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 | Confidence Through i-Watch
| Providing Canadian investors with the confidence to stay the course |
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With over 5000 investment funds currently available in Canada, today’s investor is faced with a bewildering array of options. The process of sorting through this maze to find the most appropriate investments can be complicated and time consuming and you still may not be able to access the information you need in order to make a prudent decision.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
| Introducing i-Watch from Manulife Financial |
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Manulife Financial's exclusive Investment Watch (i-Watch) program incorporates a best practices approach to selecting fund managers, and then ensures that they adhere to their investment mandates over time. Designed from the ground up, the process used by Manulife is comparable to those used by Canada’s top consulting firms for large institutional investors. We think we are unique in offering individual
investors this expertise as a standard behind every fund that we provide.
| The i-Watch Process |
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Fund selection
Investment funds available through Manulife Financial are backed by a stringent fund manager selection process. Performance is the first screening criteria but it only accounts for 1/3 of the weighting when selecting a manager.
This weighting reflects the fact that past performance is not the most important determinant of future returns. In our view, the overall quality of an investment firm is a better indicator of the long-term viability of an investment fund.
Reflecting this viewpoint, our selection process includes an in-depth review of factors we believe determine the underlying quality of the fund manager. Our qualitative review accounts for 2/3 of the weighting in our decision-making process, and screens for the following qualities:
- The stability of the organization, including succession planning and adherence to a code of ethics
- The depth, quality and overall experience level of the people managing the assets
- A clearly defined investment process that has been applied consistently over time
- A record of performance that compares favourably to appropriate benchmarks and their peers
- Risk characteristics that are in line with their investment mandates
Our team of independent professionals gets ‘behind the numbers’ by visiting and interviewing the fund managers, probing issues in a way that can only come from years of experience.
Ongoing Monitoring Process
While our selection process is important, it’s the ongoing monitoring process that makes i-Watch truly unique. Once an investment fund is selected, we continue to apply the same level of analysis used to originally select the manager. Our on-site due diligence team, Investment Management Services, has only one job – to conduct ongoing systematic reviews of every fund available through Manulife Financial. The due diligence review includes a comprehensive examination of the evolving characteristics of the fund, and face-to-face meetings with the fund manager.
Because we believe in long-term relationships with our fund manager partners, if a fund fails to live up to its mandate, we will work with the manager to address specific concerns. If these additional steps fail to address our expectations, the fund manager will be replaced, or the mandate will be capped: the choice of action is based on minimizing any disruption to our investors.
| The i-Watch philosophy |
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We believe in quality, not quantity. We believe that past performance is not an accurate indicator of future performance, but rather high-quality investment firms who adhere to documented and consistent investment processes are more likely to deliver superior results over time. We believe it is our job to monitor the managers we choose so you don’t have to. We believe that it is important for our customers to have sufficient information in order to make prudent investment decisions. And we believe that we are a highly qualified “manager of managers” who understands the importance of sharing our knowledge and experience for the benefit of investors.
| The i-Watch team |
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One of Manulife Financial’s core competencies is providing investment management services in the countries in which we operate including: the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and other countries in the Far East. In Canada, the i-Watch team is staffed by a group of analysts and industry professionals whose credentials mirror those you’ll find in the most respected investment consulting firms.
By operating independently from any of our business units, the i-Watch team’s sole job is to ensure that all of our fund partners meet our stringent requirements for fund management. And since money management is a global concern, we often consult with our Manulife counterparts throughout the world. By doing so, we are assured that they adhere to the same best practices we do, particularly when we are selecting or monitoring, investment funds representing non-North American mandates.
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