Investor Economics October 2020

The Sub-advisory Business in Canada: Steady As She Goes

Investment fund assets have grown substantially across the globe during the last two decades—and Canada was no exception. The growing scale of the business, however, became a headwind for many sub-advisors: As fund company assets expanded, new opportunities to vertically integrate across the value chain materialized. Managing more of the assets in-house became a high priority for many asset managers, but other opportunities for sub-advisors remained healthy, while new areas to expand also appeared.

The October Insight lead story examines the evolution of the investment fund sub-advisory business in Canada, looking at the various trends underpinning mutual funds and ETFs. The research feature presents the largest and fastest growing sub-advisors, popular asset classes, MERs and investment performance trends for sub-advised versus in-house managed funds. The Trendlines article reviews the expanding shelf of ETFs of ETFs in Canada.