Investment manager Sterling Asset Management has seen the benefits of incorporating mutual fund investments and structured notes into its mix of investment instruments in the quest to provide higher returns for its clients.

 The company’s recent presentation highlighted that US$1,000 invested in its mutual fund in 2003 would be worth over US$7,100 in 2021. Investors had also enjoyed returns as high as 17 per cent on high quality structured notes during 2020.

At a virtual press briefing to mark the milestone of the company’s 20th anniversary on Tuesday (April 27), Marian Ross, vice president, trading and investment, intimated that the company, while not at all abandoning its focus on global US-dollar bonds, was looking to build more holistic portfolios – with a view to helping its clients achieve specific saving/investing goals.

“We are always looking to help our clients who may be looking to build and preserve wealth while saving towards specific goals, be it funding their children’s education, acquiring a home or other property, or financing their retirement,” she said.

Ross added that it is a lot harder to make money in the present environment than it was five, 10 or 15 years ago. As evidence of this – the presentation compared data on interest rates in 2001 and 2021. In 2001, a Government of Jamaica US-dollar bond was yielding around 10 per cent verrsus 3.8 per cent in 2021. The US Government 10-year bond was yielding 5.05 per cent in 2001 versus 1.7 per cent in 2021.

Also at the briefing, Charles Ross, Sterling president and CEO, reflected on Sterling Asset Management’s 20 years of providing greater value to investors.

Ross spoke of the rationale for starting the investment firm while the nation was exiting the 1990’s financial crisis, which left many investors, both at home and abroad, wary of the local investment market. During the crisis, local companies defaulted on their loans and several financial institutions either disappeared completely or were bailed out by the Government.

The CEO encouraged investors to take more of a long-term view toward investing, and also spoke to Sterling’s ongoing focus on education for investors. Since its inception, Sterling has held over 30 investor briefings in addition to other educational events, and published over 500 articles on various aspects of the markets and wealth-building in the print media.

The presentations at the press briefing looked at the past, the present and the future of the investment company that unveiled its new ad campaign for 2021.

“Sterling will strive to remain agile, focused and shrewd so as to build on our clients’ successes and grow towards the goal of becoming the top asset management firm in the Caribbean,” the CEO said.