Upland Investment Management Ltd. has completed the OSC licensing application process to operate as a limited market dealer of investment funds. The company is now licensed to act as a portfolio manager and investment counsel to sophisticated investors in the Province of Ontario.

Upland says it will operate primarily as an asset allocation service for sophisticated wealthy individual investors, pension fund sponsors, scholarship bursary and endowment fund managers and institutional fund managers.

The company will be using leading investment fund managers in the country to manage its pooled funds. It has retained the services of Bona Vista Asset Management, Knight Bain Seath Holbrook and Georgian Capital Partners, all of Toronto, to manage the Upland Pooled Funds. Additionally, it has reached agreements with Georgian Capital and Brandes Investment Partners from San Diego Cal., to handle segregated global account portfolios for Upland clients.

The company is currently in discussions with W.P. Stewart, from New York, N.Y. to add its services to the Upland segregated account manager roster. Finally, the company will use Barclays World Investors exchange traded 5 and 10 year bond funds to address specific income and account diversification needs of its clients.

Upland’s business and marketing plans, which involve bringing the assets under administration in the company to $1 billion in five years, will be executed by senior executives who have been lured away from both leading financial services and insurance industry organizations.

The Board of Directors roster also includes senior executives from the insurance and investment industries. They will capitalize on their existing business synergies, sales channels and personal relationships built up over the past 30 years in these industry sectors.

The company has now filed for licensing approval in Alberta and British Columbia to take advantage of the existing sales channels and relationships in those provinces. It is expected that the company will secure registration and business from all provinces within the first 18 months of operation.

The company will sell direct to the marketplace and also tap into another existing sales channel. It will seek relationships with the investment brokers and the mutual fund industry using both their dealers and advisors networks to distribute the Upland product.

“In all cases, we will protect our distribution channels. When a client comes to us directly, we will ask the client who his or her insurance and or investment advisor is, and if he or she is a current distributor of Upland’s services, we will honor that relationship and request the client meet with the advisor and us together,” says Charles Boldt, Upland executive V.P. of marketing and sales.