Topic: How To Invest

Hello Pat: Could you please provide me with your opinion on the C.I. Signature High Income Fund? Thank you.

Article Excerpt

The C.I. Signature High Income Fund is a mutual fund that holds mostly high-quality stocks and real estate investment trusts. However, it also holds 39.4% of its portfolio in bonds. In general, we don’t recommend bonds right now. That’s because bonds are unlikely to perform as well in the next few years as they have in the last few, mainly because interest rates will likely hold steady or rise. That means the fund would only earn interest income on its bonds; instead of capital gains, its bond holdings could produce capital losses. The fund only holds corporate bonds. As a general rule, the safest bonds are issued by or guaranteed by the federal government. Next are provincial issues or bonds with provincial guarantees. After that come corporate bonds. Corporate-bond risk varies widely. Some corporates are almost as safe as government bonds, and offer only slightly higher yields. Some corporates are far riskier, but may not offer enough extra interest to offset…