Plan sponsors may wish to consider whether this investment news has any implications for the investment options available within their plans. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada purchases units of the funds listed below, which are established as a segregated fund under the Insurance Companies Act (Canada).

In June 2023, TD Global Investment Solutions made some changes across the Quantitative and Passive Equities and Passive Fixed Income teams. The Passive Equities and Passive Fixed Income businesses at TD Asset Management Inc. (TDAM) have moved to a single reporting line. TDAM indicated that this change will allow them to increase automation and data access within the passive business. This restructuring led to personnel changes impact the leadership and management of the strategies.

Laurie-Anne Davison, VP, leads the newly integrated passive business. She has also taken on lead Portfolio Manager responsibilities for all Passive Equity mandates. Dino Vevaina, VP and Director, who had previously managed the Passive Equity mandates has left the firm. Alex Sandercock, VP, will continue as a co-PM on the Passive Equity funds and support Davison.

Michelle Hegeman, VP, will report into Davison and continue to lead the Passive Fixed Income PM team and act as Lead PM on all Passive Fixed Income mandates.

Emin Baghramyan, VP & Director, will now be lead PM on all Low Volatility mandates, as well as the leader of the broader Quantitative Equity PM team. Baghramyan had been managing TDAM Low Volatility Global Equity since August 2021 and now adds TDAM Low Volatility Canadian Equity and TDAM Low Volatility U.S. Equity, which were previously managed by Davison. Kevin Holmes, VP, will be co-PM on the low volatility mandates. Holmes will also take on Lead PM responsibilities for TDAM’s systematic alpha mandates within Quantitative Equity.

Davison and Baghramyan will both continue to report into Julien Pardy, Managing Director. Palardy leads the Quantitative Group that includes Quantitative Equity and the newly integrated passive business.

TDAM does not expect any changes to the day-to-day management of any of these strategies. Specifically, TDAM will continue to manage these funds in accordance with their investment objectives.

GRS Investment Solutions View:

The GRS Investment Solutions Team is generally comfortable with the restructuring and its impact to the Passive Equity and Passive Fixed Income strategies. It makes sense to combine the two divisions to better share data and improve efficiencies. Dino Veveina had been Lead PM for Passive Equities since 2016, but Laurie-Anne Davison is also experienced. She joined TDAM in 2015 and has 22 years of investment experience. Managing passive equities is process and risk management oriented and the impact of the PM team is small.

There has been elevated turnover in the portfolio management team for the Low Volatility strategies in the last two years. Davison was named PM for the Canadian and U.S. low volatility strategies after Louis Philippe Roy unexpectedly left TDAM after serving only a few months in the role in 2021. While Davison was the logical choice to replace Roy, her role change less than two years later suggests this may have been a stopgap measure, following Roy’s departure. With Davison switching roles, the Quantitative Equity PM team loses a senior contributor. TDAM does not plan to add another resource to the team at this time.

The Low Volatility strategies now revert back to a single Lead PM in Emin Baghramyan. Baghramyan joined TDAM in 2015 and has 14 years of investment overall experience. TDAM indicated that during his time within the Quantitative Equity PM team he had demonstrated excellent decision-making on the active quantitative mandates and had actively engaged with the quantitative research team on the evolution of investment processes.

Due to this second change to the Lead PM of TDAM Low Volatility Canadian Equity and TDAM Low Volatility U.S. Equity within two years, we have placed these funds on our Watch List under Additional Monitoring (the least severe category). We plan to meet with TDAM later this year to discuss the restructuring and its impact upon TDAM’s active and passive quantitative strategies. We will provide further updates as needed.

Do you have to take any action?

You and your members don’t have to take any action as a result of these changes.

Questions?

Please contact your Sun Life Group Retirement Services representative.