Briefly:

Previous Brieflies this week: | MON | TUE | WED | THU |

Sun Life and CI announced today changes to their segregated fund lineup.

Beginning July 31, 2009, or later, under the terms and conditions of each segregated fund contract, there will be an increase in the insurance fees and certain funds will be closed to new investments.

According Sun Life executives, these changes are being made to ensure products continue to provide financial security to investors.

“These changes balance our commitment to providing products that meet the needs of our clients throughout their lifetime, with the strong risk management focus that has put Canadian insurers in a position to weather these turbulent markets,” says Dean Connor, Sun Life president.

For fees charged to segregated funds, the increases will range from no change to 0.30%. Any increase will be determined by the asset class, guarantee type, rider options, and risk of funds.

In addition, the guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit (GMWB) rider fee increase on SunWise Elite Plus will be 0.10% to 0.30%. There are no changes to fees for other riders.

Further to the changes, no new investments, including transfers from other funds, will be allowed for certain funds in the SunWise Elite, SunWise and Clarica Portfolio lineups

Also, new contracts to the SunWise Elite and SunWise Elite Plus combined guarantee option (Class B) and basic guarantee option (Class C), will be required to allocate at least 30% of portfolio value into fixed income investments.

• • •

S&P launches product for sharia investors

Standard & Poor’s announced the launch of a Shariah-compliant version of the S&P/TSX 60: The S&P/TSX 60 Shariah Index.

“The S&P/TSX 60 Shariah Index will create new opportunities for Islamic investors to benchmark their Canadian investments, and for asset managers to create new investment products serving the Islamic community,” said Alka Banerjee, vice-president of Standard & Poor’s Index Services. “With the launch of this Index, S&P now has Shariah compliant indices in 52 markets.”

This new fund reevaluates equities on the S&P/TSX 60 and filters out the ones that do not comply with Islamic law. For the most part, the fund is highly correlated to the S&P/TSX 60 Index, and as such, provides a comparable investment portfolio.

• • •

Global Maxfin to sell Pacific & Western GICs

Pacific & Western Credit Corp. announced today that Global Maxfin Investments Inc. has signed an agreement to distribute the GICs of PWC’s wholly owned subsidiary, Pacific & Western Bank of Canada (PWBank).

“We are pleased to add Global Maxfin to our growing network of deposit agents. This relationship furthers our corporate strategy to diversify and expand our deposit base,” said David Taylor, president and CEO.

• • •

United completes fund mergers

The merge of the Diversified Funds with its corresponding United Value and United Growth Fund has been completed.

The decision to merge the six funds was approved on May 22, 2009.

The Diversified Funds has a blended mandate of value and growth. In an attempt to provide investors with a more precise mandate, the company decided to replace the Diversified Funds with single mandate funds.

In each merger, United Diversified Fund were replaced with a proportionate number of units or shares of both the United Value Fund and the United Growth Fund.

The Diversified Funds and its corporate class series that have been terminated and merged are as follows: Canadian Equity Diversified Pool, U.S. Equity Diversified Pool and the International Equity Diversified Pool.

(05/27/09)