The Fee-based Summer 2015 Semi-annual Report

In the course of the past thirty years, fund wrap programs have become an important part of the investment fund landscape. One of the core elements of the fund wrap value proposition is the professional design, execution and ongoing maintenance of a risk-appropriate balanced asset mix. But in an age when even the most fundamental—including those with the Nobel prize stamp of approval, like the Markowitz’s Modern Portfolio Theory—asset allocation theories are called into question, how are fund wrap manufacturers evolving their program design to ensure continued relevance to investors and distributors? And, having carved out a considerable market share within the fund universe, how do fund wraps need to evolve to achieve an even greater penetration? To help manufacturers ponder these questions, the feature story of the Fee-based Report delves deeply into our now-considerable databanks and competitive intelligence spanning the entire universe of the fund wrap programs offered in Canada. Our analysis taps into a dataset that accounts for each constituent underlying holding of fund wraps. The exhibits and commentary look at the assets held and the net flows generated by asset allocation programs from multiple vantage points, including detailed asset class; foreign versus domestic mandates; product type (actively managed, index funds, ETFs, direct securities, cash and equivalents); proprietary or third-party products; and Morningstar Ratings^TM.