Dominos keep falling. It started with Bear Stearns, then Fannie and Freddie got bailed out. Then came Merrill Lynch and Lehman, and then another bailout. This time AIG, followed by rumours of other merger deals. It’s strange to watch one of the most laissez-faire administrations in U.S. history resort to hard-core Keynesianism to prevent a […]
What do you really want? That’s the question every client needs to ask in order to get something worthwhile from life. We hear a lot lately about values-based investing, and this book encourages clients and advisors to explore their values to achieve the goal of living what the authors call an “authentic life.” Yet, while […]
I recently got back from a few days in Vancouver. It was my first trip to the West Coast and I have to say I noticed some differences in the attitudes of the financial professionals with whom I sat down and talked shop. First and foremost, the absence of Bay Street bravado was refreshing. At […]
The next generation is cynical, suspicious and cheap. Reality bites
The industry isn’t of one mind about National Instrument 31-103, the CSA’s outline for a path to registration reform and harmonization of rules and requirements that must be followed by nearly all players in the securities industry. Take performance reporting on accounts of individual clients, suggests Larry Boyce, vice-president of sales compliance and regulation at […]
An increase to $750,000 in the lifetime capital gains exemption for farmers, fishermen and small business owners looks great on paper — until you realize a large percentage of Canadian business owners won’t be eligible without some careful preparation. “Not all small businesses can take advantages of it. There are restrictions — it’s a complicated […]
(March 2007) Regulators don’t like to be kept waiting. And if one’s singled you out, it really doesn’t make sense to deprive the examination staff of information. For some reason, that hasn’t completely sunk in with everyone in this industry. During the course of a year, a read-through of regulatory actions from the Investment Dealers […]
Throw away your printers. Actually, don’t, or at least not yet. But you may get away with buying less ink if a series of recommendations proposed this week by the Task Force to Modernize Securities Legislation are embraced and enacted by the nation’s industry regulators. High on the task force’s list is the removal of […]
IFIC’s tax working group is considering lobbying the Department of Finance to move the RRSP contribution deadline to April in order to bring it closer to the filing date for tax returns, which is normally April 30 for individual taxpayers and June 15 for those who are self-employed. Currently, to be tax deductible, RRSP contributions […]
(October 2006) If you believe the premise that compliance starts with the advisor, then it’s the firm’s duty to ensure that advisor has the tools necessary to help clients understand what they’re getting themselves into. Investments are complex. So, even if your clients tell you they understand things like risk and the theories behind portfolio […]