IGM Financial Inc. (IGM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the IGM Financial Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I would now like to turn the meeting over to James O'Sullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, Mr. O'Sullivan.

Well, good morning. I would like to begin by acknowledging the indigenous peoples of all the lands that we are on today. While we meet today on a virtual platform, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of the lands which we call home. We do this to reaffirm our commitment and responsibility in improving relationships between nations and to improving our own understanding of local indigenous peoples and their cultures. IGM Financial acknowledges the harms of the past, and we respect the history, people and land in the areas we live and operate. We are committed to building relationships and moving forward in the spirit of truth and reconciliation guided by shared principles of respect, equality and collaboration. I will now turn the meeting over to Jeff Orr.

Thank you, James, and welcome, ladies and gentlemen. As Chair of the Board of IGM Financial, it's my pleasure to open up the meeting of shareholders. Now we're having a virtual meeting today under the circumstances of COVID-19 -- the continued circumstances of COVID-19. We're doing so for the health and welfare of you, our shareholders, of our employees and of our communities in general. We believe these precautionary measures will protect everyone's health and well-being and while still allowing for, hopefully, appropriate meeting engagement and participation. People who will be speaking today at the meeting are not all in the same physical location. So for this reason, we may pause from time to time to make sure that we're all coordinated. I'm also going to pause at various times to allow for online voting. In the unlikely event that we have a technical disruption, and that prevents me from continuing as Chair, James O'Sullivan, who is also a Director of IGM, will act as Chair of the company. So thank you in advance for your support and for your patience. As in the past years, we expect that the vast majority of the votes will be cast in advance of the meeting by proxy. But that said, registered shareholders or duly appointed proxy holders can vote online at the meeting by clicking on the voting icon at the top of your screen. We're going to have a question-and-answer period at the end of the session following the President's message -- or messages, I should say. [Operator Instructions] Our Corporate Secretary will read out questions and comments, and I will respond or I may ask James or Damon or Barry to answer questions. When submitting a question, please include your name, your contact information and state whether you're a shareholder or a proxy holder. We'll do our best to answer questions, but if we're unable to do so during the meeting, a company representative will contact you and at the address that you've left. And so we do also encourage you to submit your questions early -- as early as possible in the meeting, so we have a better chance to get to them. And during the meeting, we will make statements containing forward-looking information or non-IFRS financial measures. So I would ask you to refer to the cautionary statement that's on your screen and that's also available in the annual report, which if you don't have, you can locate on the left-hand side of your screen. So at today's meeting, I'm joined by James O'Sullivan, who you heard a minute ago, is President and Chief Executive Officer of IGM Financial; Damon Murchison, President and Chief Executive Officer of IG Wealth Management; and Barry McInerney, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mackenzie Investments. In addition, we have Sonya Reiss, who is Vice President and Corporate Secretary of the corporation. Also joining us virtually today are members of the -- other members of the senior management team and members of our Board of Directors. I'd also like to welcome the employees of IG Wealth Management, of Mackenzie Investments, Investment Planning Counsel and our regional directors across Canada. [Foreign Language] It's with pleasure that I welcome you to this AGM. I would like to welcome IG Wealth Management employees, to Mackenzie Investments and Investment Planning Counsel as well as our regional directors from across Canada. For the meeting, I'd like to say just a quick few words on behalf of the Board. This past year or so has been incredibly difficult on everyone. I'm sure it's been difficult on all of you. It's been difficult on people all around the world. And it has been difficult on the management and employees of the company as well. And in spite of these difficulties, I really want to highlight the significant progress that IGM and its companies made over the past year in spite of what was going on in dealing with COVID-19. And the Board wants to really start off by thanking the senior leadership team, James and his colleagues and Jeff Carney, who was part of that during the year for effectively steering IGM Financial through these challenging times. On behalf of the Board, I'd like to really express our sincere appreciation as well to all of the employees for their incredible efforts and our advisers across our group and also who work with Mackenzie and as partners, but who are not part of our group. The continued focus on serving your clients has been fantastic, and the focus and attention on the communities by all of our people has been incredible as well. So I would really say it's been a tremendous effort, and the Board wants to thank you. And to our shareholders and our many other stakeholders, most importantly, our clients, thank you for your continued support and your trust. As we continue to navigate through these difficult and remaining challenging times, we will stay focused on what matters the most, the health and well-being of our people, our clients and our communities. Thank you. So I will now call the meeting to order, and I'll preside as Chair of the Meeting, and I'll ask Sonya Reiss to act as Secretary of the meeting. And [ Kyle Gould ] and Caitlin Bainbridge of Computershare Investor Services Inc. will act as scrutineers for the meeting. The notice of the meeting was mailed electronically or delivered to shareholders of record as of March 10, 2021. And the scrutineer has confirmed that the required quorum of shareholders is represented at the meeting, so I therefore declare the meeting duly constituted for the transaction of business. First, deal with the voting mechanism. The formal part of the business is going to start first. And after that, there'll be opportunity for registered shareholders to ask questions. Now the voting at today's meeting will be conducted by online ballot. In a moment, I will open the polls for all items of business to be voted on immediately should you wish to do so, or if you prefer, you can wait until the conclusion of discussion on each particular item prior to casting your vote. During each item of business, we'll pause to respond to relevant questions if we have received any. Items of business to be voted on and your available voting options will be visible on the voting panel on your screen. To submit a vote, please click on the voting choice displayed on your screen. When discussion is concluded on all items of business, I'll remind you to enter your votes and then we'll declare that the voting is closed. And the results will be -- the preliminary results will be announced prior to the close of the meeting. So I now declare the polls open on all items of business. The first item of business is the presentation of the 2020 annual report, which contains the corporation's audited financial statements and the auditor's report. And that was mailed or electronically delivered to shareholders who are requested to receive a copy in advance of this meeting. And a copy of the annual report is also available on your screen by clicking on the left-hand side. So let's move to the election of directors. And before I move to the election of directors and actually put forth when we get to the nominees, I want to acknowledge the director who's not standing for reelection, and that is Jeff Carney who retired as President and Chief Executive Officer of IGM Financial and IG Wealth Management in September of 2020 for health reasons. And during his 7-year tenure at the company, Jeff was truly a visionary leader and an agent for very positive change. Starting as CEO of Mackenzie in 2013, I think it was, and then at IG Wealth Management in 2016, Jeff really revolutionized our businesses, attracted incredible people. He was also a very big proponent of the efforts of our group in fintech, he's very instrumental in the IGM's investment in personal capital in the U.S. and in our initial looking for a digital direct-to-consumer platform that ended up being the group's investment in Simple. So we owe a big debt of gratitude to Jeff for setting the entire organization up for success. And Jeff, on behalf of the Board and all your fellow employees in front of all the shareholders here today, thank you for all that you've done for our group. And we all wish you and Carolyn and your family all the best of success in the future. And we're staying in touch as Jeff continues to advise the group in various advisory capacities. So thank you. So now I'll turn to the nomination of directors. A Board of 15 directors is to be elected at today's meeting, and the names and information relating to those persons proposed for elections are set out at the management proxy circular that was prepared for this meeting. So I'll ask Sonya now to present the nominees for election.

Mr. Chair, I nominate those persons specified in the management proxy circular delivered with the notice of the meeting, namely Marc A. Bibeau, Marcel R. Coutu, Andre Desmarais, Paul Desmarais, Jr., Gary Doer, Susan Doniz, Claude Genereux, Sharon Hodgson, Sharon MacLeod, Susan McArthur, John McCallum, R. Jeffrey Orr, James O'Sullivan, Gregory Tretiak, Beth Wilson, to serve as directors of the corporation to hold office until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are duly elected or appointed in accordance with the articles and bylaws of the corporation.

Thank you, Sonya. Sonya, have we received any questions or comments online that relate to the election of IGM Financial Directors?

No, Mr. Chair, there are no questions or comments.

Okay. Thank you. So we'll then proceed to vote on this matter. Only registered shareholders or their duly appointed proxyholders can vote by online ballot. If you have not already done so, please submit your online ballot now to the election of directors by selecting a voting option under the voting panel displayed on your screen. You may vote for or withhold from voting for each nominee by clicking the appropriate boxes. So I will just pause for a few seconds here to allow you to finish that process, and I'll talk as slowly as I can to get to the next item, which is the appointment of auditors. I'm sure the auditors were waiting with bated breath there as I paused and are anxious for this next item, is the appointment of our current auditor, Deloitte LLP to be reappointed as auditor of IGM. And I would call on Sonya again to present the motion.

Thank you so much. I move that the firm Deloitte LLP be reappointed auditors of the corporation until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until a successor is appointed at a remuneration to be fixed by the directors, and the directors are hereby authorized to fix such remuneration.

Thank you, Sonya. And have we received any questions or comments online on the appointment of auditors of IGM Financial?

We have not, Mr. Chair.

Okay. Thank you. So then we'll vote on this matter. If you've not already done so, please vote now by selecting a voting option on the voting panel displayed on your screen. You may vote for or withhold voting for the auditor by clicking the appropriate box. And again, I'll give you a little bit of time to vote. [Voting]

So we're going to close the polls for voting in about 30 seconds, so for those of you who have not voted on all items of business, please do so now. And I'll just say prior to the close of the meeting, repeat that we'll come back, and we will give you the preliminary results of the voting before the meeting ends. We'll get that from the scrutineers at the end of the meeting, and I think Sonya will read that out to you. So I now declare the voting closed. So that concludes the formal business at today's meeting. I'm now going to draw your attention, we're going to help you to a video that will -- a short video that will be played, and that will be followed by James O'Sullivan and his comments following the video. Thank you. [Presentation]

Well, thank you, Jeff, and thank you to the employees and advisers who volunteered to be part of that incredible video which I think capture the spirit and enthusiasm of IGM Financial. It's my absolute pleasure to be speaking with you today. I'm optimistic that our world will start to return to pre-pandemic normal in the not-too-distant future. We're going to get there. Meanwhile, I have the pleasure of reporting to you that, in 2020, when many things were far from normal, our company was able to adjust to new conditions quite quickly and to maintain the momentum. I joined IGM last September when Jeff Carney took early retirement for health reasons. He is an excellent leader, and I want to thank him for setting me and the entire company up for success. We wish him and his family the very, very best. My top priorities on joining IGM were to ensure the continued safety of our employees and clients during the pandemic, deliver on our client-focused strategy and maintain our momentum. This started with our people and creating a positive work environment, which included a work-from-home allowance, extra wellness days and enhanced health care measures. And our people responded. On behalf of the leadership team, I want to thank IGM's employees and advisers for their flexibility, their resiliency and commitment to our clients throughout 2020. Together, we've been able to achieve our priorities across all 3 of our business areas: wealth management, asset management and strategic investments. Being committed to providing the very best service to our clients is also our strategy for delivering excellent share price performance. We've made significant investments in our business over the past several years, investments that help make us one of the most modern, productive and effective financial services firms in Canada. Those investments have made us a better company to work with and a better company to work for. They've streamlined and automated both front and back office processes. They've brought us new investment options in connection with the fintech community and new investment platforms in the sustainability sector, private alternative markets and China. Your executive team will continue to create value for shareholders over the coming years by delivering strong earnings growth, which we expect to be reflected in a higher share price. This all starts with our clients. If I look across our key businesses, I see opportunity for our clients. I see an IGM that is positioned to act on that opportunity and create opportunities for our shareholders. Before I talk about our strategic and business transformation progress, let me share some highlights of our 2020 performance and the first quarter of this year. We ended the year with record high assets under management and advisement of $240 billion, up 26% year-over-year. Net inflows for the year were $7 billion, an all-time high, representing strong growth in net flows, which improved by almost $9 billion across our 3 operating companies. Annual net earnings were $764 million or $3.21 per share compared to $747 million or $3.12 per share in 2019. And the momentum has carried over to this year. The first quarter ended with record high assets under management and advisement of $248 billion compared with $168 billion at March 31, 2020. IGM saw record high first quarter net inflows of $2.2 billion. IGM's net earnings were $202 million or $0.85 per share, our highest quarter -- first quarter EPS compared to $161 million or $0.68 per share a year ago. Our improvement in performance can be directly attributable to the continuing transformation of our business. In 2020, we made significant progress on initiatives that enhanced our efficiency and elevated client and adviser experiences. For example, we moved from meeting face to face in offices to videoconferencing. We are using new mobile apps and have adopted online documents to make processes easier and faster for our clients. Overall, we've saved tens of millions of dollars in operational costs, ensured our business is more secure and productive and have made it easier for clients to work with us. When the pandemic took hold last year, it was essential for our wealth management businesses, including IG Wealth and IPC, to reassure our clients that we were there for them and had the people, expertise and tools to help them successfully navigate the year. And the proof is in our results. IG client assets under advisement grew to more than $103 billion, while our gross client inflows were at record high levels. And net flows were the second highest in the last decade. Investment Planning Counsel. The results were enhanced by its support and commitment to its financial advisers, recognized amongst the best of the best with Investment Executive 2020 dealer report card rating IPC 8.6 out of 10 for client service. Turning to our Asset Management business. Mackenzie continued to push forward, creating innovative and strong performing products while offering new opportunities to our clients. This included significant strategic acquisitions and investments such as GLC Asset Management, Northleaf Capital and Greenchip Financial. But even before the acquisitions, Mackenzie's total assets under management hit record levels, up 10% from 2019 to almost $155 billion. And I would be remiss if we did not congratulate Barry for being recognized as Wealth Professional's CEO of the Year. Congratulations, Barry. The third leg of our business is our strategic investments. In 2020, these investments gave us access to 2 sectors of expertise while also allowing us to make some excellent gains by capitalizing on 2 high-performing investments. The value of our investment in Wealthsimple, the online investment management provider, grew significantly in 2020. And with this week's exciting announcement of new financing further increased the value of our investment by approximately $900 million from $550 million to $1.45 billion. We also realized an excellent return from the sale of our almost 25% interest in personal capital of $233 million compared to an acquisition cost of $189 million. All that we did in 2020, we did with awareness that many people in our community were facing difficult challenges. IGM partnered with GWL and Power early in the pandemic, committing $1 million to support crisis relief efforts in communities right across Canada, including food banks and charities. We furthered this support in the second half of the year with IGM employees contributing a further $1 million to United Way and our Mackenzie Charitable Foundation through our annual caring campaign. We all witnessed important social and political catalysts in 2020. They inspired us to strengthen our commitment to community, especially in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion. For example, IGM and its CEOs became signatories to the BlackNorth Initiative, which is dedicated to the removal of anti-Black systemic barriers. In addition, we continued our focus on climate change and were recognized by the Climate Disclosure Project for our climate disclosures for the third consecutive year. And finally, I'm so proud that IGM ranked 29th among Corporate Knights 2021 Global 100 Most Sustainable Organizations in the World. We were the top-rated investment services company globally and the top-rated financial services organization in North America. All of these incredible accomplishments are detailed in our new 2020 sustainability report, which goes public today. Now as we look ahead in 2021 and indeed beyond, COVID has challenged us as a company and as individuals. But despite these challenges, we've achieved some record results in 2020. We made significant improvements to our operations. We enhanced our client, adviser and employee experience and made important contributions to our communities. It was all possible because our people showed remarkable resilience, commitment and focus on our mission to help Canadians. With the team we have growing stronger with every step forward in our transformation process, we are determined to continue building on the successes of 2020 and to translate them into shareholder value. I will now turn things over to Damon Murchison, and I thank you.

Thank you, James. Building on your remarks, I can't recall a more unprecedented year where Canadians have been concerned about their financial well-being and for good reason. Almost everything in our day-to-day lives was affected by the pandemic. Business's margins fell, markets around the globe and communities across Canada. But for us, the key drivers of our wealth management business did not change. We stayed focused on health and Canadians reach their retirement goals. We continue to advise our clients on the most efficient tax planning so they can keep more of their hard-earned money, and we continue to help optimize estate planning, so they can be confident their families were secure. While we did these things to take care of our clients, we also continue to honor our commitment to our employees, our advisers and our communities, including advancing our standards for diversity, equity inclusion and striving to meet our environmental and governance responsibilities. As we have for more than 90 years, IG Wealth Management continue to share our financial expertise with Canadians so that everyone could have access to the knowledge that it takes to achieve financial well-being. During a challenging 2020, our clients' assets under advisement grew to $103 billion, an increase of more than 6% from 2019. While our gross client inflows hit a record high of $10 million, our net client flows of $795 million were the second highest in a decade. We also made significant progress in our high net worth segment across our Private Wealth Management business. High net worth investors who tend to have more complex financial needs represent a growing segment of our client base. And finally, we hit a new milestone with our clients with our smaller accounts, leveraging our national service center, where we have more than 214,000 clients and $1.8 billion in assets under advisement. Our client-first strategy means servicing all clients across the financial spectrum, helping them to achieve their financial goals. Our strong performance has continued in 2021. In fact, IG Wealth Management's Q1 results were our best in over 2 decades. Record high growth client inflows were up 21% over Q1 2020 to $3.6 billion. That brings total assets under advisory to a record high $107 billion, up 3.6% from December 31, 2020 and 24.7% from March 31, 2020. To achieve these results, it was important that we focused on inspiring financial confidence during these challenging times, reassuring our clients we're with them every step of the way. And we were, leveraging our skills, our expertise and our technology to help them successfully navigate the year. Our business transformation, which is well underway, include partnerships with industry-leading organizations like Salesforce, [ Sloan ] and Conquest Planning Partners delivering enhanced productivity, analytical tools and state-of-the-art digital applications. These investments enabled us to strengthen our client connections by leveraging the IG Advisor Portal, Digital Forum and our Living Plan financial planning software, allowing us to still help our clients achieve their life goals even when we couldn't meet them in person. The skills that our advisers exhibited in communicating this message served our clients well. It also held down net redemptions, which, of course, is good for shareholder value. Not only did our employees and advisers rise to the challenge in 2020 but so did our performance. We are committed to offering well-constructed managed solutions, and I'm proud that so many of our IG Wealth Management funds and portfolios ranked as top Morningstar Canada performers. We were also honored this year to receive 8 Fundata FundGrade A+ awards. These prestigious annual awards recognize investment funds that achieve consistently high performance. Congratulations to our investment management team and our world-class global sub-advisory partners. In addition to doing the right thing for our clients and shareholders, IG also supported our communities where we live and work. We made meaningful investments of time, money and resources to strengthen the social fabric of Canada in 2020. During the pandemic, we launched Answering the Call, a program that delivered support to Canada's small- and medium-sized businesses and their communities as they navigated the financial challenges of the COVID-19 crisis. To help meet the unique needs of the indigenous peoples in Canada, we launched the IGM Empower Your Tomorrow Indigenous Commitment . This commitment sees us invest $5 million over 5 years to support programs and initiatives to enhance the financial scale and confidence in indigenous communities across Canada. In addition, we continue to support our annual national IG Walk for Alzheimer's, which went virtual last year, raising an incredible $5.1 million that puts it in the top 10 peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns in Canada. This was truly a terrific result for which we say congratulations to all. Finally, our client-centric focus and success could not have happened without the extraordinary efforts of our employees and our advisers. During this year of the pandemic, they remain focused on reassuring and advising our clients, while also personally dealing with the effects of the pandemics on their own lives. As a company, we have tried to be there to be supportive and to be flexible in recognizing the effects on both physical and mental health. This will continue even as we look ahead with some optimism to less challenging times. And now I'll hand things over to Barry McInerney.

Thank you very much, Damon. Each year at this time, we take stock and reflect on the accomplishments of the prior year and our path forward. You will hear from my remarks today the records and milestones Mackenzie Investments achieved in 2020 and that this momentum is accelerating into 2021. But if we learned anything from the unprecedented times we live in, these numbers are meaningless without gratitude. It has been said that gratitude changes the way we experience life and the world. This has never been more true. And so with gratitude and humility, I extend my heartfelt and personal thanks to my colleagues for their leadership and unwavering dedication. Their strength, commitment and resilience were extraordinary as they continue to create value for clients and shareholders while reassuring Canadians who needed to know that they were in good hands. Now let me share some Mackenzie highlights from 2020. They include our best investment performance in over a decade, record high net flows for both mutual funds and ETFs, and the strongest adviser perception results in our history. We also had a record showing in the institutional space with significant new client mandates across multiple asset classes in Canada, United States and Europe. As a result, at the close of 2020, we have put together the best 4-year run in Mackenzie's history. We also achieved significant milestones across our 5 growth catalysts, which are reshaping the future of the asset management industry in Canada and globally, alternatives, retirements, sustainable investing, ETFs and China. We continue to work hard to make alternatives, liquid and private, accessible to all Canadian investors. Our liquid alternatives AUM surpassed $3.5 billion. And with our sister company, Great-West Life, we acquired a significant stake in Northleaf Capital Partners, greatly expanding our ability to offer global private equity, private credit and infrastructure investments. Our acquisition of GLC Asset Management added over $30 billion in AUM, brought in new talent and made us 1 of the top 3 providers in a strategically important group retirement market, complementing our already $15 billion in retirements, outcome-oriented mutual funds offered through the retail adviser network. Our third acquisition, Greenchip Financial, bolstered our position in sustainable investing. We crossed $1.65 billion AUM at the end of 2020 and are now over $2.5 billion, ranking us already in the top 5 in this fast-growing investment category. I'd like to again welcome the GLC and Green Chip teams to Mackenzie as our newest investment boutiques. Our ETF business continues to shine. With over 40 ETFs, we are close to $10 billion in AUM after only 5 years. We are very proud of our ETF franchise built by Canadians for Canadians. And our partnership with and ownership stake in China AMC, one of China's largest asset management companies, enables us to give Canadians access to the second largest stock market and second largest bond market in the world. The opportunities flowing in both directions are enormous and grow bigger every year. And finally, I'd like to welcome Lesley Marks and Steve Locke as our new Chief Investment Officers. We created a 2 CIO model in recognition of Mackenzie's growing size and multi-boutique structure. I know our equities, fixed income and multi-asset investment management teams will continue to thrive under their leadership. 2020 was truly a historic year for Mackenzie, and we are poised to surpass the $200 billion AUM threshold during 2021 and almost quadrupling of our AUM over the past 5 years. Again, I thank our team as well as advisers and clients across the country for their trust and belief in us. Now let's look at the first quarter of this year. I am happy to report that Mackenzie's success last year has carried into 2021. In fact, our momentum is accelerating. Once again, we set records during Q1 for gross mutual fund flows, gross retail mutual fund flows, net retail mutual fund flows and overall ETF net creations. And although it's early days, all 3 of our strategic acquisitions are showing strong growth. We continue to lead with innovation, launching our very first private alternatives fund, the Mackenzie Northleaf Private Credit Fund along with Canada's first environmental thematic balance fund under the Greenchip brand. And in Q2, we will launch Canada's first Chinese fixed income mutual fund with more innovative launches planned for Q3 and Q4, all to help advisers and investors build enduring portfolios to enhance and smooth out their retirement journey. In Q1, we also rolled out a multimedia marketing campaign to clearly articulate our unique mission to help Canadians become more invested together. Finally, I cannot report on our achievements today without saying a few words about the Mackenzie culture. Simply put, our culture is what defines us and it truly represents the very best of Mackenzie. Nothing touched me more in 2020 than seeing how our team came even closer together. Everyone is supporting each other, everyone willing to do what it took to support advisers and their clients. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, life's most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others. For over 50 years, Mackenzie has taken seriously our responsibility to be engaged members of the community. The Mackenzie Investments charitable foundation was as active as ever 2020, raising money for children's charities and at-risk women and youth across Canada. And our annual National Volunteer Week attracted record numbers. As James mentioned, Mackenzie, along with IG, IPC and IGM, signed the BlackNorth Initiative commitment to help combat anti-Black systemic racism. I'm proud and honored to serve on the Board of this outstanding organization. And we continue to champion gender equality and are actively working towards increasing female representation across all levels at Mackenzie. So from our financial performance to our strategic initiatives, to our engagement in the communities in which we live and work, we had much to be proud of in 2020, and we have lots to look forward to this year and beyond. I'm thrilled to be leading Mackenzie during this dynamic time, and I count myself fortunate to be working with such an incredible team. They have made and continue to make Mackenzie a very special place to work. Thank you, be safe and stay well. And I will now turn the meeting back over to Jeff Orr.

So I was simply saying we're opening up the questions -- the time of the meeting for questions. [Operator Instructions] And please, again, I remind you to put your name and contact information and indicate whether you're a shareholder or a proxy holder. If we receive multiple questions on the same theme, we will likely combine them in the interest of time. And we will do our best to respond to all the questions during the meeting. If we don't, we'll reach out to you if you're submitting your name or you can reach out to our Corporate Secretary. So Sonya, have we received questions or comments online?

Yes, we have, Mr. Chair. We've received a few. I will read the first one for you. So the corporation has not increased its dividend in 6 years, over which time, inflation has eroded the payout by more than 10%. As the corporation enjoys a significant cash position and record profits, will the Board consider increasing the quarterly dividend to $62.50 per common share to keep pace with inflation. And that question was submitted by shareholder Douglas E. Jones.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. I'm guessing that, and I'm just speculating here, I believe you may be the side of Bob Jones, who was a long-standing CEO of Investors Group and a huge contributor to the history and the success of the company. So thank you for participating and asking your questions. Dividends are very important to shareholders, to all of our shareholders, and the Board talks about dividends a lot. We are always in looking at dividends trading off the need or the desire to invest in the business versus distributing the income to shareholders. Over the last number of years, as you point out, we haven't increased the dividend. There have been a lot of investment that's made which James and Damon and Barry referred to, which have, in fact, I believe, given rise to the greater quality of the products and services we're offering and the very strong momentum you're seeing within IGM across the group right now. I think it's an issue that the Board talks about on a regular basis. I'm not going to speculate as to when dividends would be increased. Realistically, I think we would need to see a growth in earnings before we would seriously look at a growth in dividends or increasing the dividend. And even at that time, we'll trade off what kind of investment opportunities we have in front of it. So short answer is that we care a lot about dividends. We know our shareholders do, and we're always trading dividends off against investment opportunities, and I can't really go much beyond that at this point. But thank you for that question. Sonya, there's some other questions from Mr. Jones as I see here. Do you want to read them out, please?

Yes, certainly. IG Wealth defined benefit pension plan is currently underfunded by $47 million on a solvency basis as at the most recent valuation date. Accordingly, why is the corporation opting to take advantage of a temporary pandemic-related hardship moratorium to suspend its pension deficiency payments, thereby reducing its annual contributions by about 50% at a time when it enjoys record earnings? Yet it has chosen to give several executives extraordinary bonus awards above and beyond their annual performance bonuses.

Thanks for your question, Mr. Jones. So you're quite right that at the year-end, that was the deficit amount on a solvency basis. There's another measure of looking at the health of defined benefit pension plans, which you're probably aware of. On a going concern basis, IGM actually had a $46 million surplus. This is something that, again, the Board will discuss from time to time. I think it's really important to realize that the entire financial strength of IGM stands behind the pension plan, and the company is in very strong financial position. That pension plan deficits and defined benefits around the world have been growing over the last several years because of low interest rates. And with interest rates coming back, we're already seeing in the first quarter that the deficit is being reduced. And so the position of the Board is we've got -- we do have a strong pension plan. The deficit is small as a percentage of assets and IGM stands behind it. And therefore, we're very comfortable with the position that we have taken and are not concerned for the health of the defined management plan at this point. So then I would ask you, Sonya, to read the next question.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and this is the last question. It's in 3 parts. So I will read all 3 parts for you. Does the corporation's investment in China Asset Management meet the socially responsible investment criteria given the controlling interest in CAMC by the Chinese government through CITIC Investment group? Second part of that question is, has the corporation taken any steps to protect its investments in CAMC should the Chinese government impose economic sanctions or investment restrictions or take other retaliatory actions against Canadian interest in China. And lastly, Mr. Chair, will the Board consider providing shareholders with a nonbinding vote regarding retention of the corporation's minority interest in CAMC?

Okay. Thank you for that question, Mr. Jones. I would say that China AMC is a leader in our industry in sustainable investing and is a leader in the Chinese marketplace. It's also all over good practices in ESG. It happens, for example, to be a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investing in its own right. We're very proud of our partnership with CAMC. We're proud of our partnership with the CITIC and CITIC Securities, which is our partner in that investment, as you pointed out. We have strong relationships in China and we engage actively in a constructive dialogue for the Canada China Business Council. And we're quite happy with our investment in CAMC, and we have no intention to provide shareholders with a nonbinding vote regarding the retention of the corporation's interest in the company. I don't know whether James or anyone in your team wants to add to that or whether you're going to cover the waterfront there.

I would -- Jeff, I would simply add that China, of course, represents the second largest economy in the world, the second largest equity market in the world and the second largest bond market in the world. And so as many Canadians consider putting together globally a truly globally diversified portfolio of investments to secure their retirement, many Canadians will look to exposure to Chinese markets.

Thank you, James. So Sonya, is that the end of the questions? Is that what you had indicated? Got no further questions?

Yes, Mr. Chair, no further questions.

Okay. Great. Thank you very much for that. So that now ends the question period. So we're now at the part of the meeting where the scrutineer has completed the preliminary voting results. So Sonya, I call on you to provide those preliminary results.

Thank you so much. So the voting results are as follows: each of the 15 nominees for Directors of IGM Financial were elected by more than 93% of the votes cast. The resolution to appoint Deloitte LLP as auditor of IGM Financial was passed by more than 98% of the votes cast. In accordance with securities law requirements, the final results for IGM Financial will be posted on SEDAR's website. And lastly, in accordance with the Toronto Stock Exchange rules, we will also issue an IGM financial press release announcing the director election results today.

Great. Thank you. So I declare the motion on the election of directors adopted and the 15 directors nominated hereby elected. I declare the motion on the appointment of auditors adopted and Deloitte LLP are hereby appointed as the auditors of the corporation. And ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the meeting. And again, I want to thank everyone for attending and for your ongoing support. I declare the meeting of shareholders concluded. Thank you.