IA Clarington Investments has announced it will enter into an exclusive agreement with Taylor Asset Management Inc., led by heavyweight portfolio manager David Taylor, to serve as a sub-advisor on new Canadian equity and Canadian balanced mutual funds.

“Partnering with David Taylor reflects our commitment to providing our clients with access to portfolio managers with proven track records and high conviction views,” said David Scandiffio, president of IA Clarington.

Taylor has over 24 years of experience in the investment industry, which includes managing more than $8 billion in assets and a number of funds at Dynamic Funds, before he quit in October last year to start his own investment company Taylor Asset Management.

Read: Taylor quits Dynamic, Mo joins

“I am excited to be entering into a partnership with IA Clarington; the firm is well respected in the advisor community and it is important for me to partner with a team that shares my commitment to advisors,” said Taylor. “IA Clarington has a very strong stable of reputable portfolio managers, and I’m proud to now be part of that line-up.”

The experience and philosophy of Taylor Asset Management will provide IA Clarington investors access to a distinct investment strategy for their portfolios, said Scandiffio.

“At a time when you have large financial institutions [and] you have entrepreneurial people who have the ability to run their own business, there are opportunities that come up to partner with those people,” said Scandiffio. “Yes, there will be more opportunities as people look and make choices about the way they operate their business. In the end we think it’s perfectly aligned with where we’re going and it will ultimately be a very good think for our shareholders.”

It is often argued that such business partnerships come at the expense of autonomy.

“In business as in life there’s always going to be trade-offs that you have but in this case it’s really a win-win in that we can both focus on what we do best; for us that’s talking to and servicing the independent advisor community and David can focus on the investment side of things,” said Scandiffio.