Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has promised to deliver on most of the promises made during the Conservative election campaign when he hands down the federal budget next Tuesday. If this is true, it’s good news for charities and for clients who want to make donations of stock and securities. Flaherty has re-iterated a pledge to […]
The picture of industry competition in the future will look dramatically different than the structures and dynamics in place today, but until recently, few public efforts have been made to imagine that future in an effort to meet challenges presented by technological innovation and changing client relationships. A new global survey of 400 financial markets […]
Long term mutual fund sales continued to move along at a healthy pace in March, with IFIC reporting $3.6 million in net new sales for the month. Despite the allure presented by resource funds in Canada, investors continued to gravitate towards balanced, income-producing investments and finally began to buy into the global investing story being […]
Amid the growing number of voices encouraging investors to diversify their holdings, consider foreign equity funds and generally take money off the table and respect the significant run in Canadian equity stocks, the message that Canada is still a good place to look for growth, tends to stick out a little. That message is exactly […]
Newly released documents show Portus directors knew as early as March 2004 that their organizations were facing a number of compliance, privacy and accounting problems if their firms continued to raise capital. Despite this and legal advice urging them to stop their fund-gathering efforts, the company continued to pull in another $500 million in assets, […]
Consumers hate paying tax, which makes the Conservative government’s promise to cut the GST particularly attractive, but the immediate relief provided by such a tax cut will likely be offset later on in pensions and programs where benefits are indexed to inflation, according to a C.D. Howe Institute report. “Canadians, having sadly little experience with […]
With the coming wave of retiring baby boomers, the decisions women make will probably have the greatest impact on the shape of retirement in the future, according to a new book released by Statistics Canada. Many of the book’s themes will be of particular interest to advisors: self-employment numbers are expected to grow and more […]
Industry group Advocis has been given leave to intervene in a Supreme Court of Canada case that will decide whether or not banks must license employees selling insurance products. In the case Canadian Western Bank v. Alberta, eight Canadian banks are challenging the applicability of Alberta’s Insurance Act to any insurance sales that banks are […]
Around the world, institutional asset managers say responsible investment considerations are coming to the forefront as globalization, as well as social and environmental issues, begin to have a larger impact on performance and the markets. A survey of 157 money managers, conducted by Mercer Investment Consulting, found that environmental issues like climate change feature less […]
The Ontario Securities Commission issued a cease trade order last week against the Juniper Equity Growth and the Juniper Income funds. A hearing has been scheduled before the Commission on Thursday, March 23, 2006 to determine whether the temporary order should be extended. The OSC says its staff has been conducting a compliance review into […]