Life and health insurer Desjardins Financial Security is expanding its group retirement savings offer by inviting five new portfolio managers to join Desjardins’ current stable of managers.

The new firms are UBS Global Asset Management, Addenda Capital, GE Asset Management, New Star International Managers and Desjardins Global Asset Management.

“These major improvements top up our current offer quite well by offering new investment options to our group retirement savings plan members,” said Peter Ferland, vp, sales savings and segregated funds, in a release. He added that the firm selected the new managers to complement the approach of its current managers.

Three new external managers are headquartered abroad. UBS Global Asset Management, a subsidiary of UBS, is one of the leading institutional wealth managers in the world. GE Asset Management is one of the largest asset managers in the U.S. New Star Institutional Managers is an institutional asset manager whose research and management services are provided from its head office in London, England.

The two other managers are headquartered in Canada. Addenda Capital is a well-known, fixed-income specialist, and Desjardins Global Asset Management has expertise in the alternative investment field and with investment products that integrate financial engineering components.

There are now six new funds available to Desjardins Financial Security’s group retirement services clients, and the complementary management styles provide an even broader range of investment options.

UBS U.S. Large Cap Equity Fund is a core fund, as is GE’s International Equity Fund and Barclay’s indexed EAFE fund (Europe, Asia and Far East).

New Star’s international equity fund is presented as a diversified fund with a growth component.

Addenda’s Canadian Bond Fund is an active duration management-based fund.

The Fiera Capital Canadian Equity Fund uses a value-based management style.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2004/02/c7734.html