Sun Life Global Investments (Canada) Inc. (SLGI), the mutual funds division of Toronto-based Sun Life Financial Inc., and Excel Funds Management Inc.— which was recently acquired by SLGI — has announced several changes to its suite of mutual funds in hopes of providing more long-term value.

The proposed changes include fund mergers, investment objective changes, fee changes, changes to low load sales charge redemption schedules and updates to purchase options.

“We’re always looking for ways to deliver more value for our clients,” says Rick Headrick, president of SLGI, in a statement. “These changes will help streamline our product offering, while providing more clarity for clients and advisors around fees.”

Effective on or about June 15, select Excel funds and SLGI funds will each merge into a SLGI fund, provided the mergers received the required unitholder and regulatory approvals. The unitholders votes are scheduled to take place on or about May 25.

The proposed fund mergers are:

  • Excel Money Market Fund will merge into Sun Life Money Market Fund
  • Excel Emerging Markets Fund will merge into Sun Life Schroder Emerging Markets Fund
  • Excel Chindia Fund will merge into Sun Life Schroder Emerging Markets Fund
  • Sun Life MFS Canadian Equity Fund will merge into Sun Life MFS Canadian Equity Growth Fund
  • Sun Life MFS Canadian Equity Value Fund will merge into Sun Life MFS Canadian Equity Growth Fund

Effective March 7, each of the terminating funds will be closed to new investors.

SLGI and Excel have also proposed to introduce fixed-rate administration fees on certain Excel funds in an effort to provide greater transparency for investors. Subject to regulatory approval, the funds will take effect on June 18. The unitholder vote is scheduled to occur on May 25.

Further, the firm has announced changes to its Sun Life MFS Canadian Equity Class. As of June 18, the fund will change its investment objectives to invest mainly in Sun Life MFS Canadian Equity Growth Fund pending security approval. The securityholder vote is scheduled to occur on May 25. The fund’s name and strategies will also be changed to align with the Sun Life MFS Canadian Equity Growth Fund.

On June 13, SLGI will also add a U.S. dollar purchase option to a number of Sun Life funds, providing clients with the flexibility to purchase units of certain funds with U.S. dollars.

Series A, F, and O for the following funds will offer a U.S. dollar purchase option:

  • Sun Life MFS Global Total Return Fund
  • Sun Life MFS Global Growth Fund
  • Sun Life MFS International Growth Fund
  • Sun Life MFS U.S. Growth Fund
  • Sun Life MFS U.S. Value Fund

The U.S. dollar purchase option takes the Canadian dollar net asset value per unit and converts that to a USD dollar net asset value per unit by taking the current day’s CAD to USD exchange rate.

Lastly, the firm announced a new series and name change for Sun Life Schroder Emerging Markets Fund.

As of June 15, SLGI will add series IS and DB to Sun Life Schroder Emerging Markets Fund. On June 19, the fund will be renamed Sun Life Excel Emerging Markets Fund. Schroder’s will remain the sub-advisor to this fund.

More information on these changes is available on the firm’s news release.