Fortress Fund Managers is once again accepting lump sum investments into its flagship Fortress Caribbean Growth Fund. This is good news for investors, especially given the low rate of interest on savings deposits at commercial banks.

The leading fund manager, which recently informed its investors by letter of the resumption, is now accepting investments up to $250,000 per investor, per year.

“With the alleviation of some of the financial stress in the Barbados financial system, combined with recent investments made by the Growth Fund in global markets at attractive levels, the Fund is once again in a position to accept limited lump sum investments,” the letter read.

The correspondence went on to say that the limit of $250,000 per investor, per year was in place “for now to ensure as many investors as possible can access the Fund in the way that suits them, especially given the low deposit rates now prevailing on bank deposits.”

Back in January 2017 Fortress had temporarily suspended new lump sum subscriptions to its Growth Fund along with the Fortress Caribbean High Interest Fund and the Fortress Caribbean Pension Fund. This was due to a lack of investment opportunities that met the funds’ investment policies and objectives.

Automatic, regular savings plans still best way to invest

Fortress agrees with finance experts around the world that automatic monthly saving plans, including pensions, are the most effective way to save and invest for the future. To this end, during the temporary suspension investors were still able to use these automatic monthly savings programmes to invest. “We advise investors to continue using these instruments for their core saving.”

Existing limits on lump sum contributions remain in place for the Caribbean High Interest Fund.

The Caribbean Growth Fund was the first fund launched by Fortress in 1996. It uses a value approach to invest primarily in Caribbean and international equities and focuses on capital appreciation of assets over the long term. Its annual compound rate of return from its inception to December 31, 2018 is 8.2% per year. As of March 22nd, the Growth Fund is up 6.5 % so far for 2019.

Fortress manages more than $650 million across 11 different funds with regional and global investments.