MFS Investment Management

Founded in Boston in 1924, MFS launched Massachusetts Investors Trust, the first U.S. open-end mutual fund. The firm later expanded from retail mutual funds into institutional investment management and international distribution, and became part of Sun Life Financial in 1982.

MFS manages equity, fixed-income, balanced and quantitative strategies for financial advisors, intermediaries and institutional clients. Its investment approach emphasizes active management, collective research, explicit risk management and long-term decision-making rather than short-term trading.

The firm is especially notable for its long investment history and research platform: it established one of the mutual-fund industry's first in-house research departments in 1932, became an early signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment in 2010, and now operates investment offices across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Brazil.