Industry News

Briefly: “Sun Life enhances CI policy” and more of Tuesday’s news

Sun Life Financial has enhanced its critical illness insurance offering, becoming the first provider in Canada to cover acquired brain injury (ABI), damage inflicted by traumatic injury, anoxia, or encephalitis. ABI can result in prolonged or permanent impairments such as short-term memory loss. Sun Life researched the condition for over a year, working with its […]

By Staff |February 3, 2009

3 min read

Industry

Fund sales turn positive in January

The mutual fund industry staged a comeback in January, posting net sales of between $600 million and $1.16 billion, according to preliminary data released by the Investments Funds Institute of Canada. That’s a vast improvement from November and December of 2008, when IFIC reported industry wide net redemptions of $977.2 million and $792 million, respectively. […]

By Steven Lamb |February 3, 2009

2 min read

Industry

U.S. pensions slash expectations for investment returns

U.S. pension funds are slashing their projected investment returns from major asset classes through 2013, prompting some to predict the impending death of defined benefit (DB) pension plans in that country, according to a study. Greenwich Associates’ survey of 1,000 U.S. institutions regarding their expected annual rates of return on individual asset classes for the […]

By Jody White |February 2, 2009

2 min read

Industry

ETF investors get access to PACCs and SWPs

Some of the major advantages mutual funds have enjoyed over exchange-traded funds — automatic investment and withdrawal programs — are no longer. Responding to increased advisor interest in ETFs, one provider has introduced a distribution reinvestment plan (DRIP), a pre-authorized cash contribution plan (PACC) and a systematic withdrawal plan (SWP) for its ETFs. DRIPs, PACCs […]

By Mark Noble |February 2, 2009

4 min read