Bonds aren't yielding what they used to—a five-year government of Canada bond will get you 1.5%. Equities, however, are levered to economic performance, and thus would seem to be a better vehicle for growth. Companies are sitting on hoards of cash that could be paid out as dividends, but a conservative investor may not want to take on stock market volatility.
The temptation to stretch a little further has never been greater. Investors must understand the risk-return trade-off. It pays to look beneath the labels, lest one mix apples and oranges. Different kinds of yield have different kinds of risk.
The logic and technique behind stress-testing client portfolios
There are lots of reasons not to buy U.S. stocks: fear, disappointment, a lost decade that threatens to before two. Never one to go with the prevailing winds, Larry Sarbit, manager of IA Clarington's Sarbit U.S. Equity Fund, thinks this time it's different.
To increase client assets and boost business, a growing number of advisors are opting for business structures similar to those used by accountants and lawyers: partnerships.
When you catch the up-cycle in small caps, the rewards can be high. But catch falling stocks and the results are ugly. Michael Dector should know: he opened the Redwood Global Small Cap Fund in August 2008.
Where do you start when you list the problems Japan faces? The country is a demographic nightmare; the government changes with the tides; and its economic "lost decade" is now over 20 years old. Still, there is value in Japan, even if the index statistics suggest otherwise.
Read: André L’Espérance’s column Increasing estate value for the affluent Will estate taxes come back to Canada? They are certainly in the spotlight. The estate tax debate lurches back and forth in the U.S., as the legacy of the tax package enacted by the Bush administration in 2001 – with a sunset clause allowing the […]
More and more, the Canada Revenue Agency is taking a keen interest in how companies, both small and large, structure their tax planning. And it is asking increasingly intrusive questions—not quite audits, but compelling questionnaires. All of this is the name of the GAAR: the General Anti-Avoidance Rule promulgated some 20 years ago. Still, while […]