Great-West Life was founded in Winnipeg in 1891 by Jeffry Hall Brock, a local insurance agent.

Two years later, in 1984, the Power Financial Corporation was created as a holding company for Great-West and its numerous businesses.

[8] The company reportedly had assets under management of $40 billion (Canadian funds) as at December 31, 2004, and 1.9 million participating life insurance policies.

The headquarters of CLAC was moved to Toronto in 1900 by newly installed company president George Cox.

Power Financial Corporation (PFC) is the majority stake-holder and owns 72% of Great-West Lifeco, the only one of those finance companies to be a member of the stock exchange composite index.

Other operating companies include Irish Life, Great-West Financial, and Putnam Investments.

[20] Great-West Life sold its health insurance US division to Cigna for US$1.5 billion in a deal announced on November 26, 2007.

Employees of the merged companies work from five regional offices in Winnipeg, London, Toronto, Montreal and Regina.

[31] In April 2019, the Manitoba Museum announced a donation of $750,000.00[32] to their capital campaign, "Bringing Our Stories Forward", by Canada Life.

Canada Life donated 470 tickets for the "A Conversation with Michelle Obama" event to the Winnipeg School Division.

[36] Notable recipients of the award have included indigenous Peoples activist Michael Redhead Champagne,[37] Canadian politician Kevin Chief,[38] Canadian film director Adam Smoluk,[39] community leader Hannah Pratt,[40] surgeon and university associate professor Dr. Jordan Hochman,[41] president of Manitoba SwimAbility, Cameron Krisko,[42] and young philanthropist Ben Sabic.

[43] Canada Life–UK claimed its former employee, Domenico Iacono, had illegally removed confidential information after he quit the job.

[44] Canada Life Financial was sued by Vanessa Valentyne after refusing to pay out her missing son's insurance policy.