The Lipper Fund Awards 2012 were handed out on Thursday evening in Toronto, honouring a variety of Canadian mutual funds, hedge funds and fund management firms that have outperformed their peers.

The Lipper Fund Awards, part of the Thomson Reuters Awards for Excellence, recognize funds that have excelled in delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance, relative to peers. Awards are given to funds in most individual classifications for the three-, five-, and 10-year periods, and group awards are given out to fund families with high average scores for the three-year time period.

Lipper’s proprietary fund rating methodology is used to determine the winners.

Phillips, Hager & North Investment Management, an operating division of RBC Global Asset Management Inc., took home group awards in two categories: Best Bond Fund Group and Best Fund Group Overall. The company has done well in these categories in past years as well, with PH&N winning the Best Overall Fund Group award in 2010 and 2011 and the Best Bond Fund Family award in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011, and RBC GAM winning the Best Bond Fund Family award in 2009 and the Best Overall Fund Group in 2007 and 2008.

“It is a tremendous honour to be recognized by the Lipper Awards for delivering excellence in investment management and to receive such acknowledgements for the sixth consecutive year,” said Dan Chornous, chief investment officer of RBC Global Asset Management Inc. “These awards reflect our rigorous process and the dedication of our investment teams.”

Sentry Investments took home the group award for Best Equity Fund Group for the second consecutive year.

“Winning the ‘Best Equity Funds Group Award’ two years in a row is a great honour and validation of our disciplined investment philosophy,” said Sandy McIntyre, president and CEO of Sentry. “Providing better risk-adjusted returns is the goal of each of our portfolio management teams and core to their common investment process.”

ATB Investment Management won the group award for Best Mixed Assets Fund Group. Last year, the award in this category went to National Bank of Canada.

For a complete list of winners, click here.