Consider it cornucopia, only with prospectuses instead of holiday fruit.

BMO has been a on a product development tear this fall, launching a wide variety of funds in September. The launches have included a number of new global funds, including a low vol strategy, an emerging market debt strategy and a number of equity strategies including a micro-cap.

The $125 billion AUM firm also plans to launch a frontier fund at the end of the year, as well as an alts fund, according to Craig Rawlins, BMO's chief investment officer.

"We've been quite busy bringing new investment solutions to the market," he said.

The new products are based on a number of strategies that BMO executives have been using for up to five years in other vehicles and now feel are ready for '40 Act Country.

The global products, particularly the frontier and emerging market products, reflects the long-term confidence Rawlins and his colleagues have in countries such as Africa.

Meanwhile, he and his colleagues are looking for new ways to tap into the low vol anomaly often perceived in lower volatility portfolios, offering higher returns with lower risk in comparison to riskier portfolios.

Much of the new product development at BMO is now being shepherded by a team of product gurus that BMO had lifted out of Neuberger Berman in September.

"We brought over a set of individuals who had been highly successful at Neuberger. Much of the product management and development effort is quite well supported and driven by this talented team," he said.

Further, Rawlins' colleagues are hard at work developing an alt product, using the expertise of the alts experts at CTC Consulting, which BMO acquired two years ago.

"We view alternatives as an area that a lot of investors are moving towards because of the low returns expected out of fixed income in the future as well as other risks that may emerge in the market," he said. 

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