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 fund listed below. The fund is established as a segregated fund under the Insurance Companies Act (Canada).
CI Global Asset Management (CI GAM) recently announced that they experienced further significant departures from the CI Canadian Asset Allocation Fund (the fund) team.
Dan Rohinton, who was the Portfolio Manager for the global equity component of the fund, departed CI GAM in late 2022. Rohinton had a ten-year tenure at CI and left to join a competitor – IA Investment Management. Mathew Strauss has assumed his responsibilities on the fund. Strauss joined CI in 2011 and also manages the CI Global Select and CI Global Income & Growth strategies.
This update comes after we previously communicated departure of Brandon Snow in late 2020. He was responsible for the Canadian equity component of the fund. Later in 2021, we communicated that Stephen Groff also departed CI GAM. They had recently appointed Groff as co-PM for the fund. Subsequently, Peter Hofstra, who had assumed Groff’s responsibilities on Canadian Equity, was moved off the strategy in late 2022. Bryan Brown, already a co- Portfolio Manager on Canadian Equity, is now the sole Canadian Equity Portfolio Manager.
Robert Swanson remains a Portfolio Manager on the strategy with overall responsibility for asset mix.
Sun Life GRS Investment Solutions’ view
We view this departure is another significant loss for the fund.
As a result of numerous Portfolio Manager team changes in recent years, and the turnover in CI GAM, we’ve downgraded the fund on our Watch List to “Suggested For Removal.” We have lost long-term confidence in the fund. Plan sponsors offering the fund in their line-up should consider alternatives. We no longer market the fund on the core platform effective immediately and will remove the fund at the end of 2023. Our governance activities on the fund will end at that time. We’ll provide further updates on a suggested replacement fund, member communications and timing in the second half of 2023.
Additional Background:
In late 2020, CI Investments Inc. (CI) announced that it would be integrating its separate in-house investment brands. The following were re-branded into a single entity: Cambridge Global Asset Management, CI Multi-Asset Management, Harbour Advisors, Signature and Sentry Investment Management. The resulting brand became CI GAM. CI completed the rebranding over the first half of 2021. We communicated this in March 2021. At that time, the fund was renamed to CI Canadian Asset Allocation Segregated Fund from CI Cambridge Asset Allocation Segregated Fund.
In early 2022, CI GAM experienced further significant departures from the legacy Signature team. In total, 16 professionals with research and portfolio management responsibilities across equities, credit, and asset allocation, departed. Most of the professionals departed to join a single competitor – BMO Global Asset Management. We view the Signature departures as evidence of the difficulty CI GAM is having creating a stable, integrated research team. CI GAM hired 10 new investment professionals in August and September 2022 to fill some of these positions.
We will continue to monitor the fund in upcoming quarters and will provide updates as necessary.
Questions?
Please contact your Sun Life Group Retirement Services representative.
