New rules for certified financial planner candidates will see the traditional exam split in two. The new exams, to come into effect in July 2010, are part of a general updating of the CFP curriculum by the Financial Planners Standards Council. John Wickett, the FPSC’s senior vice-president for standards and certification, says the move stems […]
Fee-only financial planning is a growing trend in Canada, and so is passive investing. Montreal-headquartered PWL pioneered this approach in 1996. AER spoke with PWL founder Anthony Layton about his ideal client – and his ideal advisor. Q: Tell me, how did PWL come to be? A: Three of us – me, James Parkyn and […]
It’s not even the beginning of the end, but December marks another milestone in the protracted dénouement of the whole Mount Real-Cinar-Norshield affair, an affair that ultimately cost investors something on the order of $4.5 billion, according to author-insider William Urseth. At issue is a disciplinary hearing by the Quebec division of the Investment Industry […]
The collapse of Lehman Brothers didn’t just take down the whole investment banking model of Wall Street; it also put the squeeze on a significant number of other investments, including principal-protected notes and hedge funds. Lehman’s PPNs, while notionally powered by various stock indexes, were actually senior unsecured obligations for a company now in bankruptcy. […]
“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” That’s a phrase financial advisors are well acquainted with. Originally, it referred to the practice in some saloons of offering a free lunch for the price of a drink, in hopes some would pay the freight in their happy hours with copious refills. Irrational exuberance, one […]
It’s a money trail that leads from Nassau to Montreal and Minnesota – a trail of tears said to have evaporated $1.5 billion or more in investor money and shareholder assets. And it all started with a secret $4 million offshore investment. Whether there’s any money left for investors to claim – beyond a paltry […]
(May 2008) This article first appeared in the April 2008 issue of Advisor’s Edge Report. There’s a lot of carnage in today’s markets. It stretches far beyond market losses and prudently calculated risks, and actually touches on the notion of trustworthy advice. Sure, there are unexpected illiquidities. Non-bank asset-backed commercial paper is one; Mount Real […]
(April 2008) There’s a lot of carnage in today’s markets. It stretches far beyond market losses and prudently calculated risks, and actually touches on the notion of trustworthy advice. Sure, there are unexpected illiquidities. Non-bank asset-backed commercial paper is one; Mount Real Corporation promissory notes another. These are investments that apparently fell below the threshold […]
Registered or non-registered? That was the calculation. Budgets have a funny way of upsetting calculations, however. Twas ever thus, one might argue, with calculations sometimes changing slowly and sometimes quickly. Remember the gradual raising of the foreign content limit for registered plans? Then one day it was gone. Remember the reduction in the capital gains […]
(January 2008) With recent stock turmoil pushing BCE shares to well below the takeover price negotiated by a consortium led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, speculation has been that Teachers’ will walk away from the deal. But Teachers’ incoming chief, Jim Leech, says simply, “I look forward to the time when Bell is out […]