Saturday, October 20, 2012

Standard Life Mutual Funds announces changes to its offering

Standard Life Mutual Funds Ltd. ("SLMF") today announced changes to its fund offering. The changes relate to charge structure, trailing commission, new funds and risk rating and will be part of the updated simplified prospectus filed with Canadian securities regulators.

"Given the current context where the number of funds and options keep increasing in the market, we want to ensure Standard Life mutual funds continue being attractive investment solutions for our customers while ensuring a balanced and sustainable set of funds for SLMF," said Patrick Loranger , Manager, Retail Investment Products at Standard Life. "Our Legend Series is particularly well positioned and it's essential that it remains competitive."

Lower management fees (MF)
On or about October 31, 2012 , SLMF will reduce the management fees by 0.20% of the F-Series of the Standard Life Monthly Income Fund, the Standard Life Canadian Dividend Growth Fund, the Standard Life Global Dividend Growth Fund and the Standard Life Canadian Small Cap Fund. Consequently, the management expense ratio (MER) of these funds will decrease, all other things being equal.

SLMF will also reduce the management fees by 0.20% of the A-Series and E-Series of the Standard Life Money Market Fund, the Standard Life Canadian Bond Fund and the Standard Life International Bond Fund, as well as the A-Series, E-Series and F-Series of the Standard Life Corporate Bond Fund. The reduction will counterbalance higher operating expenses (OE) charged to these funds, and will therefore not impact the MER, all other things being equal.

From low sales charge (LSC) to front-end sales charge
A new automatic feature will be offered to dealers for funds sold on or after November 1, 2012 . As of Year 4 from the original purchase date for a low sales charge option, SLMF will automatically start paying trailing commission as if the fund had been bought under a front-end sales charge option. The new feature doesn't impact the management fees and charges paid by the investors.

New charge structure for the Legend Series
Effective on or about February 1, 2013 , SLMF will no longer pay the operating expenses of its entire suite of Legend Series funds. The change will result in an increase in the MER for 27 of the 31 funds in the Legend Series. A decrease of the management fees by 0.20% of the remaining 4 funds - Standard Life Money Market Fund, Standard Life Canadian Bond Fund, Standard Life Corporate Bond Fund and Standard Life International Bond Fund - will offset the operating expenses, leaving the MER intact, all other things being equal.

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