SLGI Asset Management Inc., a subsidiary of Sun Life Financial Inc., announced June 21 that it is changing one of its Sun Life-branded income funds, renaming a second fund and launching a new specialty credit product.
The firm says effective June 21, 2022, the investment strategies of the Sun Life MFS Dividend Income Fund have changed, and its name is changed to the Sun Life MFS Diversified Income Fund.
The company says the fund’s investment strategies have broadened to allow investment in a multi-asset, global balanced portfolio. The dividend income fund will be managed by MFS Investment Management’s global investment strategist and portfolio manager, Robert Almeida.
Management fees for the fund are 1.65 per cent and its management expense ratio at the end of 2021 was 2.06 per cent. Minimum investment in the product is $500.
SLGI has also renamed the Sun Life NWQ Flexible Income Fund. Effective immediately, it will be renamed the Sun Life Nuveen Flexible Income Funds to align with the recent name change of the fund’s subadvisor. The fund’s mandate and portfolio management team remain unchanged.
New credit product
For medium term investors who seek exposure to floating rate securities linked to interest rate changes, meanwhile, the company is launching the Sun Life Crescent Specialty Credit Private Pool, effective July 18. Sub-advised by global alternative credit manager, Crescent Capital Group, the pool will invest in non-investment grade, high yield debt securities. Minimum investment is $500.
According to the pool’s preliminary prospectus, it may invest up to 100 per cent of the fund’s assets in foreign denominated debt securities, primarily hedged back to the Canadian dollar. It may invest up to 10 per cent of the fund’s assets in other investment funds, may enter into securities lending to earn additional returns and may also engage in short selling “as a compliment to the fund’s current primary discipline of buying securities with the expectation that they will appreciate in market value,” the firm writes. “We have classified this fund’s risk level as low to medium.”
They add that the pool intends to make monthly distributions but add that these are not intended to reflect the fund’s investment performance and should not be confused with yield or income. If the cash distributions of the fund are greater than the net increase in the value of investments, the distribution will erode the value of the original investment. “We reserve the right to adjust the amount of monthly distribution if we consider it appropriate, without notice.” Distributions on units held in registered plans are automatically reinvested in additional units of the fund.
