Frequently Asked Questions

General
Prescribed Investment Offerings
Admin/IT
Portfolios
Other

General

How long has ONE Investment been in operation?

In 1993, ONE Investment was formed by two key municipal associations, MFOA and AMO, through its services arm, Local Authority Services (LAS). It has a 25-year track record of meeting the investing needs of Ontario’s municipal community. ONE was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in 2018, a change that allows it to broaden investment options and offer formal investment advice to municipalities.

What is a ‘commingled’ or ‘pooled’ investment portfolio?

A commingled portfolio involves the grouping of investments from many organizations that share the same investment goals. All monies are managed by professional investment firms in a well-diversified portfolio of securities according to specific goals and investment parameters. Each investor owns a share of the total portfolio assets (represented by units) and investment earnings are generated when the securities held in the portfolio pay dividends, interest income or increase in market value.

What is the Program (Peer) Advisory Committee?

The committee is an advisory body comprised of municipal investment professionals, current ONE Investment investors, and a representative from both LAS and CHUMS. The purpose of the committee is to provide peer oversight of ONE Investment, to receive updates from the investment managers, and to advise on appropriate direction and marketing for the ONE Investment.

What is the Investment Advisory Committee?

The committee is an advisory body comprised of legal experts, municipal experts, investment sector professionals who are CFA charter holders, and a representative from both LAS and CHUMS. The purpose of the committee is to receive updates from the investment managers and provide recommendations to staff as to how to improve ONE Investment for all investors.

What does ONE Investment offer under the Prescribed List?

ONE Investment offers the following portfolios with terms that are the approximate holding periods for investors until they need the money, please note that this is not the time frame that the money is invested to:

• High-Interest Savings Account: 1+ month investments (Short-Term)
• Money Market: 1 to 18 Months (Short-Term)
• Bond: 18 Months to 3 Years (Short to Medium-Term)
• Universe Corporate Bond: 4+ Years (Medium to Long-Term)
• Equity: 5+ Years (Long-Term)

Are there minimum investment time horizons that my funds will be locked into?

Your funds are not locked in and there is no minimum time required for any investment. There are no fees or penalties for investment or redemption at any time. However, to ensure the predictability of investment returns, there are suggested investment time horizons for each portfolio.

How liquid are investments in ONE Investment?

Your investments are always available. For each portfolio, there are recommended approximate holding periods, however, the money that an investor deposits is not invested to those terms. The investor’s money is essentially liquid and there is no obligation to invest for that amount of time. These suggestions are meant to address market volatility.

Is my principle investment guaranteed?

An investment with ONE Investment – similar to most other investments permitted under the Municipal Act Eligible Investments regulation – is not guaranteed or insured. However, ONE Investment was designed specifically to address safety of principal and liquidity via strict investment guidelines aimed at minimizing credit and market risk.

What makes ONE Investment different from my bank?

ONE Investment portfolios allow your organization to realize competitive returns that in many cases are more competitive than what is available through a bank. In addition, certain investment types, such as long-term corporate bonds and Canadian equities, are only available through ONE Investment as per the Municipal Act Eligible Investment regulation.

What are the fees?

ONE Investment fees are provided below.  Fees accrue on a daily basis depending on the amount of your municipality’s investment. The current annual fee schedule is as follows:

• ONE Canadian Government Bond Portfolio - 40 Basis Points
• ONE Canadian Corporate Bond Portfolio - 45 Basis Points
• ONE Canadian Equity Portfolio - 50 Basis Points
• ONE High Interest Savings Account – no fee paid by investor

Does the program guarantee regulatory compliance?

ONE Investment guarantees compliance with the Municipal Act Eligible Investments regulation.

What is the minimum investment?

The minimum investment or redemption for any portfolio is $5,000.

Who are the ONE Investment portfolio managers?

MFS Investment Management Canada manages the Money Market, Bond, and Universe Corporate Bond Portfolios. Guardian Capital LP manages the Equity Portfolio. A schedule 1 Canadian bank offers the High Interest Savings Account.

How are ONE Investment portfolios valued?

Each portfolio is valued on a daily basis based on the current day’s market value of the securities. You can also look up daily prices from the past on the ONE Investment secure investor website.

Where can I get performance information on ONE Investment?

You can find the monthly performance reports here.

What strategy is employed in the management of each ONE Investment portfolio?

Each portfolio has investment guidelines that were developed by LAS and CHUMS with significant input from our professional investment managers, our advisory committees, and our third party CFA consultant. These guidelines must be followed by the investment managers and are periodically reviewed so that ONE Investment is able to guarantee regulatory compliance with the Municipal Act for our investors.

Is my municipality eligible to invest with ONE Investment?

All municipalities from the province of Ontario are eligible to join.

Our organization is not an Ontario municipality, can we still invest with ONE Investment?

It depends; we are not limited to accepting Ontario municipalities for ONE Investment. Contact staff for more details. Generally, we accept the following for Prescribed Investments:

• Organizations from the broader public sector
• Local Boards of municipalities
• Conservation Authorities
• DSSABs

Prudent Investor allows participation by Ontario Municipalities and their respective Agencies, Boards and Commissions.

Is my municipality too small or too large to participate?

ONE Investment is open to all Ontario municipalities regardless of size. Smaller municipalities investing with ONE Investment benefit from professional investment management as well as the economies of scale in large, cost-effective market purchases. Larger municipalities benefit from competitive investment returns, investment liquidity, and lower overall investment management/transaction costs because of the larger total investment balances.

What forms do I need to fill out in order to enroll?

We will need an executed Agency Agreement, a bylaw passed to authorize the Treasurer and completed enrollment forms. A checklist and forms are available, contact ONE@oneinvestment.ca for more details.

When will my account be ready?

Once we receive the completed forms, please allow 3 to 5 business days before the accounts are ready.

How do I make investments, withdrawals, or fund transfers?

See here for details.

What is the turnaround time for transactions?

For Portfolios: Generally, you should allow 2 to 3 business days from the day you send in a transaction request. Please review Section 12 and 13 of the relevant Schedule of the Agency Agreement for more specific timelines.

For HISA: Generally, you should allow 2 to 4 business days from the day you send in a transaction request. This is due to the clearing requirements of the municipality’s bank which can sometimes produce delays. The transactions follow the timelines as per the Agency Agreement - Schedule F - Section 12(b).

How do I update banking information and/or the list of authorized signing officers?

Please contact ONE@oneinvestment.ca as soon as possible for the relevant forms to complete.

Where can I see my investment balances?

Balances for each investor account are posted daily, net of management fees, on the ONE Investment secure investor website. Access to investor accounts is password protected. Once an investor is enrolled, a login and password will be provided to the authorized signing officers. If there has been a change in signing officers, staff will provide login information once such changes have been confirmed.

What investor reports does ONE Investment offer?

ONE investors have on-demand access to their investment balances via the secure investor website. In addition, investors also receive monthly reports showing the total investment value including income distributed for the period, and quarterly performance reports.

Does ONE Investment offer monthly investor statements?

Monthly statements are posted via ONE Investment secure investor website for every account.

I’ve lost my login and password for the ONE Investment secure website. What do I do?

Please contact ONE@oneinvestment.ca

The Treasurer has signed and approved a transaction but is unable to email the transaction request him/herself, what do I do?

This can happen when the Treasurer is on vacation, sick, or out of the office. Please ensure that you CC all listed signing officers when you email your transaction request. In addition, please include a statement in the email that the transaction has been approved by the Treasurer and is being made on their behalf.

How can I transfer funds from my municipality’s bank to my new ONE Investment accounts?

Once your municipality is enrolled, a confirmation is sent to all authorized signing officers with information on how to make deposits. Once the transaction request is approved and processed, ONE Investment will move the funds from your designated bank into the requested account.

How can I transfer funds from my Portfolio account to HISA? Or vice versa?

Please note that we cannot transfer funds from Portfolio to HISA and vice versa. You will need to redeem the funds to the municipality’s bank account first before making a deposit to the new account. Please also note that it may take 1 to 2 days for the funds to be available in your municipality’s account, after which you can invest it. To be clear, it is unlikely that a redemption and deposit of the funds can be done in the same day.

Do you provide financial advice?

Yes, ONE Investment can provide financial advice. In 2018, ONE Investment applied for, and received, the Ontario Securities Commission’s approval for an exemption from certain registration requirements. With that exemption, ONE Investment will be providing advisory services to municipalities and the broader public sector.

My bonds have been underperforming, why is this happening and what should I do?

The rise in the Prime interest rates have impacted the portfolio earnings.  The bonds in the ONE portfolio are actively traded products, therefore any changes to the interest rates will affect bond prices.  If interest rates rise, bond prices will decrease, therefore reducing your rate of return in the short term. Please contact ONE@oneinvestment.ca for specific advice pertaining to your situation.

The Money Market is underperforming, why continue offering a product like that?

The Money Market Portfolio is being phased out in favour of the High Interest Savings Account (HISA). You are under no obligation to invest in it if it does not meet your investment goals.

How do you ensure the quality of ONE Investment portfolio offerings?

Benchmarks are established and maintained for each portfolio. Oversight from our Investment Advisory Committee ensure that we are in compliance, that our products are competitive and that we are offering the best products possible. Oversight from our Peer Investment Advisory Committee ensure that our products are tailored to Ontario municipalities. Contact ONE@oneinvestment.ca if you wish to participate on the committees.

How does the HISA rate work?

For rate details, contact us at one@oneinvestment.ca.

What happens to the HISA rate when the bank rate changes partway through the month?

The report for that month will reflect a blended rate to account for the rate change.

Can an investor have multiple investment accounts in any ONE Investment portfolio?

ONE Investment allows investors to have any number of accounts in any one or more of the Money Market, Bond, Universe Corporate Bond and Equity Portfolios. For the HISA, generally only one account is permitted. ONE Investment only offers multiple HISA accounts for segregated accounts with reference to an Act or Agreement that requires segregation. Some examples include: Cemetery Trusts, Endowment Funds, Sinking Funds, and Legacy Funds. Unfortunately, we do not set up multiple accounts for fund accounting records.  ONE Investment manages the HISA account administration in-house, and as such, we try to maintain low to no-costs in order to provide the best value for our investors.

What is the Prudent Investor Standard regulation?

Municipalities who qualify will be able to invest in any security provided that the portfolio is ‘prudent’ for their circumstances. In this way, they can build appropriate and diverse investment portfolios that better meet local needs while better managing risk. Keep up to date and learn more by opting-in to our biweekly Prudent Investor Update newsletter by emailing ONE@oneinvestment.ca with you contact information. You can also read previous issues here.

Would ONE Investment staff be able to speak to council about ONE Investment?

Absolutely! Please contact ONE@oneinvestment.ca to make arrangements.

Can I request a Certificate of Completion for CPD hours from the educational workshops?

Yes. Please contact ONE@oneinvestment.ca for a written confirmation of completion for CPD hours.