(May 21, 2003) Acknowledging the devastation falling stock markets have wreaked on many employee pension plans, Canada’s top financial regulator says that plan sponsors and members must ensure they can pay for pension improvements, and he also feels the federal superintendent should have the power to roll back unaffordable enhancements. “As a pension regulator, I […]
(May 14, 2003) Corporate boards of directors have few investment professionals, such as analysts or fund managers on them. Boosting their presence could make boards more investor-focused argues the Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR), which awards the chartered financial analyst designation. In 2003, AIMR found only 11% of board directors at major companies […]
(May 12, 2003) Mutual fund manufacturers moved more fund management in-house and cut their ties to sub-advisors in 2002. It’s not just mutual fund managers who are seeking more control of asset management. Segregated funds operated by the insurance companies are following the same route. Despite the dip, however, sub-advisors are holding their ground, in […]
(April 17, 2003) Newly appointed Securities and Exchange Commission chair William Donaldson reported on the SEC’s continuing fact-finding inquiry into hedge funds to a Congressional committee last week, declaring his uneasiness over the "retailization" of hedge funds. Before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Donaldson cited a number of examples of "retailization," […]
(April 8, 2003) Advisors have long recognized the danger of chasing performance: investors may be buying a fund just as it is peaking. But there’s another hazard to performance: data may disguise substantial tax liabilities. A study by Canadian researchers suggests that taxes eat up as much as 15% of the average fund return, which […]
(April 8, 2003) "Taxes exceed management fees and brokerage commissions in their ability to erode long-term investment returns," write Amin Mawani and Moshe Milevsky, both professors at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, and Kamphol Panyagometh, a post-doctoral researcher working with Mawani and Milevsky. Their work, “The Impact of Personal Income […]
(March 27, 2003) Long-time conference sponsor the Strategy Institute is inaugurating a new educational initiative on hedge funds for advisors at the end of April. The Certified Hedge Fund Specialist program involves four day-long sessions plus fifth day for an exam. Nicole Geneau, chair of the CHFS curriculum committee, says the course fills a hole […]
(March 21, 2003) No-load funds have been outperforming their load fund peers, according to research by Toronto consultancy Investor Economics. But they have not been capitalizing on their advantage. The reason: Even no-load companies are stressing the value of advice. “Many advisors believe load funds produce higher returns because they have the savviest managers,” notes […]
(March 10, 2003) Two of Canada’s largest capital pools reported losses today. The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board is down 2% for 2002, about the same as last year. In Quebec, the Caisse de dépôt et placement lost 9.57%, more than double its loss in 2001. The Caisse’s total loss of $7.59 billion is much […]
(March 6, 2003) Traditional brokerage firms are getting walloped as retail trading declines and investors prove loathe to put new money into mutual funds. Despite that, Raymond James finds its U.S. brokers are faring well. A major reason is that most of them are cost-conscious independent contractors, something that still isn’t allowed in Canada. The […]