Brandes Investment Partners and Sionna Investment Managers have launched a new monthly income fund, the Brandes Sionna Monthly Income Fund (BSMIF), which they describe as a conservative mix of 60/40 Canadian equities and fixed-income securities.
While volatility is an ordinary, and expected, part of financial markets, its latest incarnation has been extraordinary.
What’s the next big trend in fixed income (FI) investing? “The big issue for bonds right now,” says Dave Makarchuk, a partner with Mercer who leads the investment consulting business for Western Canada, “is that many plan sponsors believe rates will rise soon, so they’re tending to put off investing more in longer-duration bonds. However, […]
While pension plan sponsors continue to use their fixed income (FI) assets primarily to meet liabilities, there’s been an unmistakable shift over the past few years in the types of FI holdings found in Canadian plans. Many are moving away from the “vanilla” government bonds that have typically made up the majority of FI portfolios […]
ESG investing—which considers environmental, social and/or governance issues in addition to financial performance—has reached a crossroads in recent years. What began as an investment approach predominantly oriented around social impacts has expanded to include a range of environmental and governance issues and is now attracting attention from mainstream investors primarily concerned with the associated financial […]
The Benefits Canada 2011 ranking of the Top 100 Pension Funds paints an encouraging picture. With 97 of the listed funds posting increases in pension assets for the year, many plans are recovering nicely from the economic turmoil they faced just three years ago. Still, the funded status of the average Canadian pension plan was […]
Last year, Canada’s Top 40 money managers clocked substantial gains that pushed them back into positive territory in the wake of one of the worst financial crises in a century. This year, the growth story continues with a collective gain of 8% and total assets under management moving up to $526.4 billion. But while managers […]
The past couple of years of market turbulence have resulted in a growing shift from active investment management strategies to passive ones and an increasing focus on the emerging-market sovereign debt as yields on traditional asset classes have fallen, according to State Street Global Advisors (SSgA). At the same time, there is greater interest in […]
New risks, flash crashes on the horizon: report.
After a few years of abysmal markets, the Top 40 money managers pulled off a solid return of 6.6% for 2010, following 2009’s terrific market rally. There were even a few stellar jumps on the list as some players clocked double-digit increases. Yet despite the good news, no one’s celebrating. Managers aren’t yet ready to […]