By Canada Life | June 30, 2021
We’re celebrating a year of peak performance from our new lineup of global segregated funds.
Last year, Canada Life™ introduced nine new segregated funds with a global focus. It’s part of our commitment to offering a competitive fund shelf that’s relevant to you and your clients.
One year later, many new funds are performing well above their peers, according to investment research firm Morningstar.
Brent MacLellan, CFA is vice-president of portfolio construction and analysis for Canada Life’s Investment Manager Research (IMR) team. He gave some insight on the rationale for launching the funds:
“Canada Life is focused on bringing top tier investment solutions to our clients to help them meet their financial goals. Last year we decided to expand our fund shelf and provide more global opportunities for our clients. The IMR team’s goal is to identify and select active managers that have a competitive advantage in their investment discipline and a strong history of outperformance relative to their peers. We leveraged some of our strong manager relationships that could deliver on this goal. Capital Group and T. Rowe Price are two of those relationships, and both have delivered top quartile performance across all their new mandates throughout the first year.”
We asked him specifically about what was so special about these new manager relationships.
“Capital Group is one of the world’s largest investment managers with a long tenure of investing globally. Their flagship Global Equity fund is one of the industry’s most popular mutual funds and so we wanted to make that available to our advisors and clients in the segregated fund industry.
T. Rowe Price provides access to truly global equity and fixed income asset classes. What sets this firm apart is the depth and breadth of their investment professionals from across the world and their disciplined proprietary research process. They have a strong history of delivering alpha for investors and we wanted our clients to benefit from this.”
When discussing the lineup of new funds, MacLellan said, “What’s most impressive is this collection of nine new global segregated funds span various investment styles from growth to value to core. Since their launch, the market environment has rotated widely from growth to value and yet these managers have continued to deliver and outperform. We’re experiencing a market environment that continues to be volatile, increasingly challenging to navigate and where opportunities to add value are hard to come by. Having exposure to these deep resourced, experienced managers that have competitive advantages in their investment disciplines is extremely important to help our clients reach their goals.”
Global Equity is one of the most competitive Morningstar categories, comparing 917 investment options and all three of our new mandates in this category ranked in the top two quartiles. Capital Group’s Global Equity and T. Rowe Price’s Global Growth Equity were both top decile funds that beat 93% and 95% of their peer group respectively.
And T. Rowe’s exceptional performance didn’t stop there. All three T. Rowe Price mandates were exceptional performers over the past year, ranking in the top quartile amongst their respective categories with the Global Multi-Sector Bond fund in the second percentile, beating out 97% of peers, and the Global Growth Balanced fund in the 11th percentile, beating 90% of peers (all figures for the one-year period ending May 31, 2021).
Beutel Goodman, a value style manager, managed to navigate a market that was rewarding growth-style investing up until the final few months of its one-year anniversary and was a second quartile performer outperforming more than two-thirds of peers in the category.
The newest funds include:
- Global Founders (Beutel Goodman)
- Global Value Balanced (Beutel Goodman)
- Global Growth Equity (T. Rowe Price)
- Global Growth Balanced (T. Rowe Price)
- Global Multi-Sector Bond (T. Rowe Price)
- Fidelity Global Balanced Portfolio
- Fidelity Global Income Portfolio
- Global Equity (Capital Group)
- Global Growth Balanced (Mackenzie)
These new funds leverage the strong core global investment competencies of some of the world’s top investment managers.
As at May 31, 2021. Source: Morningstar Direct.
|
|
Morningstar category (Canada insurance universe)
|
1-year return (%)
|
Since inception return (%)2
|
Percentage of peer group beaten1
|
Quartile ranking1
|
Morningstar category percentile1
|
Number of investments ranked in Morningstar category1
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Global Fixed Income
|
7.70
|
9.8
|
97
|
1
|
2
|
147
|
|
|
Global Fixed Income Balanced
|
7.0
|
7.7
|
52
|
2
|
45
|
290
|
|
|
Global Neutral Balanced
|
13.4
|
14.1
|
54
|
3
|
52
|
724
|
|
|
Global Neutral Balanced
|
20.8
|
23.6
|
90
|
1
|
11
|
724
|
|
|
Global Equity Balanced
|
12.8
|
13.8
|
17
|
4
|
85
|
932
|
|
|
Global Equity Balanced
|
16.2
|
17.6
|
42
|
3
|
66
|
932
|
|
|
Global Equity
|
28.3
|
29.9
|
93
|
1
|
10
|
917
|
|
|
Global Equity
|
23.0
|
24.9
|
68
|
2
|
34
|
917
|
|
|
Global Equity
|
29.1
|
32.5
|
95
|
1
|
9
|
917
|
Reach out to your Canada Life wholesaler to learn more about these top-performing segregated funds.
This commentary represents Canada Life Investment Management's views at the date of publication and are subject to change without notice. Furthermore, there can be no assurance that any trends described in this material will continue or that forecasts will occur; economic and market conditions change frequently. This commentary is intended as a general source of information and is not intended to be a solicitation to buy or sell specific investments, nor tax or legal advice. A description of the key features of the segregated fund policy is contained in the information folder. Any amount allocated to a segregated fund is invested at the risk of the policyowner and may increase or decrease in value. These funds are available through segregated funds policies issued by Canada Life. You may not reproduce, distribute, or otherwise use any of this article without the prior written consent of Canada Life Investment Management Ltd.
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