Investment and Retirement

SSQ's family of seg funds places third in Canada for its performance!

The Investment Executive newspaper is featuring the family of ASTRA Funds, which ranked third in Canada for its performance in 2012.

The article Augmenting returns with fixed-income, published in the March 2013 issue (pages 27-28), includes a comparative table of assets based on Morningstar data, which places SSQ's funds in third place, thanks to their above-average performance, and ahead of many segregated funds offered by insurance companies.

 

SSQ Financial Group "was the third-best performer among seg fund families last year, with 59.9% of assets in above-average performing funds — and those funds were more broadly representative of 2012 trends.

SSQ’s Astra PIMCO Bond Fund performed particularly well. Its mandate allows up to 30% of its AUM to be held in foreign bonds and the fund invests in some high-yield securities, including emerging-market bonds, says Cedric Pouliot, director, Astra funds. Astra Fiera Capital Bond Fund also had solid results, he adds, primarily because of “good duration management.”

Three of SSQ’s four Canadian equity seg funds did well, although each for different reasons. For instance, Astra JFL Canadian Value Equity Fund was underweighted in the materials sector. In addition, that fund’s stock picks increased its return in the energy sector. And Pouliot describes Astra Triasima Canadian Equity Fund as “quite nimble” in its use of stock rotation, noting its significant underweighting in energy, materials and insurance companies.”

 

Click here to read the article.

 

The ASTRA family of funds includes some fifty funds in all asset categories, most of which are managed by renowned money managers of large pension fund portfolios.