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 segregated funds in accordance with the Insurance Companies Act (Canada).

Sun Life Group Retirement Services (GRS) regularly reviews the Core investment platform in response to Client interest and evolving fund offerings in the market.

MFS Balanced funds

Effective immediately, GRS has decided to make the following changes:

  • Re-add MFS Balanced Segregated Fund to the DC and DB Core investment platform marketed lists.
  • Stop marketing MFS Balanced Growth and MFS Balanced Value Segregated Funds. This means these funds are no longer available to clients who don’t already offer them.

We made the decision in order to continue to streamline the Balanced funds offering, as a result of trends below:

  • The demand for Balanced funds has declined as plan sponsors and members choose Target Date funds instead.
  • The demand for Balanced funds has shifted away from funds with equity style bias (Value or Growth) towards funds with no style bias.

Do plan sponsors and members have to take any action?

The changes don’t affect plans that currently offer any of the MFS Balanced funds above. GRS will continue to conduct governance on those funds. Contributions from existing plans can continue in the future.

MFS Responsible funds (traditional Socially Responsible funds)

MFS Investment Management (MFS) has decided to close its suite of Responsible funds (the Responsible Funds) to clients who don’t already offer them. MFS has made this decision because the Responsible Funds’ exclusionary screening process is not aligned with MFS’ integration approach to sustainable investing. MFS’ integration approach in their other funds considers financially-material environmental, social and governance factors as part of the investment process.

MFS commits to continue managing the Responsible Funds according to their investment objectives and guidelines.

As a result of MFS’ decision, GRS is no longer marketing the following segregated funds effective immediately:

  • MFS Responsible Balanced Segregated Fund
  • MFS Responsible Canadian Fixed Income Segregated Fund
  • MFS Responsible Canadian Research Equity Segregated Fund
  • MFS Responsible Global Research Segregated Fund

This means these funds are no longer available to Clients who don’t already offer them.

Do plan sponsors and members have to take any action?

The changes don’t affect plans that currently offer any of the MFS Responsible funds above. GRS will continue to conduct governance on those funds for the foreseeable future. Contributions from existing plans and their members can continue in the foreseeable future. GRS will communicate any other updates to these funds as appropriate, given their lack of growth opportunities expected due to MFS’s closure.

Questions?

Please contact your Sun Life Financial Group Retirement Services representative.