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Empire Life Dividend Growth GIF outperforms in a declining market 

So far this year equity markets have been extremely volatile. Over this time period, the Empire Life Dividend Growth GIF* has behaved as expected outperforming a material decline in Canadian equity markets and an even steeper decline in equity markets globally. In this recent update, Senior Portfolio Manager, Doug Cooper discusses: 

• The ongoing Russia/Ukraine conflict and the resulting economic headwinds for the region.
• How the sharp rise in interest rates led to a notable change in market leadership
• Where the fund’s flexibility helped take advantage of global opportunities 

Read Doug’s commentary to find out how the conservative positioning of the Empire Life Dividend Growth GIF has allowed it to outperform the broader equity markets during some very volatile market conditions.

*  The legal name of the fund is “Dividend Growth Fund”.

Now available: Participating Account Q2 Summary

Despite continued market volatility, our participating fund posted a strong annualized investment rate of return of 5.54% and a solid 10 year return of 6.57%.

What makes Empire Life's participating life insurance great for many Canadians is the combination of:

• Guaranteed premiums
• Guaranteed life insurance coverage
• Guaranteed cash surrender values and paid-up values
• The potential of receiving dividends each year

Consistent returns with a conservative investment approach have made the Empire Life participating plans very successful over the years. It is also why we have never failed to pay a dividend in the history of offering this type of insurance. Our dividend scales are guaranteed never to fall below zero percent and any dividend,
once paid, cannot be taken back.

Download a copy of the summary below.

Please join us for our next TRIIPSS Webinar:

Women, Finances, and Estate Planning Live Webinar

Best Practices

Reminder –Setting up Joint Accounts

While reviewing our joint owner policies, we found that many were set up as joint owners with no successor annuitant named. 

This means that if the primary annuitant passes away, the policy would then collapse and pay out to the beneficiaries listed. Often, this was NOT the intention when setting up these policies.

New Business and Policy Change (Excluding Underwriting) Email Update

In order to streamline our email process, we will now have emails sent directly to our processing team. This will allow us to bypass our Customer Service team and decrease our overall handling time.

Effective September 1st, 2022, when you receive an email from our Insurance operations, it will be sent from ind_newbusiness@empire.ca. All replies to ind_newbusiness@empire.ca will be directly received by our Insurance Operations, who is processing the new business application or policy change.

Our Customer Service team will continue to assist on any new requests and/or status updates.

Case in Point

In this Case in Point, Alex Papale gives readers valuable information to guide incorporated professionals, and particularly young professionals, on the positioning of life insurance policies. Through a case study, you'll review tax and practical considerations that will allow you to increase the value that you can bring to those clients.

Now available on demand:

Finding investment and tax opportunities in a challenging market

When markets go down and the value of investment portfolios drop, some clients can be stressed and question their investment plan. Even though bear markets can bring many challenges, there are steps that an astute investor can take to use such markets to their advantage.

In this presentation, we'll discuss some of the risks that an investor may face in challenging markets. We'll also see how bear markets can provide investment and tax opportunities. Finally, we will provide investment ideas and tools such as tables and charts that advisors can use in their discussions with their clients.

CE credit offer available until November 30, 2022.
A quiz will appear after the webinar has been viewed. 

This webinar is also available in French

From the desk of CIO Paul Holba
Is 2022 the rude wake-up call we've been waiting for?

In this latest update from the Empire Life Investments team, Paul Holba reviews the key market events impacting 2022 and beyond. Here are the highlights:

• Accelerating inflation and rapidly tightening monetary policy fueled a months-long-rout among major asset classes, sending U.S. equities into bear territory.
• Bond markets sold off sharply and bond yields increased across the curve as central banks around the world aggressively raised interest rates to combat the highest inflation since the 1980s.
• Many of Empire Life’s multi-asset solutions, such as Emblem GIFs, Monthly Income GIF, and Asset Allocation GIF, benefitted from a more defensive positioning (lower equity allocations) in light of increased economic risks.

Read more about the Empire Life Investments team’s outlook and how the funds are positioned. The team also shares how they are ready to meet today’s challenges head-on, helping to see investors through market volatility and focus on their long-term financial objectives.

Bonds offer historically attractive yields as inflation risks remain
Empire Life fixed income funds outperformed after the worst drawdown in more than 40 years

Bond markets sold off sharply in the first half of the year as central banks around the world aggressively raised interest rates causing bond yields to increase across the curve. Although our fixed income mandates could not avoid losses in this challenging market environment, our positioning helped us preserve capital, compared with our peers, and deliver performance that was in the top quartile for the first half of 2022 and on a trailing one-year basis.

Read the latest commentary from Albert Ngo, Senior Portfolio and Ian Fung, Portfolio Manager to see how they are positioning Empire Life fixed income portfolios and believe the funds remain well positioned for the long term.

Financial Markets at-a-glance infographic now available for Q2 

The Financial Markets at a Glance infographic provides a high-level, visual way to explain the past quarter’s market changes to your investors. It presents a brief overview of world events and their impact on global markets. Easily digestible bits of information are broken down by Canadian, US, global equities and fixed income using colourful graphics and symbols so you can give your investors a big picture overview of what happened in Q2 2022.