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(October 6, 2006) Through new agreements with Swiss Re, RGA and new capacity recently developed by Munich Re, Sun Life Financial says it is now offering the highest amount of new individual life insurance coverage in Canada for the large-case market.

The company says it is now able to handle individual life insurance policies up to $100 million. The maximum amount of life insurance it can offer will vary based on factors such as age, health condition, family history, financial situation and existing life insurance coverage.

“As the first, and currently the only, Canadian insurer to have access to this additional capacity, Sun Life Financial is now the clear choice for advisors working with high-net-worth clients in the large-case market,” says Sun Life senior vice-president, Mark DeTora. “The $20 million increase in life insurance capacity means advisors can now reach the highest coverage level in the industry with one SunUniversalLife policy.”

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Counsel adds global small-cap mandate to conservative and balanced funds

(October 6, 2006) Counsel Wealth Management recently added a global small-cap component to its balanced and conservative portfolios to diversify portfolio holdings.

Effective immediately, the Counsel Balanced Portfolio and the Counsel Conservative Portfolio will invest 5% and 2.5% of assets, respectively, in units of the Counsel Select Small Cap Fund. Managers handling the small-cap mandate include Howson Tattersall, AIM Trimark and Epoch Investment Partners.

“Counsel’s overall approach to investing is to first manage risk,” says Counsel president Sam Febbraro. “Further diversifying our balanced and conservative portfolios by adding small caps fits within our investment philosophy and better aligns these portfolios to investor needs.”

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Taxing deadline

(October 6, 2006) The idea of extending the RRSP contribution deadline to sync with tax filing dates is one way to solve the problem of ensuring clients are able to maximize their contributions.

But there’s another way, says Terry Campbell, an advisor with Investors Group in Burnaby, BC. He suggests employers simply issue T4s sooner so that clients can prepare their returns and have tax data in hand well before April. “Everybody’s got the information. Employers hold onto it until the last minute,” he says. “People have the software to do their own tax returns so they can act faster. They want to get it done.”

He suggests moving the deadline for employers to get tax information to employees up to the end of January and says the banks would likely follow suit to get their tax information issued sooner. “It’s not a monumental change. I think the technology is there,” Campbell says. “It’s just a change of a date.”

The barrier is largely psychological. Much like people go back to work after Labour Day and Christmas, they contribute to their RRSPs around tax time. And that, says Campbell is the biggest problem. One of the first things a good planner will tell his or her clients to do is allocate monthly payments and take the pressure off the end of the year. “If people want to put themselves in a position where their money is working for them, they should be putting money in on a regular basis,” he says. “They shouldn’t be doing this panic thing and buying something once a year to avoid paying tax.”

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CMDF appoints new manager, proposes fund merger

(October 6, 2006) The Canadian Medical Discoveries Fund (CMDF) and CMDF II are asking shareholders to approve a merger that will see the two funds amalgamate and continue operations as the Canadian Medical Discoveries Fund Inc. The proposed merger has been approved by the board of directors at each fund. Shareholders will be asked to vote on the changes at a unitholder meeting on November 30.

Along with the proposed changes, the company announced it has appointed Jove Investment Management to oversee the funds. The company says the amalgamated funds’ fundamental investment objective will be to achieve long-term capital appreciation through investment in eligible Canadian businesses engaged in the health sciences sector, with emphasis on those businesses involved in testing, development, production and commercialization.

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