Blog: Cutting Through the Noise
Postings
Our Clients Refer us the Old Fashioned Way - Because they Want to
Excerpt from Neil Jensen's blog on June 23, 2010
Last week I published our deliberations on whether to launch a client referral program. We had good response via the blog’s comments, email, and in person. In part this was because we asked for feedback, and in part it was because our clients were...Read More
Stewardship Soap Opera?
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 22, 2010
Financial Post journalist Jonathan Chevreau wrote an interesting piece yesterday on Morningstar Canada’s new Stewardship Grades. The article highlights an attempt by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) to discourage Morningstar from...Read More
Morningstar Stewardship Grades
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 17, 2010
Morningstar Canada, a mutual fund research firm, recently introduced Stewardship Grades for over 25 fund companies. In their words, the Stewardship Grade “goes beyond the usual analysis of strategy, risk and return. It is intended to assess...Read More
TFSA Over-contribution Nightmares
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 16, 2010
The Globe and Mail recently reported on an issue that all investors who own a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) should be aware of – over-contribution penalties. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has informed 70,000 investors that they may have to...Read More
Musings on a Possible Customer Referral Program
Excerpt from Neil Jensen's blog on June 14, 2010
Everyone in the investment industry knows that summer is a slow time for opening new accounts. It's a given that we should accept that investors go on holiday and the last thing they want to think about is retirement planning, let alone the perceived headache...Read More
Small is the New Beautiful
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 14, 2010
Small funds produce better returns. This is the conclusion of a recent study, titled Pension Fund Performance and Costs: Small is Beautiful, which looked at the performance of U.S. pension funds from 1990-2006. Published by a trio of...Read More
The Long and Short of Real Estate Investing
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on June 12, 2010
We’re starting to see stories about a softening real estate market in Canada. Listings are up, sales are down, and even the always bullish industry executives are predicting lower prices in the coming year. It reminded me of a quote I saw recently: “Real is...Read More
Know Your Advisor
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 2, 2010
Preet Banerjee is an industry insider who runs a blog titled Where Does All My Money Go? (his blog was ranked Canada’s #1 investing blog by the Globe and Mail last month). Preet recently developed a resource for investors called the Know Your...Read More
Bad Habits
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 1, 2010
I was having dinner with my dad the other night and we got on the topic of credit cards. We both have cards that reward us with air miles (in one form or another) for all our purchases. And importantly, we both pay our cards off each month. Somewhat proudly...Read More
ETFs Gone Wild
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on May 31, 2010
It was announced last week that BMO is adding 8 new ETFs to its lineup. It now offers 30 ETFs, up from zero a year ago. With every new offering, BMO is getting narrower in its focus. The current batch gives the investor specific exposure to junior oil stocks, junior...Read More
Avoiding Benchmark-oriented Mediocrity
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on May 29, 2010
I’m just back from a few days in Scotland. Sightseeing, golf and a meeting with one of our equity managers was the order of the day. For the golf, I stuck to convention and kept track of my pars, bogies and, unfortunately, the “others.” For my meeting with...Read More
Podcast: Visit to Edinburgh
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on May 27, 2010
Tom met with Edinburgh Partners Limited (EPL) on their home turf last week for an annual update on their firm and global equity portfolio. It was also an opportune time to discuss some of the issues currently impacting Europe and get the CEO’s (Sandy Nairn) thoughts on the debt crisis that is overhanging Greece...
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