Manulife Investments has added two new options - offered in a trust structure - to its line-up of private investment pools.

The Manulife US Fixed Income Private Trust seeks to provide long-term total return consisting of income and the potential for capital appreciation by investing primarily in a portfolio of US investment grade and high yield debt securities. Portfolio managers for this pool include John Addeo and Dennis McCafferty - Manulife Asset Management (US).

The Manulife Global Balanced Private Trust is managed by Greg Peterson, director and senior portfolio manager; Paul Moroz, deputy chief investment officer; and Jim Hall, chief investment officer – Mawer Investment Management.  

On the equity side, the portfolio managers adopt a bottom-up investment approach to identify wealth-creating companies that they believe have solid management teams but are trading at discounts to their intrinsic values.

These equities are combined with global and Canadian fixed income exposure, which will be a minimum of 30 per cent of the pool.

The firm said it has also added a second Mawer-managed pool to its line-up, which it added might appeal to affluent clients looking to invest in the global equity markets with less volatility.

Manulife Investments is also renaming Manulife Balanced Private Pool and Manulife Balanced Private Trust to Manulife US Balanced Private Pool and Manulife US Balanced Private Trust, respectively.

The minimum investment for the private investment pools is $150,000 per pool, per account.