Manulife Investments, a division of Manulife Asset Management Limited, is launching a new investment pool and two new mutual funds.
The new pooled fund, the Manulife U.S. Balanced Value Private Trust, is aimed at affluent investors and will invest primarily in U.S. dividend-paying equity and fixed-income securities. Manulife says the pooled fund will have the same investment objective, process and strategy as the Manulife U.S. Monthly High Income Fund but will be part of Manulife’s pooled program, which allows households to group accounts in order to receive reduced management fees. The equity component of the pool will be managed by Alan Wicks, Jonathan Popper, and Conrad Dabiet while fixed income portion will be managed by Howard Greene, Jeffrey Given, and Konstantin Kizunov.
One of the new mutual funds, the Manulife U.S. Dollar Strategic Income Fund, has the same managers and investing mandate as the Manulife Strategic Income Fund but is geared towards those who wish to invest U.S. dollars. With the creation of this fund, Manulife says it will close the U.S. dollar purchase option on the Manulife Strategic Income Fund on March 24, 2015.
The other new mutual fund, the Manulife Strategic Investment Grade Global Bond Fund, has the same investment management team as the Manulife Strategic Income Fund, but will invest primarily in investment grade, global government, and corporate bonds. As with the Manulife Strategic Income Fund, the portfolio management team seeks to add value primarily through country and sector allocation, security selection, and opportunistic currency investments.
"These new funds broaden our platform of investment options for advisors and their clients," comments Derek Saliba, assistant vice president of Manulife Investments. "These three new mandates provide advisors and investors extensions of the existing Monthly High Income and Strategic Income strategies which have served investors well for many years."
