Introduction to the Golden Accumulator Retirement plan

The Golden Accumulator Retirement Plan provides a viable alternative to those employers who do not wish the services of separate trustees and who wish more investment flexibility options.

Assets of the Golden Accumulator Retirement Plan are held by BF&M Life on a segregated account basis as per BF&M Life’s Act of 1995. By doing so, all pension assets are protected from all other creditors of the Company.

The Golden Accumulator Retirement Plan has two main fund platforms available which are selected by the Employer upon initial set up of the pension plan. These platforms include the BF&M Multiple-Manager Funds (formerly referred to as Segregated Funds) and the BF&M Separately Managed Funds. There is also an option to choose a customized fund platform depending on the needs of your organization. This would have to be discussed and designed with BF&M through its subsidiary BF&M Investment Services Limited (formerly known as North Atlantic Asset Management).

BF&M Segregated funds are a selection of 5 publicly-traded mutual funds. The funds are selected based on overall performance and are monitored on an ongoing basis. The funds are grouped together with a guaranteed interest fund to form a selection of multiple-manager fund risk profiles (PDF) that are made available to members upon enrollment in the pension plan. The risk profiles allow the member to invest a portion of their contributions in each fund depending on their overall risk tolerance. The mix of each fund within the profiles varies and is meant to provide the appropriate return related to the desired level of risk that a member is willing to take.

The 5 funds are reported under 5 generic fund codes as noted below:

BF1 – Bond Fund
GVF – Global Value Fund
IGF – International Growth Fund
USGF – US Growth Fund
USVF – US Value Fund

These generic categories are used to allow for flexibility in the management of the actual underlying funds. Therefore the member selects the fund category and BF&M, through its subsidiary BF&M Investment Services Limited, manages the underlying investments for each fund category.

More information on the underlying funds and the performance of these funds can be found under the Golden Accumulator Fact Sheets.

BF&M Separately Managed Funds are a selection of 4 funds that are managed directly for the purpose of BF&M’s Golden Accumulator Retirement Plan. Up until February 2008, all of the funds were managed by McLean Budden Limited. However, in March 2008, the fund manager for the International Equity Fund changed to Fortis Investments.

Similar to the BF&M Multiple-Manager Funds, the Separately Managed Funds are grouped together with a guaranteed interest fund to form a selection of separately managed fund risk profiles (PDF) designed to provide the member with the appropriate return for the level of risk they are willing to take. There is a 5th fund called the Diversified Fund, which is a combination of the other 4 funds, which allows members to invest in one fund and still have some diversification, similar to investing in a risk profile. However, the mix for the diversified fund is different than any of the risk profiles. Although the allocation changes from time to time, the approximate mix for the Diversified Fund is 36% Global Bond Fund, 29% International Equity, 29% US Equity and 6% Money Market.

More information on the performance of these funds can be found under the Golden Accumulator Fact Sheets.