Sun Life’s mutual funds breach P60B

Actor Matteo Guidicelli , Sun Life brand ambassador, talks about mutual fund investing

The mutual fund unit of Sun Life of Canada – which is increasingly targeting millennials or young adults as investors – has breached the P60-billion mark in terms of assets under management (AUM).

This AUM level, a record high for Sun Life Asset Management Co. Inc. (SLAMCI), gives it a market share of about a quarter of the P240-billion Philippine mutual fund industry. This also makes it the second largest player in this segment of the fund management business.

Gerard Bautista, SLAMCI head for bank and alternative channels, said the AUM level as of Tuesday breaching the P60-billion mark was a new milestone for the company. The company has a base of 131,000 clients who are invested in 11 mutual funds managed and distributed by the group.

SLAMCI’s AUM level has expanded by around 20 percent from the end-2016 level of close to P50 billion.

About 30 percent of SLAMCI’s client base consisted of millennials and the number is still growing, Bautista said. Each millennial investor has an average investment of P8,000 to P10,000.

SLAMCI has tapped Sun Life group’s brand ambassador, 27-year-old actor Matteo Guidicelli, to launch a new investment campaign that explains investing in mutual funds in a language and visual presentation appealing to young people.

Mutual funds pool people’s money into funds that are managed by professionals, giving investors the benefit of diversification and expert fund management. In the case of SLAMCI, investors typically keep their investment for at least three years.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, Bautista noted that Guidicelli was invested in equity funds and was meticulous in monitoring which companies his funds were invested in.

The actor said he automatically sets aside 10 percent of his earnings to investments.

Mylene Lopa, chief marketing officer at Sun Life Financial group, said eight out of 10 millennials claim to budget carefully but four out of 10 would like to spend their money even before they get it.

Citing results of the group’s previous surveys, Lopa said one out of three millennials believes that credit card would enable him to buy what he wants.

As a positive indicator, Lopa said 80 percent of millennials believe that it’s important to invest for the future. However, she said 87 percent of them don’t own any financial investment.

Only less than 1 percent of millennials invest in shares of stocks and managed funds, Lopa said.

As such, Lopa said the Sun Life group would like to reach out to millennials. “They are the next leaders. They will be the shapers of the Philippines in the next few years. They will be raising kids in the next few years. If we start with them, we’ll start the virtuous cycle of financial literacy,” she said.

Of SLAMCI’s P60 billion AUM, almost half consisted of equity funds while money market funds accounted for 30 percent. The rest consisted of US dollar-denominated funds and other funds.