Looking for a contrarian conversation starter to put in front of your clients? Try the sunny outlook for the U.S. economy, which may be positioned to outperform in 2011, according to Laurentian Bank. The U.S. economy has already recovered “all economic activity lost during the recession,” and is building upon that base, says Sébastien Lavoie, […]
IFIC announced late Monday that it would no longer include sales data for individual fund companies in its monthly sales report. Instead, IFIC will report on sales by asset class and CIFSC category. The decision comes after a string of major companies pulled out of offering such data to the group. “IFIC, as the official […]
The mutual fund industry beat sales forecasts in January 2011, with total net sales of $3.05 billion, topping The Investment Funds Institute of Canada’s preliminary forecast of between $2.45 billion and $2.95 billion. Total mutual fund assets ended the month at $641.8 billion, up $6.1 billion from December and a hefty $85.4 billion since last […]
The Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators has released an “issues paper” on the managing general agencies model of insurance distribution, and is calling on the industry for input into how the market should be regulated. In some ways, the release of the paper is an admission that regulators still don’t have much of a grasp […]
Amid the hand-wringing that the merger of the TMX Group with the LSE would be a loss of sovereignty, a return of our old colonial masters, there’s another deal in the works that should knock the wind out of the assertion that this is an afront to Canadian pride. The Deutsche Borse, the operator of […]
Reaction to the final report by the Task Force on Financial Literacy has been overwhelmingly favourable, with several industry groups volunteering to provide education and assistance. The federal government was also quick to welcome the report, entitled Canadians and Their Money: Building a brighter financial future. (Click here to download a PDF of the report) […]
Urgent action is needed to improve the financial literacy of Canadians, as individuals must increasingly take responsibility for their own future, according to the Task Force on Financial Literacy. The task force submitted its final report to the federal government this morning. “Financial literacy is critical to the prosperity of Canadians and the nation,” said […]
Reader Alert: This is Part 2 of a three-part series. For Part 1, go here. In September 2010, members of the Institute of Advanced Financial Planners met in Banff, Alberta to consider the organization’s annual case study. This year’s case involved a client that everyone could identify with. This is the story of Russell, a […]
Canada’s mutual fund industry started 2011 on a high note, with net sales of between $2.45 billion and $2.95 billion, according to preliminary estimates from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada. Net industry assets totalled between $639.1 billion and $644.1 billion at month-end, an increase of about 0.94% from the end of December. These statistics […]
Political upheavel in Tunisia and Egypt helped boost Canadian mutual fund returns in January, on fears that Middle East oil supplies could be disrupted, according to a preliminary report from Morningstar Canada. “Concerns grew that protests could spread to larger oil-producing countries and that supplies through the Suez Canal and Sumed oil pipeline could be […]