TORONTO (Bloomberg) — Royal Bank of Canada, the country's biggest lender by assets, sold a US life insurance unit to Bermuda-based Athene Holding Ltd. for $628.1 million, taking a loss on a purchase it made a decade ago.

Royal Bank expects to complete the sale of Liberty Life Insurance Co. in early 2011 and record a loss of about $115 million under Canadian accounting rules, the Toronto-based bank said in a statement on Friday. The loss will be $405 million under US accounting rules, the bank said. Royal Bank entered the US insurance business with the $650 million purchase of Liberty Life and other related insurance units from Liberty Corp. of Greenville, South Carolina. Liberty sold insurance protection and retirement income products through marketers, broker dealers, the Internet and with about 200 agents, according to Royal Bank's website.