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Gaelen Morphet, is departing as lead manager at CIBC Asset Management, to become the Empire Life’s new chief investment officer.

Morphet is bringing two CIBC analysts her to Empire Life. Lieh Wang will become a Senior Portfolio Manager, and Nessim Mansoor, will become a portfolio manager.

“We are extremely pleased to announce these appointments,” says Drew Wallace, executive vice president, retail, “Under Gaelen’s leadership, and with the strong addition of Lieh and Nessim, the Empire Life Investment Management team will continue to work closely and conscientiously to manage our investments as it has throughout our more than 40-year investment management history; using a conservative, value-oriented philosophy and focus on capital preservation in the best interests of our customers and shareholders.”

Morphet will be responsible for the Empire Life segregated fund and general fund portfolios. She will also be responsible for managing selected assets of Empire’s sister company, The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company. Morphet will be a member of the Empire Life executive leadership team and will be based in the company’s investment management offices in downtown Toronto, Ontario.

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BMO creates “unified” investment account

Canadian investors can add non-managed, traditionally self-directed equity and fixed income investments to a unified investment account, the BMO Nesbitt Burns Architect Account.

The Architect Program allows investment advisors to combine, separately managed accounts, mutual funds, exchange traded funds and alternative investment products.

“We are thrilled to be able to provide our clients with a truly unique approach to investing with more freedom and flexibility than ever before” said Sarah Widmeyer, senior vice president and managing director, BMO Nesbitt Burns. “So whether you have legacy blue chip shares or other investment ideas you would like to explore, these can now all be held together with your managed portfolios, in one single Architect account.”

BMO Nesbitt Burns launched the Architect program in 2005 and was the first Canadian financial institution to offer its clients a Unified Managed Account (UMA).

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Global investor confidence falls

State Street Global Markets, the investment research and trading arm of State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT), today released the results of the State Street Investor Confidence Index for October 2009, which shows that Global investor confidence fell last month.

Global Investor Confidence fell by 10.0 points to 108.4 from a revised September level of 118.4. The most pronounced decline was evident among North American investors, where confidence fell 12.8 points from 113.9 to 101.1. European investor confidence followed suit, declining 9.3 points from 111.1 to 101.8. Asian investors though, felt somewhat more upbeat about risk, and there investor confidence rose from 92.9 to 95.3. A reading of 100 in the Index represents a neutral level where institutions are neither allocating towards nor away from risky assets.

The State Street Investor Confidence Index measures investor confidence on a quantitative basis by analyzing the actual buying and selling patterns of institutional investors. It is not a survey, but rather fact-based. The index is based on a financial theory that assigns precise meaning to changes in investor risk appetite. The more of their portfolio that institutional investors are willing to devote to equities, the greater their risk appetite or confidence.

“This month, institutional investors have paused to take stock,” says Harvard University professor and index creator David Froot. “The Global Index reading of 108.4 remains comfortably above the neutral level of 100 for a seventh consecutive month, but underlying flows have been tempered somewhat from the very strong levels of July and August. While the US earnings season has been relatively robust so far, the number of positive surprises that have been observed in employment, retail sales, manufacturing and trade figures has diminished considerably, and this may be influencing investor risk appetite.”

(10/27/09)