Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Sun Life unit offers global balanced fund

Sun Life unit offers global balanced fund 


Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:03:00 06/22/2009

Filed Under: Insurance

MANILA, Philippines – The local mutual fund unit of Insurance giant Sun Life of Canada has started offering what it claims to be the “first truly global” balanced fund available in the domestic market, targeting those in search of alternative investment outlet for their foreign currency cash hoard.

The “Sun Life Dollar Advantage Fund” is a re-launch of Sun Life Asset Management Co. Inc.’s existing US dollar mutual fund that used to be heavily invested in Philippine global cash bonds or ROPs. The balanced fund is envisioned to invest in a mix of five-star equity-based mutual funds outside of the Philippines as well as fixed income instruments other than ROPs for a minimum participation of $2,000.

In a recent briefing, SLAMC chief operating officer Ben Thomas Panares said there had been a growing demand for foreign currency-denominated investment among Filipinos and the company would like to tap a portion of the country’s large pool of foreign currency deposits currently lodged with banks and earning, at best, only 0.25 percent per year.

“We don’t spend in dollars. Our emergency savings will probably be in pesos, but if I have dollar deposits, I probably will want to make it grow better than inflation,” Panares said.

“We’re not asking you to invest here because we think it will do better than [asset classes in the] Philippines. The typical Filipino investor has his investments here – house, club shares, stocks and bonds but being invested globally will provide you with a different asset investment that would behave differently. It’s good for investors who are mainly invested in the Philippines and are seeking high-quality assets outside,” Panares said.

Investing in this global balanced fund is not expected to catapult one’s investment on top as far as yield is concerned, he noted. “But neither will you be in the bottom, from both performance and volatility standpoint,” Panares said.

He said the launch of this fund was timely given expectations that the US dollar would gain ground against the peso. Doris C. Dumlao

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