MFS Canadian Equity Segregated Fund Portfolio Manager and Strategy Changes, and change in marketed list status

Plan sponsors may wish to consider whether this investment news has any implications for the investment options available within their plans. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada purchases units of the funds listed below, which are established as segregated funds in accordance with the Insurance Companies Act (Canada).

This is an update only and you don’t need to take any action as a result of this news.

MFS recently announced that Dimi Ntantoulis, lead Portfolio Manager for MFS Canadian Equity Fund (Canadian Equity), is retiring on January 31, 2027. Concurrent with Ntantoulis’ retirement, MFS will transition the Canadian Equity strategy to mirror the MFS Canadian Research Equity strategy (Canadian Research). Therefore, MFS will discontinue the existing Canadian Equity strategy, but they will not close the fund. Canadian Research and Canadian Equity will be managed the same way going forward.

Ntantoulis joined MFS in 2006 and has almost 30 years of total investment experience. She has been the sole Portfolio Manager (PM) on Canadian Equity since 2017. Ntantoulis leverages the research of the Canadian equity research analysts but has ultimate decision-making authority for all the stocks in the portfolio. Canadian Equity has a large cap, core focus, with a modest growth tilt.

When Ntantoulis retires in January 2027, the MFS Canadian Equity fund will transition to Canadian Research, which is a core, all cap, strategy, whereby analysts make the buy and sell decisions for the overall portfolio. It is currently managed by four Canadian equity research analysts who conduct fundamental research and select stocks, namely Koki Akala, Omar Hashem, Winter Lis, and Colin Moore. All stock decisions are made through a consensus voting process. Akala also acts as Portfolio Coordinator, with responsibility for leading team meetings and coordinating voting on individual stock decisions. The analysts average 14 years of investment experience and ten years of tenure at MFS. Jamie Keating acts as PM. He oversees the investment process but does not make stock-level decisions. Keating has 19 years of tenure at MFS and 34 years of overall investment experience.

Canadian Equity and Canadian Research have similar portfolio characteristics, a significant overlap in holdings (82% in common), and similar long-term performance. Canadian Research has slightly more holdings than Canadian Equity (64 vs.53). Over the ten-year period ended June 30, 2026, Canadian Research generated a return of 12.8% (annualized) and outperformed Canadian Equity by 0.2%.

MFS stated that they made the decision to reduce the number of Canadian Equity strategies because they believe that the core, all-cap approach of Canadian Research is better suited to the Canadian market with its broader investment universe and benchmark aware approach.

GRS Investment Solutions team view

We have placed the MFS Canadian Equity fund On Watch due to the planned retirement of Lead PM Dimi Ntantoulis and a concurrent investment strategy change.

Ntantoulis’ departure is a loss for the Canadian Equity team. She has a long tenure at MFS and contributed to the research effort via team meetings and her experience covering the consumer sectors in Canada and other sectors globally.

It is rare for an MFS equity strategy to have a sole PM. When co-PM Nicole Zatlyn left the PM team for another role within MFS in 2017, MFS indicated that they would look at adding another PM to the team. However, this never occurred and Ntantoulis remained sole PM.

We think it makes sense to consolidate the strategies given their overlap. Despite the different investment process and mandate, Canadian Research and Canadian Equity had very similar portfolios and performance. The similarity in holdings suggests that Ntantoulis had a light touch as PM and largely relied upon the analysts’ research recommendations for the strategy’s core positioning.

While not a significant change, plan sponsors may wish to confirm that Canadian Research is appropriate for their fund line-up. We will continue to monitor Canadian Equity through its transition to Canadian Research in January 2027 and provide further updates as needed.

Change to Marketed List

Given the above changes, going forward, we will market the MFS Canadian Research Fund on our core investment platform, and no longer market the MFS Canadian Equity Fund. This means that clients who don’t already offer Canadian Research can add the fund to their line-up, while clients who don’t already offer MFS Canadian Equity will no longer be able to add the fund. For the time being, Sun Life does not plan to close the MFS Canadian Equity Fund, but we will provide updates if this changes. Governance continues on both funds.

Questions?

Please contact your Sun Life Group Retirement Services Representative.