'Our purpose is helping Canadians build and achieve lifetime financial security'
Sun Life Global Investments credited its WP Mutual Fund Provider of the Year award this year to the outreach it’s done to educate advisors about its retirement products.
“It was a thrill, a really proud accomplishment for us getting recognized by Wealth Professional and the industry. It was a very exciting time for Sun Life Global Investments,” John Killeen, vice-president of retail business for Sun Life Global Investments, told Wealth Professional. “It’s a confluence of many factors.”
Killeen credited Sun Life Global Investments' talented retail business team, from its managers to external wholesalers, along with its internal partners, from marketing, product, and wealth operation, and client services.
“It’s that unified approach and alignment around our purpose,” he said. “The purpose is helping Canadians build and achieve lifetime financial security.”
Killeen said that Sun Life Global Investments, which has always strived to be a leading asset manager in Canada, has made a strong impact in the retail advisor space in the last couple of years. It sees its biggest opportunity as engaging more investment advisors who may not know who Sun Life Global Investments is and how that might benefit their practice and their investors’ needs.
To him, the award shows more advisors are working with it for the first time in the past three years, and its team is providing them with more customized information - by channel, dealer, or branch.
“All of that is setting us up for what we believe to be strong success in terms of market share growth over the next five to 10 years,” said Killeen.
He felt that Sun Life Global Investments is well positioned to become a leader for retirement solutions, which every advisor will increasingly need to contend with over the next decade. It has a sizable footprint across the country and its national accounts team is working to reach more advisors. It’s also sponsoring more in-person events, including Cirque du Soleil, to establish more relationships.
It provides what Killen describes as a “distinct toolkit” of products, ranging from traditional mutual funds with a variety of income solutions to segregated funds and payout insurance annuities.
“With this rising rate environment, many advisors are learning and relearning about how annuities can fit into their practice to deal with their aging clients or clients who have ventured into retirement and are looking for a verifiable stream of income for the foreseeable future,” he said. “So, our sales results in that space over the past 12 to 18 months have never been stronger.”
Sun Life Global Investments is providing more support for IIROC advisors to complement what it’s been doing for MGA and MFDA advisors. It’s also providing investor seminars on topics, such as intergenerational wealth transfer or how advisors can build, and run, a multi-disciplinary practice. It is aiming to bring thought leadership to portfolio management, through its chief investment officer and Boston affiliate MFS Investment Management.
“I think the consistency with which we’ve told our story and described to advisors what our value proposition represents means that more advisors are looking at their business and narrowing their shelves so they don’t have to contend with know your product requirement and other regulatory aspects,” said Killeen. “We’ve been the beneficiary of some of that consolidation. We’ve been pretty steadfast in delivering not only the product, but practice management and thought leadership.
Killeen expects Sun Life Global Investments to remain on its current path as the industry increasingly focuses on its aging demographic, intergenerational wealth transfer, and decumulation needs over the next decade.
“We’ve obviously dealt with a lot in the last three or four years, beginning with the pandemic and all the other aspects around inflation and geopolitical and recessionary concerns. It’s been a very difficult period overall for the industry,” he said. “But, we certainly think there is an opportunity to continue down this path, and we will continue to think through how we innovate.
“We also want to continue to partner with advisors and help in any way we can, especially as they manage their growth requirements. Many are working toward moving up-market with higher net worth. We hope to be more ahead of the curve relative to the industry.”
