The RRSP may be the most familiar retirement saving strategy, but it might no longer be the automatic choice. The popularity of the RRSP mushroomed when investors had few other tax shelters available, but the financial landscape has changed, and the well-rounded advisor knows there are other options. Tax-Free Savings Accounts are an obvious tool […]
Gavin Graham, the 30-year veteran of money management in London, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Toronto, has signed on as global strategist with Toronto-based Excel Funds Management Inc. His range of responsibilities includes working with the advisor channel. Bringing Graham onboard helps shore up Excel Funds’ claim on the emerging markets sector. Graham left his […]
Has there been enough of a recovery for to advisors to get clients to invest in their registered retirement savings plan? That’s seems to be the big question hanging over the upcoming RRSP season. The industry has to contend with whether clients are finally ready to take their cash off the sidelines and throw them […]
Independent investment dealers are increasingly becoming the target of buyouts. If an affiliated advisor is not prepared, a buyout can leave them in the lurch with increased personal costs and strained client relationships. Unresolved questions overhanging the recovery typically focus on the investment landscape, potential yields on various assets, length and breadth of the recovery […]
RBC Insurance has undertaken a major overhaul of its executive suite, designed to integrate executive functions, and design and delivery strategies across the insurance product spectrum. An internal memo obtained this morning by Advisor.ca, issued on behalf of RBC Insurance president and CEO Neil Skelding, lists detailed changes in structure and executive responsibilities with a […]
Over the past three months, clients have likely benefited from a reversal of some of the earlier losses in their portfolio. The current equities rally has some analysts believing that the market has begun its recovery, while others judge the rally as unsustainable, with a genuine recovery still further off in the future. Regardless of […]
The concept of early retirement could be a thing of the past. That’s one of the conclusions of a report by Dr. Ken Dytchwald entitled Retirement at the Tipping Point: The Year That Changed Everything. The report, based on a survey executed in March, assesses the economic impact of the past year and outlines the […]
Advisors periodically have to instruct clients to dispose of an unprofitable or troublesome investment. They now face similarly pragmatic decisions on one of their own largest investments — their mutual fund business. Some advisors have recently taken a look at their own “big-picture” and decided to exit the fund business, at least in part because […]
Strolling through a community fair in upper New York State during summer 2006, a Canadian journalist encountered a booth festooned with banners advertising easy availability of mortgages and asked for information. “These are what are known as sub-prime mortgages,” the booth attendant said. “They’re for people who have trouble getting ‘regular’ mortgages.” The journalist remarked […]
Both partners in a high-net-worth couple had each taken out a universal life insurance policy with the accumulation account linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. They saw two benefits to the policies: reasonably priced insurance and tax-sheltered investment. When the markets melted down last fall, the investment value of their accumulation accounts fell by […]