Plan sponsors may wish to consider whether this investment news has any implications for the investment options available within their plans. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada purchases units of the funds listed below, which are established as segregated funds in accordance with the Insurance Companies Act (Canada).

Sun Life Capital Management (Canada) Inc. (“SLC”) recently announced a change to their private fixed income team. Candace Shaw, lead portfolio manager for SLC Private Fixed Income Plus Fund (“PFI Plus”), was promoted by SLC to the role of Deputy Chief Investment Officer. She will no longer manage PFI Plus and other fixed income strategies at SLC.

Before the promotion, Ms. Shaw was Head of Private Fixed Income and lead of a five-person portfolio management team on PFI Plus. She continued to manage the fund until the end of 2020 as part of the transition.

Elaad Keren has assumed lead portfolio management responsibility for PFI Plus. He has close to 20 years of private fixed income experience, focusing on private securitization finance and mid-market finance. He is Head of Mid-Market Debt. Keren originally joined SLC’s PFI team in 2008. He left to join another firm in 2015, before returning to SLC in June 2019.  

Keren relinquished his responsibilities in private securitization finance to free up time for his new portfolio management responsibilities. The remaining four portfolio managers will support Keren on PFI Plus - Nick Delisle, Randall Malcolm, Petra Wendroth and Maurice Primeau.

As part of the organizational changes, Sam Tillinghast has succeeded Shaw as Head of Private Fixed Income at SLC. Keren will now report directly to him. Tillinghast joined SLC in 2018 as President of U.S. Private Credit.

There were no changes to the strategy’s objective or process because of these changes.

Our View

The Sun Life GRS Investment Solutions team views PFI Plus as a team- and process-driven strategy, which doesn’t rely on the talent of an individual portfolio manager. We don’t expect any material changes to the strategy. While PFI Plus will miss Shaw’s experience, she remains at SLC. PFI Plus will continue to benefit from the experience and continuity of the remaining team members. We have placed the strategy on our Watch List in the Additional Monitoring category, and will monitor the portfolio management team transition through 2021.

Questions?

Please contact the Sun Life Group Retirement Services team.