McLean and Partners Wealth Management, which manages over $1 billion on behalf of 550 high net worth families, has launched three new private investment pools.

The pools cover three distinct mandates. Global Dividend Growth, International Equities, and Global Balanced.

Brent McLean, president and CEO, says that he has built his career and business on the simple principle of the benefits of dividend growth stocks. “Investors understand the benefit of a growing stream of dividend income. Dividend growth stocks historically enjoy less volatility than the market as these stocks tend to have lower betas, which is a measure of a stock’s volatility in relation to the market. This caliber of stock has also proven to outperform the market not only in Canada, but in most major markets worldwide.”

And that is where McLean and Partners is buying. The firm owns 35 stocks on behalf of its clients, and nearly half of them are outside of Canada. “Our focus is global, and today we just happen to see significantly better opportunities abroad than in our own back yard,” he says.

McLean & Partners does the majority of its international investing directly into the foreign markets, as opposed to relying on the American Depository Receipts (ADR) marketplace. “There are only 430 foreign stocks listed as ADR’s, which significantly reduces the opportunity set for the average investor,” McLean says. “By accessing foreign stocks direct on their home exchanges we significantly expand our opportunity set, and reduce the transaction fees to the client.”

For example, one of the firm’s picks, Telenor, is a Norwegian telecommunications company, offering their services throughout Scandinavia, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan and Russia. The stock has recently been trading at 14 times next year’s earnings, and has grown its dividend at over 53% compounded annually over the last five years.

McLean & Partners portfolio of global dividend growth stocks has on average been increasing its dividends by over 19% per year. “Our rate of return has provided significant inflation protection, which is highly sought after by affluent investors who want to protect both their capital and their future purchasing power,” he says.

McLean has been advising clients for over a quarter century. “It all began in 1992 when I began tracking our clients’ success in the dividend growth stocks we recommended. Over the years the success we had with this investing discipline provided a great foundation as we expanded internationally.”

The private pools, McLean says, “compliment the segregated portfolio services our firm offers, and now opens the door to more investors. While our segregated portfolio services are limited to $3 million and up, investors can now access the same global dividend growth strategies with $1 million.”