In a sign ETFs are now an established part of the Canadian fund market, they played a bigger part in this year’s Canadian Investment Awards.
The Morningstar Canadian Investment Awards added a new ETF category this year based on investor feedback: Best Specialty ETF. The inaugural winner of this category was BlackRock Canada’s iShares Fundamental Japan Index ETF.
Read: ETFS in depth
In the traditional categories, Mawer won seven awards, including Analyst’s Choice for Fund Company of the Year.
The Advisor’s Choice for Fund Company of the Year was Fidelity Investments. It’s the third year in a row the firm has gotten this honour.
Vanguard Investments, which has been in Canada for two years, scooped two awards: ETF Provider of the Year and Best Equity ETF for its US Total Market Index ETF CAD-Hedged. BMO ETFs won the ETF Initiative Award.
Ian Soutar, co-founder of Pembroke Management Ltd., won the Career Achievement Award. In his speech, he admitted to failing to invest in WalMart after having lunch with Sam Walton, and selling Microsoft in 1987 because he considered it overvalued. But regardless, his process works: Pembroke still has its first two institutional clients from 1968 and 1974, respectively.
Read: Morningstar Awards: what the winners say
The fund managers of the year are:
- Paul Moroz, Mawer Investment Management, Foreign Equity (read our interview with him here)
- Mark Thomson, Pat Palozzi, James Black, Stephen Arpin, and William Otton, Beutel, Goodman & Company Ltd., Domestic Equity
- Michael Hasenstab and Sonal Desai, Templeton Global Bond, Franklin Templeton, Fixed Income
For a full list of winners, click here.