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, which is established as a segregated fund in accordance with the Insurance Companies Act (Canada).

Invesco recently announced changes to the team that manages the fixed income component of the Invesco Income Growth Fund (the Fund) on the GRS Core Investment Platform.          

Invesco removed co-lead PM Avi Hooper from the fund effective October 3, 2022.  He is no longer with the firm.  Invesco cited their belief that the Fund was over-resourced.  The firm is distributing Hooper’s responsibilities among remaining portfolio managers, Matthew Brill and Todd Schomberg.  Both have also been assigned to the Fund since 2018.    

Avi Hooper became a co-lead fixed income portfolio manager on July 23, 2018, after a short interim period where Brill and Schomberg had assumed co-PM responsibilities following the surprise departure of Alex Schwiersch. (Schwiersch had been appointed lead fixed income PM, effective March 31, 2018, but departed the firm shortly thereafter on March 29, 2018.)  

We met with Brill and Schomberg in October 2022, following the termination of Hooper.  They are part of a large team of fixed income professionals that manage fixed income strategies with various geographical focuses.   They are based in Atlanta and are not a dedicated Canadian fixed income team.  They’ll leverage the work of Invesco’s credit analysts, who cover both Canadian and non-Canadian companies.  They’ll also utilize the work of teams that develop Invesco’s overall macro-economic view, which is used as an input and further developed into Canadian portfolio positioning. Michael Hyman, Chief Investment Officer, Global Investment Grade, will continue to oversee Brill and Schomberg. 

Sun Life GRS Investment Solutions’ view

We view Mr. Hooper’s departure as a significant loss.  We believe that with his departure Invesco has lost the PM with the most Canadian fixed income knowledge.  We met with Avi Hooper twice in the year following his appointment to lead PM and gained some comfort from his experience and familiarity with the Canadian fixed income market. At the time, we noted that, Mr. Brill and Mr. Schomberg, had little prior experience on the Canadian fixed income market. Mr. Hooper had worked in Canada on fixed income mandates for many years prior to joining Invesco in 2010. At Invesco, his time had been split between emerging market debt and Canadian fixed income strategies. Mr. Hooper relinquished his emerging markets responsibilities and focused full time on Canadian fixed income following his appointment to lead PM in 2018.  We viewed Mr. Hooper’s appointment positively and we hoped a period of team stability would ensue – the Canadian fixed income team had previously undergone a complete overhaul prior to his appointment.   

We take some comfort in the fact that Brill and Schomberg have been assigned to the Fund along with Hooper since 2018.  Their knowledge of the Canadian market has increased since we communicated our initial view in 2018.  The integration of Invesco’s Canadian fixed income process into the broader global team makes sense, given the trend to globalization in this asset class and Invesco’s deep fixed income resources. However, we view the loss of their most experienced Canadian investor as a negative development.  

We have placed Invesco Income Growth on our Watch List, in the Additional Monitoring category.  Additional Monitoring is the least severe of the three categories on our Watch List.  

We will continue to monitor the Fund and provide further updates as necessary.  

Questions? 

Please contact your Sun Life Group Retirement Services representative.