Pro-Financial Asset Management today announced the launch of the PRO FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets Fund, its fifth index fund in the RAFI series.

The fund was launched to give investors the opportunity to participate in the ongoing strength and growth of the economies of emerging markets like China, India, and Brazil.

Earlier this year, Pro-Financial Asset Management signed an exclusive license and distribution agreement with the FTSE Group to launch a range of innovative mutual funds for Canadian investors based on the award-winning and rigorously tested FTSE Research Affiliates Fundamental Index (RAFI) Index Series.

Pro-Financial says its index funds incorporate the best aspects of indexing — namely, lower fees than actively managed mutual funds — while reducing volatility and improving returns by allocating portfolio weightings based on a company’s fundamentals, not its stock price.

“When researching the most vibrant economies and markets around the world, the same regions kept hitting our analysts’ radar: the emerging markets,” stated Stuart McKinnon, president & CEO of Pro-Financial Asset Management.

McKinnon also believes that the exclusive fundamental indexing strategy incorporated in the investment process of the FTSE RAFI Index Series lends itself perfectly to these types of high-growth regions.

Analysis of the series’ performance based on total returns shows that the FTSE RAFI Indexes demonstrate outperformance of market cap weighted equivalents.

The FTSE RAFI Emerging Index has outperformed the MSCI EMF Gross by 459.32% over a 10-year period ending September 2007.

The FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets Index one-year return of 49.4%, three-year return of 38.8%, five-year return of 34.7%, and 10-year return of 18.2% are considerably higher than the returns of the Index’s peers over the same periods.