Investors Group today launched a new fund designed to give investors the opportunity to diversify their source of investment income.

Investors Global Dividend Fund invests in high quality companies around the world with a proven ability to grow their earnings. The new fund is available immediately.

“With fixed income yields at near record lows, Canadian investors are having difficulty meeting their growing income needs by relying solely on traditional fixed income returns,” says says John Wiltshire, senior vp, products and financial [lanning. “By diversifying their sources of investment income, Canadians can help reduce the risk of outliving their savings over the course of lengthy retirements.”

Like Investors Dividend Fund, the new fund is designed to produce above average income from equity investments while preserving capital and positioning investors for capital appreciation. It offers Canadian investors the opportunity to participate in the ownership of companies with more generous dividend yields in international markets.

“Canadian dividend-paying companies tend to have lower current dividend yields than companies in other parts of the world,” says Peter O’Reilly, vp and portfolio manager, I.G. International Management, Ltd. O’Reilly adds, “Companies that pay healthy dividends also tend to have less volatile stock prices.”

O’Reilly says the fund’s equity-to-fixed income mix is expected to be similar to that of Investors Dividend Fund over the long term, with about 70% to 80% of the Fund investing in dividend-paying stocks. The fixed income portion is also expected to be invested similarly to Investors Dividend Fund, focusing primarily on debt instruments issued by Canada’s federal and provincial governments.

Investors Global Dividend Fund will be managed by I.G. Investment Management, Ltd. In Winnipeg, I.G. International Management Limited in Dublin and I.G. Investment Management (Hong Kong) Ltd. in Hong Kong.