OREANDA-NEWS. BMO Investments Inc. (BMOII) today announced the following changes to its funds.

Investment Strategies Amendments

BMO Balanced Yield Plus ETF Portfolio and BMO Fixed Income Yield Plus ETF Portfolio will now invest up to 75 per cent of their assets in foreign securities.

Additionally, portfolio managers of BMO Bond Fund, BMO Core Bond Fund and BMO Core Plus Bond Fund may now implement dynamic positioning investment strategies on the yield-curve by actively trading different types of securities. This trading may increase the turnover rate of these funds. The higher the portfolio turnover rate, the greater the possibility that unitholders in these funds will receive income or taxable capital gains.

Prospectus Amendments

Amendments will be made to the prospectus for all classes of BMO Global Tax Advantage Funds (the GTAF Funds) as a consequence of amendments to Canadian tax laws which eliminated the tax benefits associated with forward agreements used by certain investment funds to achieve capital gains treatment on investment returns that would otherwise be treated as income for tax purposes. As a result, BMOII is no longer able to use this type of structure to reduce the amount of income generated by BMO Global Tax Advantage Funds Inc. (the Corporation). Accordingly, there is a greater likelihood for the Corporation, and mutual fund corporations similar to it, to pay income tax.

Note that registered accounts are still restricted from purchasing the following GTAF Funds:

  • BMO Asian Growth and Income Class
  • BMO International Value Class
  • BMO Global Dividend Class
  • BMO SelectClass® Income Portfolio
  • BMO SelectClass® Balanced Portfolio
  • BMO SelectClass® Growth Portfolio
  • BMO SelectClass® Equity Growth Portfolio
  • BMO Income ETF Portfolio Class
  • BMO Balanced ETF Portfolio Class
  • BMO Growth ETF Portfolio Class
  • BMO Equity Growth ETF Portfolio Class

Effective today, the GTAF Funds prospectus is also amended to indicate that investors should consider the GTAF Funds if they are investing in a non-registered account and want the flexibility to switch to another class of the Corporation without realizing capital gains.

Investors should speak with their investment professional and tax advisor about their options regarding corporate class funds, such as the GTAF Funds, including about whether registered account holders should be switching their existing investments from the GTAF Funds into mutual fund trusts that have similar mandates.

BMO Mutual Funds are offered by BMO Investments Inc., a financial services firm and separate legal entity from Bank of Montreal.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with mutual fund investments. Please read the prospectus of the mutual fund before investing. Mutual funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.

About BMO Financial Group

Established in 1817, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified financial services provider based in North America. With total assets of approximately $642 billion as of October 31, 2015, and close to 47,000 employees, BMO provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.