CI Signature Dividend Income Fund still open

Earlier this year, the CI organization announced that their excellent CI Signature Dividend Income Fund would be capped on March 16. However, CI has changed its mind and postponed closing the fund, at least for now, for administrative reasons. The intention is still to cap it sometime this year but no date has been set, so you can still get in.

This is one of the best dividend income funds around and we have had it on our Recommended List since February 1998 (it was originally the BPI Dividend Income Fund). It is managed by Eric Bushell as a true dividend fund, which means it holds a high proportion of preferred shares (currently 44%). This makes the fund an attractive vehicle for higher-bracket taxpayers in non-registered accounts, because most of the distributions are eligible for either the dividend tax credit or the capital gains rate.

Bushell also manages the much smaller CI Signature Dividend Fund, which takes the same investment approach. In fact, the two portfolios are very similar and the returns track each other closely. However, the Dividend Income Fund has a slightly higher monthly distribution: 4.5 cents a unit versus 4 cents for the Dividend Fund.