News Releases
BMO Harris Investment Management Inc. (BHIMI), the investment management arm of BMO Harris Private Banking, today announced that it has enhanced its income equity platform by broadening the mandate of the BMO Harris Diversified Trust Portfolio.
The investment objective and name of the BMO Harris Diversified Trust Portfolio, established in November 2002, have been changed to reflect a broader income-focused strategy. Effective today, the name of this fund has been changed to the BMO Harris Diversified Yield Portfolio.
The new investment objective of this Portfolio is to provide income by investing primarily in a diversified portfolio of Canadian securities. This is broader than the Fund's prior mandate, which was focused on investments that are structured as income trusts.
“In addition to income trusts, we expect the Fund to include common equities, as well as other higher yielding strategies, such as preferred shares,” notes Lutz Zeitler, Portfolio Manager, BHIMI.
“A few factors spurred the broadening of the fund's mandate. The first was the Canadian government's decision to reduce the tax advantage that the income trust structure provided to businesses. Also, our expectation for traditional fixed income solutions to underperform equity markets meant that we had to consider other options to maintain a yield component within an investor's portfolio,” said Zeitler.
Paul Taylor, Chief Investment Officer, BHIMI, added “the repositioning of this fund provides exposure to some of the capital appreciation potential of equities but with stability characteristics more closely associated with fixed income.”
The changes to this fund continue to complement BMO Harris Private Banking's existing large cap Canadian equity strategies, also managed by BHIMI's Canadian equity team.
About BMO Harris Private Banking
BMO Harris Private Banking serves the needs of high net worth clients and their families, to help them deal with a wide range of complex financial issues, providing comprehensive wealth management expertise. The bank's team of professionals is comprised of leading specialists in a variety of disciplines including banking, investment management, estate, trust and various family office services such as philanthropic and business succession planning.
BMO Harris Private Banking is part of BMO Financial Group's Private Client Group. The Private Client Group provides integrated wealth management services in Canada and the United States and had total assets under administration and term investments of $277.19 billion as at July 31, 2007.
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