Toronto-based IA Clarington Investments Inc. is lowering fees on mutual funds, launching an Active ETF Series for three of its fixed-income funds, and proposing to merge several funds, the company announced Thursday.
“With these enhancements, our goal is to increase return potential for investors and add greater flexibility and simplicity to the way they and their advisors access our lineup of high-conviction, actively managed solutions,” said Eric Frape, senior vice president, product and investments, in a statement.
Effective Oct. 22, IA Clarington is lowering fees on 33 funds across a wide range of asset classes.
IA Clarington Managed Portfolios, the firm’s five-portfolio suite of all-in-one investment solutions, will also be available at reduced MERs, starting at 0.94% for IA Clarington Conservative Portfolio (Series F).
For complete details on fee reductions, please visit iaclarington.com/reducedfees
Active ETF Series
IA Clarington will be launching Active ETF Series for three of its fixed-income funds. The new series will provide access to the same strategies, exposures and portfolio managers as the firm’s mutual fund series, but in an investment that trades like a stock. The fee structure of Active ETF Series is the same as Series F, the funds’ fee-based series.
“Market volatility and the low, but rising, interest rate environment have made the fixed-income market more complex, increasing demand for actively managed strategies. Our new Active ETF Series provide convenient access to three unique mandates for advisors and self-directed investors who prefer using an exchange-traded vehicle,” says Frape.
The Toronto Stock Exchange has conditionally approved the listing of the three ETFs.
IA Clarington Core Plus Bond Fund (ICPB), managed by Jeff Sujitno, seeks to provide income and the potential for long-term capital growth, while preserving capital and mitigating the effects of interest rate fluctuations. The fund invests in government bonds, investment grade bonds and high-yield bonds, as well as other income-producing securities, including asset-backed securities and senior floating rate loans. The management fee is 0.50%.
IA Clarington Global Bond Fund ( IGLB), subadvised by PineBridge Investments LLC, seeks to provide income and the potential for some capital appreciation by investing in fixed-income securities around the world. The management fee is 0.70%.
IA Clarington Emerging Markets Bond Fund (IEMB), also subadvised by PineBridge, seeks to provide income and the potential for long-term capital appreciation by investing in emerging market debt securities. The management fee is 0.80%.
Streamlined fee-based offering
Also effective Oct. 22, Series EF, IA Clarington’s Elite Series fee-based purchase option, will be closed to new investors; or these investors, Series F will serve as the firm’s single fee-based purchase option. With this change, auto-switches into a separate, high-net-worth series will no longer be necessary. “This streamlined offering provides investors and advisors in a fee-based arrangement with more straightforward access to IA Clarington’s actively managed solutions,” the company says in a news release.
Proposed fund mergers
To make its product shelf simpler and easier to navigate for investors and advisors, IA Clarington is proposing 10 fund mergers, effecting March 22, 2019.
The proposed terminating funds will be closed to new investors, effective Oct. 22.
Of the 10 proposed mergers, nine will require a unitholder/shareholder vote.
For more information on these changes, please visit iaclarington.com/mergers