Dave

RBC Monthly Income Fund

At just under $8 billion in assets, the RBC Monthly Income Fund ranks as one of the largest funds in the country. Despite its hulking size, the fund continues to reward investors with steady, stable performance. Despite a blip in 2009 when the fund finished in the third quartile, the fund has consistently been in the upper quartiles. Volatility has also been below both the fund’s benchmark and the broader category average. Even during the credit crisis of 2007 – 2009, the fund dropped approximately 19%, while the benchmark fell by more than 28%.

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Investment Fund Ranking Report – November 2011

You can download our Monthly Investment Fund Ranking Report for November 2011 here. November 2011 Investment Fund Ranking Report

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Top Funds Report – December 2011

This month, our top funds are the PH&N Bond Fund, Dynamic Small Business Fund, Manulife Global Opportunities Fund, and the IA Clarington Real Return Bond Fund. Also, based on a request from one of our readers, we take a look at the Mawer family of mutual funds, highlighting some of the great funds available from that highly regarded shop.

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Dynamic Small Business Fund

The management team of Oscar Belaiche and Jason Gibbs look to provide long term capital growth by investing in small cap stocks. The Fund used to focus on income trusts however, since the demise of the income trust sector, they tend to focus on high yielding small and mid cap stocks, business trusts, royalty trusts and REIT’s. In addition to the capital gain opportunity, the fund also pays investors a monthly distribution of $0.014 per month, which translates into an income yield of approximately 1.7% at current prices. The yield on the underlying portfolio is estimated at 6.6%, which indicates that the level of distribution is very likely sustainable going forward.

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Manulife Global Opportunities Class Fund

This is an all cap global equity fund that has been managed by Christopher Arbuthnot since the fund’s April 2007 launch date. The manager is not bound by any market cap, sector or geographic constraints, so he is able to truly to embrace a “go anywhere” philosophy. In selecting stocks for the fund, the manager uses a value focused approach, looking to pay a reasonable price for a stock, relative to its growth expectations. The manager looks for good businesses with strong management, efficient use of capital and a history of product innovation. The managers will also look for turnaround situations such as a new management team in place, new products being brought to the market or industry consolidation.

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