Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. is launching an income trust pooled fund in response to the needs of more risk-adverse institutional and private investors.

The Montrusco Bolton Income Trust Fund is focused but diversified and will hold 12 to 20 securities, as selected by the investment team following the same successful philosophy and process used to select stocks for the firm’s other equity funds.

All securities will be Canadian, and there will be a minimum of 80% invested in shares of income trusts. It will not invest in REITs, and the minimum investment will be $150,000. The fund has an absolute performance objective of 8% to 10% per year.

“This is an equity fund designed to provide high current income and moderate long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily shares of various Canadian Income Trusts, Royalty Trusts and Income Funds,” explained Peter Harrison, head of Canadian Equity Investing. Harrison and his colleague Christian Godin, Senior Equity Analyst, will be the fund’s principal managers.

“The volatility of Income Trust funds is typically lower than that of a traditional stock,” continued Harrison, pointing out that investors have expressed great interest in these securities. “However, it is clear that the rising number of trusts and variety of features make the task of evaluating each offering difficult, requiring the skills of experienced equity analysts.”