Sunlife makes mutual funds more affordable

The Philippine mutual fund management arm of Sun Life of Canada has lowered its minimum investment requirement for peso-denominated mutual funds to P1,000 from P5,000 to reach out to a broader market.

The reduction will make mutual funds more affordable for startup investors.

“You can now get started and open a Sun Life Prosperity peso mutual fund account for as low as P1,000,” Sun Life Asset Management Co. Inc. (Slamci) president Valerie Pama said in a recent briefing.

The lower minimum investment requirement applies to all of the company’s mutual funds investing in peso-dominated assets—whether government securities, equities or money market.

She added that Slamci had likewise rolled out new investment forms as part of the company’s program to make the process of investing “more client-friendly.”

To date, Slamci has about P63 billion in assets under management (AUM), down from last year’s more than P80 billion, as sluggish financial markets have reduced the valuation of assets under management.

However, Pama noted that despite the sharp decline in the stock market this year, Slamci’s Philippine stock index fund had increased its AUM by about 26 percent to P9 billion on the back of new investment inflows.

She said investors were now learning to put in more money when valuations were low.

Earlier this year, Slamci was named the “best asset management company” in the Philippines for 2018 by Euromoney through the magazine’s annual Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA