Topic: How To Invest

Dear Pat, what is your assessment of Sentry Select Diversified Income Fund? Thank you.

Article Excerpt

Sentry Select Diversified Income Fund, $2.17, symbol SDT.UN on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 219.7 million; Market cap: $476.8 million), is a closed-end mutual fund that mainly invests in royalty trusts, income trusts and real estate investment trusts (REITs). The fund also invests in high-yielding common shares. Earlier this year, the fund changed its name to Sentry Select Diversified Income Fund. (It was formerly Sentry Select Diversified Income Trust.) The change is meant to reflect management’s intention to keep buying dividend-paying common stocks, while cutting the fund’s income trust holdings. About 19% of the roughly 90 investments Sentry holds are common stocks, and the rest are mostly trusts. Sentry is doing this in response to Ottawa’s plan to start taxing trust distributions in 2011. In many circumstances, the new tax will eliminate the tax advantage income trust distributions hold over dividends. The fund’s top-ten holdings are CML Healthcare Income Fund (3.8%), Zargon Energy Trust (3.4%), First Capital Realty (3.3%), Cominar REIT…