Waterloo, Ont.-based Manulife Mutual Funds, a division of Elliott & Page Ltd., will terminate four of its mutual funds. Value Leaders Maximum Growth Portfolio, AIC American Advantage Corporate Class Fund, AIC Global Advantage Corporate Class Fund and AIC Global Premium Dividend Income Corporate Class fund will be shut down on or about Dec. 18. Investors in the terminating funds will receive notices outlining their options: to redeem their investments or to switch to other funds in the Manulife AIC fund family. The funds are being terminated in an effort to streamline product offerings and to reduce the costs associated with managing smaller funds, says Manulife. In addition, Manulife has reassigned the portfolio-management responsibilities of certain AIC funds to MFC Global Investment Management, including: AIC Canadian Equity Fund, AIC Money Market Fund/AIC Money Market Corporate Class, AIC U.S. Money Market Fund, AIC Bond Fund, AIC Global Balanced Fund, AIC Global Bond Fund, AIC Global Premium Dividend Income Fund/AIC Global Premium Dividend Income Corporate Class, AIC Total Yield Corporate Class and Copernican International Dividend Income Fund.

CGF announces portfolio advisor change

Toronto-based CGF Group of Funds says that Calgary-based Shaunessy Investment Counsel Inc. will not renew its investment-management agreement with respect to CGF Income & Equity Class Fund, CGF Canadian Heavyweight Equity Class Fund, CGF U.S. Heavyweight Equity Class Fund, CGF International Heavyweight Equity Class Fund and CGF Global Heavyweight Equity Class Fund, each a class of CGF Mutual Funds Corp. Shaunessy will continue as portfolio advisor until Dec. 18, at which time Crown Hill Asset Management Inc. will take over the duties of portfolio advisor. In addition, CGF Group has also appointed Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd. of Montreal as investment manager for four of its funds: Citadel HYTES Fund, Citadel SMaRT Fund, Citadel Stable S-1 Income Fund and Citadel S-1 Income Trust Fund. CGF Group also has announced that following an agreement reached between CGF, Crown Hill Capital Corp., Bloom Investment Counsel, Inc., Blue Ribbon Fund Management Ltd., Brompton Administration Ltd. and Brompton Funds Management Ltd. (all based in Toronto), Bloom has ceased to be the investment manager for the Citadel funds.

Invesco Trimark adds currency hedging

Toronto-based Invesco Trimark Ltd. has launched currency-hedged versions of its most popular global equity, U.S. equity and global balanced funds. The currency-hedged series — Class H units — is aimed at investors who want to invest outside Canada but have a lower tolerance for exchange rate risk and/or have an investment horizon that doesn’t provide the opportunity to wait out currency movements. Class H units will provide investors with a degree of certainty, the company says, as their foreign currency exposure will be substantially hedged at all times. The new series will also help reduce volatility and give investors the flexibility to build a portfolio with a level of foreign-currency exposure appropriate to them. Class H units are available for a number of corporate-class funds that allow for switching between Class A units and Class H units on a tax-deferred basis. Class H units are available in AIM Global Balanced Fund, AIM Global Growth Class, Trimark Fund, Trimark Global Balanced Fund/Class, Trimark Global Endeavour Fund/Class, Trimark Select Growth Fund/Class and Trimark U.S. Companies Fund/Class. Class H units complement Invesco Trimark’s existing currency-neutral lineup, including the Retirement Payout Portfolios and certain private pools.

FuturePoint GIFs launched

Toronto-based Transamerica Life Canada has launched a series of FuturePoint guaranteed investment funds, among the first target-date segregated funds available to independent advisors in Canada. FuturePoint GIFs are used to manage risk according to a specific investment time frame, with the fund’s assets being monitored and adjusted regularly. Toronto-based AEGON Capital Management, portfolio manager, will gradually alter the asset mix, increasing the fixed-income allocation as the funds approach their target dates. “This asset-allocation approach ensures that by the time an investor needs to draw on his or her assets,” Transamerica Canada says, “exposure to volatile investments is reduced.” There are four GIFs in the FuturePoint family, each with a target year. Investors can select the fund that is closest to their target date. FuturePoint GIFs are available through the newly launched Transamerica GIF contract, which provides a 100% death guarantee with an annual automatic reset of the death guarantee, a 75% contract-maturity guarantee and all of the structural benefits that come with investing in a seg fund contract. This new offering contains 50 investment choices from 11 fund families. Policyholders are allowed to switch among the various fund families.

@page_break@Compiled by Clare O’Hara (cohara@investmentexecutive.com).