The integration of Investors Group Inc. and Mackenzie Financial Corp. will result in Mackenzie overseeing IG’s premium brands.

Mackenzie CEO Jim Hunter confirms that IG’s Scudder, Janus and Maxxum brands will fall under Mackenzie’s control. “Mackenzie Financial Services Inc. president Phil Cunningham , Scudder Maxxum Co. president and CEO John Wood, and a team of professionals from both firms are beginning to work on the plans to accomplish this as soon as is possible this fall,” says Hunter.

The move is one of the first signs of how the firms will stickhandle a potentially awkward integration. The challenge is to gain maximum economies of scale from the takeover, without alienating the independent sales force which Mackenzie relies on to pitch its products to investors. IG maintains a large captive sales force, which is a direct and sometimes bitter rival of the independent distributors.

“They have to find synergies in every spot possible,” says one analyst, noting that the Scudder Maxxum brand doesn’t carry much weight in the marketplace. Scudder Maxxum is jointly owned by Maxxum Fund Management Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of IG, and Scudder Canada Investors Services Co. Maxxum, which owns 80% of Scudder Maxxum, also manages the IG class of the Janus funds.

Janus was a brand heavyweight during the thick of the bull market. But by the time IG brought it to Canada, the funds had fallen out of favour. It will be interesting to see what the marketing machine of Mackenzie can do with a brand such as Janus in next year’s RRSP season.