News and Insights

Looking ahead in 2025: A note from Oricia Smith, President of Sun Life Global Investments

As 2025 begins, our purpose remains clear – to help Canadians and their families achieve lifetime financial security and live their most meaningful lives. A key part of this is our ongoing work to deliver retirees with “outcome-driven” investment solutions and that focus will continue this year. 

Return of diversification & the importance of innovation 

We don’t know what’s ahead for 2025. However key themes likely to unfold are the importance of diversification and innovation – both top of mind for our multi-asset solutions Team to deliver the best possible outcomes for Canadians.

 “Wealth in the new regime flows directly from innovation, not optimization; that is, wealth is not gained by perfecting the unknown, but by imperfectly seizing the unknown,” says author Kevin Kelly.* Seizing the unknown and innovation will remain key for Sun Life Global Investments this year and in the future.

Strengthening our multi-asset solutions to deliver the best possible outcomes

Our Multi-Asset Solutions Team continuously evolves the multi-asset solutions that they manage. Looking back at 2024, a number of enhancements were made to Sun Life Granite Target Date Funds (TDFs). Several specialty asset classes were added, including direct infrastructure and trend-following liquid alternatives, while equity allocation was increased across the glidepaths. 

The team’s in-depth analysis and stress-testing ensures Granite TDFs deliver the best possible outcome for plan members, at and through retirement. In the first few months of 2025, these portfolios will undergo their annual strategic review, looking for additional ways to evolve them.  

Broadening our suite of decumulation solutions 

In collaboration with Sun Life Group Retirement Services, last year we launched Sun Life MyRetirement Income, and with it, a new category in decumulation: target age solutions. Built to deliver what Canadians are asking for in retirement, the revolutionary solution also simplifies the process of turning savings into income. We hope this will become the standard non-guaranteed industry solution for retirement. We are eager to build on this success and are already exploring other potential solutions to expand our decumulation offering to retirees. 

Progressing our responsible investing commitment

In 2022 we became a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) as an asset manager, committed to the six core principles for responsible investment (RI). Since joining, we have worked hard to enhance our RI policy and position statements, refine processes and roadmaps, and take concrete steps to progress in our RI journey. This was reflected in our 2024 PRI Assessment Report where we were pleased to see our module scores improve across all assessed categories. We plan to continue to strengthen our responsible investing journey in 2025.

What’s next? 

We will strive to be a leader in decumulation and strengthen retirement outcomes for Canadians. We will continue to evolve our flagship Granite TDFs. And we’ll keep capitalizing on opportunities and execute on the initiatives that will give our Clients confidence in their financial futures with us. Thank you for your partnership and we look forward to working with you through 2025. 

*Source: Kevin Kelly, “New Rules for the New Economy”, Wired

Views expressed regarding a particular company, security, industry, or market sector should not be considered an indication of trading intent of any investment funds managed by SLGI Asset Management Inc. These views are subject to change at any time and are not to be considered as investment advice nor should they be considered a recommendation to buy or sell. This material is provided for information purposes only and is not intended to provide specific individual financial, investment, tax or legal advice. 

This material may contain forward-looking statements about the economy and markets, their future performance, strategies or prospects or events and are subject to uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are speculative in nature and cannot be relied upon