Fixed income investments
We offer the following fixed income investment mandates:
Bond
This mandate was established in 1961. The portfolio manager invests primarily in government bonds and high-quality corporate bonds with a variety of maturity terms and credit risks. The portfolio manager's goal is to create a core Canadian bond portfolio that is highly diversified.
Fixed Income Corporate Class
This mandate was established in 2005. The portfolio management approach is non-benchmark relative, allowing it to be more responsive to given market environments. The portfolio manager may use derivative strategies that swap equity exposure to gain access to a wide variety of fixed income investments in a tax-effective manner. The portfolio manager seeks to invest in a broader array of fixed income securities than typically found in a traditional bond mandate, including traditional fixed-rate, investment-grade Canadian government and corporate bonds, variable-rate bonds, real-return bonds, higher-yield fixed income securities and foreign bonds.
Mortgage
This mandate was established in 1969. The portfolio has a unique design – a hybrid of commercial and Canadian residential mortgage investments. When compared to a typical bond mandate, the portfolio manager of this fixed income mandate will seek to generate higher income than bonds of a similar term, while creating a portfolio that is less interest-rate sensitive because of its shorter duration. The portfolio manager seeks to maintain a relatively defensive portfolio position and the portfolio will tend to consist of a large portion of Canadian residential mortgages and less exposure to Canadian commercial mortgages.
Money Market
This mandate was established in 1988 with the objective to provide short-term capital preservation and interest income. The portfolio manager invests in a range of money market securities including federal and provincial treasury bills, commercial paper and bankers' acceptances. The portfolio's objective is to contain 100 per cent short-term investments and cash. The term of the portfolio is typically under 180 days.
Canadian Bond Universe Index
Established in 2000, this passively managed mandate has an objective to approximately mimic the returns of the DEX bond universe index. The portfolio's objective is to provide broad domestic investment-grade bond market coverage.
Long-Term Bond
This mandate was established in 2000. The portfolio manager invests primarily in long-term Canadian government and corporate bonds. Due to the long-term nature of the holdings, the portfolio manager's focus is on high-credit quality; secondarily followed by yield enhancement where the risk-return trade-off is attractive. The portfolio's risk and return characteristics are managed relative to the DEX long term bond index in terms of both credit subsectors and maturity term band.
