Cutting Through the Noise
November 21, 2008
I have been vocal about our high cost wealth management industry and cynical about pronouncements of fees coming down. There have been some fee reductions, but for the most part the adjustments have been on small, unpopular funds and/or funds ...
Read MoreNovember 4, 2008
Few of our clients own PPNs (principal-protected notes), so the recent posting on the topic may not be of much interest, but my rant has lessons that apply more generally. Here are the takeaways. The investment bankers and marketing executives ...
Read MoreSeptember 8, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published September 6, 2008 I recently had the occasion to hear marketing pitches from two leading investment firms: Burgundy Asset Management and Sprott Asset Management. Both have built wealth for their clients and ...
Read MoreAugust 28, 2008
I understand “location, location, location” in the real estate business.” What I don’t get is “scale, scale, scale” in the investment business. But “scale” is the word of the week in our industry. Both Rick Waugh, the CEO of Bank ...
Read MoreAugust 25, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published August 23, 2008 For a while now I have been trying to buy my neighbour's property. He hasn't lived there for 15 years, but keeps it as an investment. When I broach ...
Read MoreAugust 11, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published August 9, 2008 This week, we saw another independent asset manager bite the dust. It was announced that IGM Financial, through its Mackenzie division, has made an offer to buy Saxon Financial. ...
Read MoreAugust 7, 2008
We started Steadyhand last year because we saw an opportunity to work with investors who know what they want, care about fees and are interested in beating the market over the long run. Our target clients make up a tiny ...
Read MoreJuly 14, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published July 12, 2008 I've been reading Sports Illustrated for 40 years (since I was minus three years old). There are weeks when I don't get the Economist magazine read, but I never ...
Read MoreJune 26, 2008
This week RBC/PH&N announced they are reducing their management fees. Eight of the funds that are sold directly to investors are affected. This good news comes from the dynamic duo of low fee mutual funds. PH&N has been a leader ...
Read MoreJune 3, 2008
I had some interesting feedback on my Saturday column on Francis Chou . The volume of emails was not noteworthy, but the diversity of views and the temperature level had the widest range I’ve experienced. There were a few investors ...
Read MoreJune 2, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published May 31, 2008 I grumbled as I read Rob Carrick's profile on Francis Chou in the latest issue of Globe Investor magazine. He beat me to it. I had visited Francis a ...
Read MoreMay 20, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published May 17, 2008 On my way to a breakfast meeting recently, I walked by the 'Opening Soon' Apple store in Vancouver's Pacific Centre Mall. I know how hot that store is going ...
Read MoreMay 13, 2008
JovFunds Management is coming out with three ‘tactical allocation portfolios’ that will invest solely in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These growth, balanced and conservative mutual funds will own Horizons BetaPro ETFs and the asset mix will be actively managed by Fiera ...
Read MoreApril 21, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business. Published April 19, 2008 Purdy, what were you thinking? Didn't you know how complex and convoluted investment products have become? Didn't you know this would become a hornet's nest with many different interests ...
Read MoreApril 8, 2008
Last Saturday (April 5th), Globe and Mail columnist Rob Carrick wrote a piece ( Fund Fees that Have Fallen the Most ) featuring mutual funds where the management expense ratio is falling. He published a list of the ‘Top 30 MER decliners’ (click ...
Read MoreApril 4, 2008
Who can forget Sally Field’s acceptance speech at the Oscars in 1985? The Canadian mutual industry has taken a page from Sally’s delivery. As Jonathan Chevreau points out in his blog today, the Lipper annual awards gala held in Toronto ...
Read MoreMarch 17, 2008
The news just keeps getting worse. Today it’s the announcement that one of Wall Street’s revered investment dealers, Bear Stearns, is being bailed out and shareholders are going to lose almost everything. Despite the fact that Bear was a poster ...
Read MoreMarch 13, 2008
There’s an interesting firm out of London by the name of Bedlam Asset Management. I read their literature every now and then and although we often don’t share the same views, I’m always impressed by their transparency. There’s no beating ...
Read MoreMarch 7, 2008
In his Streetwise blog yesterday, Globe and Mail journalist Andrew Willis highlighted an $8 million fine that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently imposed on Fidelity Investments. The penalty was imposed to settle charges that Fidelity’s in-house traders ...
Read MoreFebruary 28, 2008
In the investment business, Royal Bank and PH&N stole all the headlines last week (including on our blog), but there was another piece of news that relates closely to what we’re doing at Steadyhand. It was the announcement of a ...
Read MoreFebruary 25, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published February 23, 2008 It appeared on my BlackBerry screen on Thursday afternoon. Word from the office that Royal Bank was buying Phillips Hager & North. My first reaction was to shrug and ...
Read MoreFebruary 21, 2008
February 14, 2008
I stumbled across a large ad in the Vancouver Sun last week that caught my attention. The headline: Retire 12.2% Faster. How could I not read on! The ad was from the Bank of Montreal and it was referring ...
Read MoreFebruary 12, 2008
Derek DeCloet wrote an article in today’s Globe and Mail that most fund companies probably don’t want you to read. He cites strong net redemptions in January from some of the industry’s "lumbering giants", and concludes that poor markets are ...
Read MoreJanuary 31, 2008
Generally speaking, the financial services industry isn’t known for punchy, let alone creative advertising. Most of the big firms tend to stick to conservative, feel-good campaigns. I came across an ad in a magazine the other day from E*Trade that ...
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