Fifteen of the 25 best-selling mutual fund products this past RRSP season were international funds, as retail investors heeded the advice of financial advisors and many fund companies to go global.

Income generation also remained a theme in the four-month RRSP season of November through February, with four income balanced funds and three dividend and income funds among the 10 Canadian funds on the top-seller list, according the Investment Funds Institute of Canada in Toronto.

Another popular item this past RRSP season was managed products. Nine managed products — such as portfolios and wrap programs — appeared among the top 25 fund products. (Sales figures exclude money market funds. )

Previously, sales for most managed products, such as multi-fund wraps, were not reported by IFIC. IFIC now provides two sets of sales figures. The new sales data are determined according to the company that sells and distributes the product, whether it’s a stand-alone fund or a wrap that includes funds under different managers.

IFIC’s traditional view shows all of the sales assigned to a particular fund based on who the underlying fund manager is, whether the fund is sold on a stand-alone basis or as part of another fund company’s managed product.

Using the new data, CIBC Securities Inc. of Toronto had the top two best-selling fund products — Multi-Manager Personal Portfolio Service (net new money of $453 million in the four months) and CIBC Monthly Income Fund ($367 million in new money).

TD Asset Management Inc. had six products in the top 25; RBC Funds Inc. had five. AGF Mutual Funds Inc., BMO Investments Inc. and CI Financial Inc. each had two. AIM Funds Management Inc., Brandes Investment Partners & Co., Franklin Templeton In-vestments Corp., Mackenzie Fi-nancial Corp., Manulife Se-curities International Ltd. and Scotia Securities Inc. had one each. All these firms are Toronto-based.

Nine of the funds were repeaters, making the top 25 in both the 2004-05 and the 2005-06 RRSP seasons: BMO Dividend Fund, CI Harbour Growth & Income Fund, CIBC Monthly Income Fund, Franklin Templeton Balanced Growth Portfolio, Mackenzie Cundill Value Fund, RBC Canadian Dividend Fund (renamed from RBC Dividend Fund), TD Canadian Bond Fund, TD Dividend Growth Fund and TD Dividend Income Fund.

It’s also noteworthy that Brandes Global Equity Fund was in the top 25 in the 2004-05 season, although not last year.

The funds that are new to the top 25 this RRSP season and not managed products: AGF European Equity Class, AGF International Stock Class, BMO Monthly Income Fund, RBC O’Shaughnessy Inter-national Equity Fund, TD Global Dividend Fund and Trimark Global Balanced Fund.

The strongest sellers, in terms of net new money in the RRSP season as a percentage of total assets among IFIC members as of Feb. 28, were Manulife Simplicity Growth Portfolio and TD Global Dividend Fund, both at more than 60%. CI Global High Dividend Advantage Fund was third, at 41.3%.

Although Manulife Simplicity Growth Portfolio was launched in August 2001, it did not take off until last year. It is a global balanced fund with an equity focus. CI Global High Dividend Advantage Fund and TD Global Dividend Fund are new international equity funds, launched last year in February and September, respectively. All three fit into the “going global” theme.

Linda Knight, chief operating officer at BMO Mutual Funds, says investors are starting to realize that they are growing older and need to do something about saving for retirement, regardless of what the markets are doing. Managed products are something clients stick with, which makes it easier to keep contributing. She also points out that while the oldest baby boomers are close to retirement, many are in their late 40s and 50s, the prime years for saving for retirement.

Montreal-based Desjardins Sécurité Financier is focusing entirely on managed solutions. Its Diapason program for investors with less than $100,000 has been in place since 2004 and accounts for $5 billion, or almost half of the $11.1 million in Desjardins’ mutual fund assets.

Desjardins’ Chorus program for higher net-worth investors was launched at the end of January. It has about $150 million, says Marc Dubuc, director of market strategy and product development.

Desjardins is planning to increase the foreign content of its managed products to around 50% from about one-third, in line with the “going global” theme that investors are embracing. Clients are beginning to understand the “home bias” and realizing that if they have 50% Canadian investments, they run a higher risk than if they have only a third, says Dubuc.

@page_break@Mackenzie is also increasing its funds’ foreign content — but specifically in its Canadian equity funds, a different approach that’s also aimed at lessening the reliance on volatile resources-based Canadian equities. The increase at Mackenzie is in the maximum foreign content allowed in Canadian equity funds, to 49% from 30%.

“It’s the right move for inves-tors,” says Mackenzie president David Feather, explaining that this move gives managers a lot more selection of quality companies, which is starting to show up in performance numbers.

The risk to going more global is currency risk. At Mackenzie, fund managers are allowed to hedge, although it’s up to the manager. The firm’s Cundill funds are all hedged, which is one of the reasons Mackenzie Cundill Value Fund remains a top seller even when the Canadian dollar was appreciating rapidly in 2003-05.

Mackenzie, like some other companies, is starting to offer C$ versions of international equity funds, and all are fully hedged.

Like many companies, Desjardins and Mackenzie have tax-efficient versions of some funds and are finding them popular. Feather says these fund versions have attracted around $400 million in investor assets over the past couple of years. Dubuc, says that returns going forward are unlikely to be double-digit so investors are going to need all the tax efficiency they can get.

A further refinement is bond funds that use derivatives to swap their fixed-income for equities that generate dividends and/or capital gains rather than interest income.

Dubuc thinks investors will also be very interested in a new area: income guarantees. Such products would not be versions of segregated funds, which are insurance products, but rather notes that are structured to guarantee a specified income stream. IE