Industry News

Equity markets pummel insurers’ earnings

The rapid sell-off on equity markets in Q3 and Q4 of 2008 took a heavy toll on Canada’s top insurance carriers, but Sun Life, Manulife and Great-West Lifeco still managed to eke out full-year profits, though substantially reduced. Sun Life Financial recorded a Q4 profit of $129 million, down from $555 million a year ago. […]

By Steven Lamb |February 12, 2009

2 min read

Briefly: “More Portus money to flow” and more of Thursday’s news

There was a time, long before Bernard Madoff took over the headlines, when the collapse of Portus Alternative Asset Management was considered a major case. Today there is some good news for investors in the failed hedge fund company. KPMG, the bankruptcy trustee for the Portus estate, has begun mailing out cheques to about 19,000 […]

By Staff |February 12, 2009

3 min read

Regulators, not Greenspan, to blame

With a credit market reckoning more severe than even the most experienced asset managers expected, at least one is saying that former U.S. Federal Reserve Board chair Alan Greenspan is not to blame — but the U.S. Congress and the federal regulators are. And the reason they’re to blame, says Barry Allen, president of Marrett […]

By Scot Blythe |February 11, 2009

3 min read

Clarity is key to investment policy statements

To most clients, investment policy statements (IPS) might mean just another set of legalese they need to put their signature on, but to portfolio managers these are critical documents that could make or mar their careers if a disgruntled client took them to court. “People only look at contracts at two times: once at the […]

By Kanupriya Vashisht |February 11, 2009

4 min read