AGF is taking over ING Mutual Funds

[advantage21]

ING Mutual funds is packing in by selling out (http://www.morningstar.ca/globalhome/Industry/News.asp?Articleid=ArticleID330200516311) to AGF. This can't be good news. Look for the MER and management fees to go up soon.

[15-20_God]

The effect of the merge on MER's is minimal. It really depends on what fund you're holding, and by and large both MER's are similar. Being rolled over to AGF you have access to their inventory of funds and better management, worht the increased cost if any.

[eelfliw]

Hmmm.... is this further sign of consolidation in the MF industry?

I hope this industry doesn't turn into an oligopoly.

I used to laugh at the funds offered thru my company's pension plan because of lower rates of return. But, after 15 years of monitoring the performance & MER against some of the big, publically available funds out there such as AIC, Fidelity etc. I'm switching.

[advantage21]

The effect of the merge on MER's is minimal. It really depends on what fund you're holding, and by and large both MER's are similar. Being rolled over to AGF you have access to their inventory of funds and better management, worht the increased cost if any.

Minimal? The surviving ING funds are being rolled over into AGF's high fees family. For example, the ING Canadian Financial Services fund (which I hold) with a 2.25% MER is merging into the AGF Global Financial Service Fund with a 3.15% MER.

[advantage21]

Hmmm.... is this further sign of consolidation in the MF industry?

I hope this industry doesn't turn into an oligopoly.

I used to laugh at the funds offered thru my company's pension plan because of lower rates of return. But, after 15 years of monitoring the performance & MER against some of the big, publically available funds out there such as AIC, Fidelity etc. I'm switching.

There are some good choices, such as PH&N, but with a 25K minimum investment, it's not for everyone. I'm in the process of moving my funds as well, I'm going to dollar cost average my way into the TD eFunds.

[15-20_God]

Minimal? The surviving ING funds are being rolled over into AGF's high fees family. For example, the ING Canadian Financial Services fund (which I hold) with a 2.25% MER is merging into the AGF Global Financial Service Fund with a 3.15% MER.

How'd you figure that? The page you linked shows the mer on the ing cdn fins svcs as 2.62% With the AGF fund that its being rolled into, you can justify the higher mer by the access it gives you to global financial institutions. If it doesn't agree with you agf gives you the option of selling out the fund at no cost or switching to something else.

If you're basing your decision on MER, might I suggest buying the financials index offered by iUnits instead? Its an ETF, has an mer of 0.55%, and has outperformed both the ing and agf financials fund.

http://www.iunits.com/english/funds/fundprofiles/ifin/factsheet.pdf