Addition of the PH&N Long Core Plus Bond Fund to the Defined Benefit investment platform

November 27, 2025

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).

We’re pleased to announce the addition of the PH&N Long Core Plus Bond Segregated fund (the Fund) to the DB investment platform.

The Fund invests primarily in a wide range of longer term Canadian and non-Canadian fixed income securities in both developed and emerging markets. Phillips Hager & North Investment Management Ltd. (PH&N) seeks to add value through interest rate anticipation, credit, liquidity and alpha strategies, as they believe these to be the most predictable and sustainable over the long-term.

The Fund has a long performance track record and is actively managed by an experienced investment team at PH&N. The investment team creates a portfolio with a mix of bottom-up and top-down analysis. The “core” portion of the portfolio invests in long-term Canadian investment grade government and corporate bonds while the “plus” component may invest in mortgages, high yield debt, emerging market debt, private placement debt, and absolute return strategies. The Fund uses a moderate amount of leverage. It uses derivatives (bond forwards) for approximately 30% of the fund to extend the duration. The cash component of the derivatives is invested in “plus” strategies which largely consist of shorter-term securities (there are limited value-added opportunities in long-term securities).

The portfolio managers are responsible for portfolio level decisions such as asset allocation and duration, while specialists within the core and plus strategies have responsibility for selecting individual securities. PH&N utilizes RBC affiliate Blue Bay for some global credit strategies.

The Fund is managed by the Vancouver based PH&N Fixed Income Team which was formally established in 1984. Today, the team has one of the largest fixed income teams (48 professionals) in Canada who collectively manage approximately $140 billion in assets under management.  The PH&N fund assets were $5.4billion as of June 30, 2025.

The addition of the Fund represents Sun Life’s commitment to offer Defined Benefit plan sponsors with diverse fixed income investment options. On the platform, we also offer the PH&N Short Core Plus Bond and PH&N Core Plus Bond options, so this addition completes the suite of PH&N core plus funds.

Summary of the PH&N Long Core Plus Fund

Inception Date

July 2015

Investment Objective

The portfolio seeks to earn interest income and provide reasonable stability of capital by investing primarily in long-term Canadian and non-Canadian fixed income securities.

Benchmark

FTSE Canada Long Term Overall Bond Index

Portfolio Management Team
  • Andrew MacNeil, Senior Portfolio Manager
  • Kristian Sawkins, Senior Portfolio Manager & Co-head of the Team
  • Matthew Dubras, Senior Portfolio Manager

Guidelines/ Constraints
  • Duration is managed around the benchmark (+/- 2 years).
  • Maximum Non-Canadian securities: 50%
  • Maximum credit quality BB+ and below: 25%
  • The fund can enter into security-lending, repurchase and reverse-repurchase transactions.

About PH&N

PH&N was founded in 1964. Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) acquired PH&N in 2008. In 2010, the firm was amalgamated with RBC Asset Management Inc. to form RBC Global Asset Management (RBC GAM Inc.), an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of RBC. As of June 30, 2025, PH&N managed approximately CAD$165 billion in assets.  

Do you have to take any action?

You don’t need to take any action. You may consider whether the new fund would be a suitable addition to your lineup.

Questions?

Please contact your Sun Life Group Retirement Services representative*.

*In Quebec, registered as a Group annuity plans advisor.