Fund updates

Invesco Funds has notified us of various changes to the underlying fund of our J38 Invesco Emerging Markets Equity mirror fund. The changes are effective 1 February 2024.

Janus Henderson Horizon Fund has notified us of various changes to the underlying fund of our P63 Janus Henderson Horizon European Growth (USD) mirror fund. The changes are effective 10 November 2023.

In March 2022, we provided notification that Canaccord Genuity Investment Funds Plc were making branding changes to its fund range which impacted our CGWM mirror funds. The changes saw the CGWM pre-fix on the CGWM fund names change to Canaccord Genuity. We will now be applying additional name changes to the mirror funds to better reflect the names of the underlying funds of our Canaccord Genuity mirror funds.

Allianz Global Investors Fund has notified us of changes to the investment objectives and investment restrictions to the underlying fund of our R44 Allianz Total Return Asian Equity mirror fund. The changes will take effect from 29 September 2023.

Invesco Funds has notified us of a change to the China Stock Connect limit on the underlying fund of J02 Invesco Asian Equity with effect from 8 August 2023.

Following the suspension of trading on the underlying fund of P48 Barings Eastern Europe in March 2022, due to the situation in Ukraine; Baring International Fund Managers has advised it will transfer the liquid portion of underlying assets to a new fund with effect 21 July 2023.

Fidelity Funds has has decided to create a new share class of the underlying fund of L12 Fidelity EMEA to hold its Russian Assets with effect from 5 June 2023

We have been notified of a name change to the Aberdeen Standard SICAV I, which affects four mirror funds in our range. The name change to abrdn SICAV I will take effect 5 June 2023

Ninety One Fund Managers has notified us of changes to the investment objective and target benchmark to the underlying fund of our P41 Ninety One Global Income Opportunities mirror fund. The changes will take effect on, or shortly, after 3 July 2023.

Allianz Global Investors Fund has notified us of changes to the investment objectives and investment restrictions to the underlying fund of our R63 Allianz Japan Equity mirror fund. The changes will take effect from 30 May 2023.

We have received notification from JP Morgan Asset Management of a change to the level of exposure permitted to China A-Shares and B-Shares to the underlying funds of our mirror funds J32 JPMorgan Pacific Securities, J34 JPMorgan Asia Growth and R08 JPMorgan ASEAN. These changes will take effect on 28 April 2023.

Fidelity International has notified us of a name change to the underlying funds of our L60 and L62 Sustainable Cash mirror funds. The name changes will take effect 11 April 2023.

We have received notification from Fidelity International of an upcoming change to the investment policy of the underlying fund of R91 Fidelity Multi Asset Open Strategic (GBP). These changes will take effect from 29 March 2023.

The dates provided impact sub-funds where all trading will be suspended during the months of 2023. This is as a consequence of bank holidays affecting the trading of the underlying funds.

Directors of OneShare plc, have proposed the merger of the underlying funds of our mirror funds S225 NBAD Conservative Managed and S227 NBAD Growth Managed to take effect on 7 February 2023. This is subject to receiving the required majority vote at an EGM on 23 January 2023 and approval of the Central Bank of Ireland. If the merger is approved, we will be closing the NBAD mirror funds on 2 February 2023, just ahead of the merger. (Merger update as of 24/01/23 - Merger was approved, therefore closures will proceed).

Following a review of our mirror fund range we have taken the decision to remove mirror funds L03, L04, L05 and L06 from the range with effect from 1 March 2023. We no longer accept any new investment instruction into these funds from 29 December 2022.

We have been notified by BlackRock Global Funds of upcoming changes, to the statement of investment objectives and policy, to the underlying fund of J77 BlackRock US Flexible Equity mirror fund. These changes will take effect from 15 December 2022.

Directors of the Ninety One Global Strategy Fund advised us of changes to the underlying fund of our J36 Ninety One GS European Equity mirror fund. With effect from 30 November 2022, the underlying fund is now categorised as a fund promoting environmental and social characteristics.

We have been notified by Fidelity Funds that the Fidelity Funds Global Property Fund will merge into Fidelity Funds Sustainable Global Dividend Plus Fund (the receiving underlying fund) with effect from 12 December 2022. This impacts our FPIL mirror funds P78 Fidelity Global Property (USD) and P80 Fidelity Global Property (GBP). As we do not feature the receiving underlying fund in the FPIL mirror fund range, holdings in P78 and P80 will be switched into P82 Schroder Global Cities (USD) and P84 Schroder Global Cities (GBP) respectively.

The Board of Directors of Robeco Capital Growth Funds notified us of changes to the underlying funds of L98 RobecoSAM Global Gender Equality Equities (USD) and L91 RobecoSAM Smart Energy (USD) mirror funds. The underlying fund of L98 has been reclassified from Article 9 to Article 8 under SFDR European regulations, while the benchmark of the underlying fund of L91 has been changed to a Climate Transition Benchmark. These changes took effect from 28 October 2022.

We were informed by the Board of Directors of Baring International Fund Managers of the decision to merge its Barings Developed and Emerging Markets High Yield Bond Fund, a sub-fund of Barings Global Umbrella Fund (the underlying fund of J27 mirror fund) into Barings Developed and Emerging Markets High Yield Bond Fund, a sub-fund of Barings Umbrella Fund plc with effect from 2 December 2022. The ISIN from the merging fund to the receiving has remained the same and the merger was completed on a 1:1 ratio.

We were notified by Invesco Funds of a change to the underlying fund of J01 Invesco Bond. With effect from 7 November 2022, the expected level of leverage of the underlying fund increased from 150% to 600%.

We have been notified by HSBC Global Investment Funds of upcoming changes to the underlying funds of J55 HSBC Chinese Equity and J56 HSBC Hong Kong Equity mirror funds. These changes will take effect from 14 October 2022.

The closing funds are a range of fixed maturity funds, designed to invest in a basket of equities, debt instruments and cash.

On review, and as a result of prevailing market conditions and recent poor performance, it has been determined that the closing funds are no longer likely to provide investors with the sufficient potential for future growth. We have made the decision to close the funds between 12 and 23 December 2022 and policies and contracts will be switched to an alternative unit-linked investment fund.

We were notified by Janus Henderson Horizon Fund of the upcoming changes to the underlying funds (P61, P63 and R98 mirror funds). These changes take effect on or around 1 October 2022, unless otherwise stated.

We were notified by the Board of Directors of Allianz Global Investors Fund of the changes to the principles and limits applicable to the underlying funds (J48, R62, R44 and R63 mirror funds). The individual investment restrictions will be increased regarding the amount that the underlying funds may hold directly in deposits. These changes take effect from 31 August 2022.

We have been notified by BlackRock Strategic Funds of the upcoming changes to the underlying funds of a number of Mirror Funds (L75, L72, L76, L73, L77 and L74). These changes will take effect from 18 August 2022.

We have been notified by Schroder Investment Management regarding a number of upcoming changes to the underlying fund Schroder ISF Japanese Opportunities, which is the underlying fund of our Mirror Fund J71 Schroder Japanese Opportunities. These changes will take effect from 1 September 2022.

Schroder Investment Management has advised us of the changes to the Schroders ISF Global Climate Change Equity Fund, which is the underlying fund of our Mirror Fund R34 Schroder Global Climate Change Equity. The changes take effect on 16 August 2022.

Schroder Investment Management has informed us that the Schroder ISF US Smaller Companies Fund, the underlying fund of our Mirror Fund J39 Schroder US Smaller Companies, will change its name, the investment objective and policy with effect from 16 August 2022.

We have been notified by the Board of Directors of Aberdeen Standard SICAV I (“abrdn”) of upcoming changes to the underlying funds of the two Abrdn mirror funds. These changes will take effect from 1 August 2022.

We have received notification from Fidelity International of upcoming re-classification changes which impact the underlying funds of our Fidelity mirror funds L60 US Dollar Cash Fund and L62 Fidelity Euro Cash. These changes will take place from 16 August 2022.

We have received notification from the Board of Directors of Allianz Global Investors Fund of an upcoming change that impacts the underlying fund of the Allianz GEM Equity High Dividend. This change took effect on 25 July 2022.

We have been informed by JPMorgan Funds (Asia) Limited of various changes to the underlying funds of the Affected Mirror Funds (nine funds in total). These changes took effect on 25 July 2022.

The investment objective and policy of the underlying fund of L81 Kotak India Growth was enhanced with effect from 15 February 2022 to reflect that the underlying fund is managed as a fund qualifying as Article 8 under Regulation (EU) 2019/2088. The name of the underlying fund has also changed to "Kotak Funds – India ESG Fund". In line with this, the Affected Mirror Fund name was changed to L81 Kotak India ESG (USD) with effect from 24 June 2022.

We have been notified by Principal Global Investors (Ireland) Limited of the changes to its Principal European Equity fund, which is the underlying fund to the above Affected Mirror Fund. The changes took effect on or around 17 June 2022.

We have been notified by BMO Global Asset Management of a branding change to the underlying funds of three BMO mirror funds which will take effect from 4 July 2022.

We have been notified by the Board of Directors of Franklin Templeton Investment Funds of the upcoming changes to the underlying funds of three Franklin Templeton mirror funds. These changes will take effect from 24 June 2022.

Due to the small size and lack of demand from FPIL policyholders, FPIL has made the decision to close L26 Alquity Africa. The mirror fund will be removed from the FPIL fund range on 30 August 2022.

Baring International Fund Managers (Ireland) Limited has notified us of some upcoming changes that impact the underlying fund of the J46 Barings Korea Feeder fund.

Please note that the Mirror Fund closures notified in April 2022 are no longer proceeding.

We have received notification from the Board of Directors of Ninety One Global Strategy Fund of upcoming changes to the underlying funds of two Ninety One mirror funds. These changes will take effect from 13 June 2022.

We were notified by Invesco Funds ("Invesco") of the following changes to the underlying fund into which the FPIL mirror fund M85 - Invesco Global Opportunities invests. These changes will take effect as of 29 April 2022.

The Directors of Canaccord Genuity Investment Fund Plc will be making some changes to the funds of the Plc which are expected to take effect from 1 April 2022. Amendment to the fund names are part of a rebranding exercise.

We were notified by the board of directors of Aberdeen Standard SICAV I ("Abrdn") of various changes of the underlying funds for the following FPIL mirror funds that will take effect from 11 April 2022.

We have been advised that a number of funds with investments in companies listed in Russia have taken steps to temporarily suspend either subscriptions, redemptions or both as a result of the sanctions imposed on Russia by the international community, and the suspension in trading of foreign entities invested in Russia by the Russian government.

We received notification from Fidelity International Limited of its decision to close the Fidelity Funds - Sterling Cash Fund, which is the underlying fund of the L59 - Fidelity Sterling Cash Fund, by way of liquidation on 10 May 2022. Consequently, L59 – Fidelity Sterling Cash Fund will close and will be removed from the FPIL mirror fund range. We have taken the decision to close the mirror fund on 12 April 2022 prior to the underlying fund closure.

Trading suspensions only apply to non-dealing days lasting three or more consecutive days. Please click below to see a list of all affected funds, along with the date of suspension.

JP Morgan Funds informed us about the change of the fund's name to JPMorgan Funds – Global Sustainable Equity Fund and a change in the objective and policy to reflect its new focus on investing in global sustainable companies. Our mirror fund name also changed in line with this on the effective date of 25 February 2022.

We received notification from Schroder Investment Management of its decision to merge the Schroder International Selection Fund – Middle East which is the underlying fund of the above named mirror fund, into the Schroder International Selection Fund – Frontier Markets Equity with effect from 21 February 2022. Letters were issued to impacted policyholders and advisers.

We have been notified by Alquity SICAV (the “Company”) of the following various changes regarding the underlying fund into which L26 Alquity Africa invests. These changes will take effect from 1 July 2021 (the “Effective Date”).

We have been notified by Aberdeen Standard Investments (the “Company”) of upcoming suspension non-dealing days of the underlying fund of P33 Aberdeen Standard SICAV I All China Equity.

We have been notified by JPMorgan Asset Management (Europe) S.a.r.l (the “Company”) of the following upcoming changes to the underlying fund of L18 JPM Global Unconstrained Equity.

We have been notified by BlackRock Asset Management North Asia Limited, as Hong Kong Representative of BlackRock Global Funds (the "Company") of the upcoming changes to the investment objective and policy of the underlying fund of P69 BlackRock Sustainable Energy.

We have been notified by Schroder Investment Management (Europe) S.A. (the “Company”) of the following suspension non-dealing days of the underlying funds of the above named mirror funds.

We have been notified by Schroder Investment Management (Europe) S.A. (the “Company”) of the following suspension non-dealing days of the underlying funds of the above named mirror funds.

We have been notified by DWS Noor Islamic Funds PLC (the “Company”) of the following merger of the underlying fund of R69 DWS Noor Precious Metals Securities.