conducted between August 9 and 19 of 2008. Telephone interviews were conducted by Interviewing Service of America using a random-digit dial (RDD) sampling method. Quotas and weights were applied to gather a sample of 1,515 people working either full- or part-time, which was representative of the U.S. working population between the ages of 30 and 66. The sample was also representative in terms of gender and four-region census break. Analysis and construction of indexes involved the application of factor analysis. Final indexes are based on summated averages across the attributes which make up an index.

Age groups were divided by workers in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60+ and by three ranges of total assets, not including the net worth of the person's place of residence (less than $100,000, between $100,000 and $500,000, and greater than $500,000). This sample has a margin of error of 2.5 percent at the 95 percent confidence interval.

About Sun Life Financial
Sun 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, 2008, the Sun Life Financial group of companies had total assets under management of US $404.7 billion. Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under ticker symbol SLF.

David Jacobson
Sun Life Financial