Great-West Lifeco has announced that its Colorado-based subsidiary – Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company (GWL&A) – has completed the sale (via reinsurance) of all its individual life insurance and annuity business to Protective Life Insurance Company, itself a subsidiary of Protective Life Corporation.

The sale included bank-owned and corporate-owned life insurance, single premium life insurance, individual annuities and closed block life insurance and annuities. However, GWL&A retains a small block of participating life insurance policies, which will be administered by Protective.

According to a release, the reinsurance transaction with Protective includes business written in the US by GWL&A, Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company of New York, and the US branches of GWL&A’s affiliates – namely, The Canada Life Assurance Company and The Great-West Life Assurance Company.

Although GWL&A has sold off its individual life insurance and annuity businesses, the transaction does not affect its retirement and investment management divisions, Empower Retirement and Great-West Investments.

Read more: Great-West Lifeco reportedly plans to sell US$2 billion in insurance contracts

Last year, a source close to the matter revealed that Great-West Lifeco had plans to sell US$2 million worth of insurance contracts – a decision that has been labelled by some as one of the largest divestments of insurance books in recent memory.