Canadian Capitalist

It started with a Goldman Sachs paper that popularized the term BRIC, referring to the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China. The paper projected that by 2040 the combined BRIC economies will be larger than the developed economies of the US, Japan, UK, Germany, France and Italy. BRICs would have remained nothing more [...]

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We might do all the right things in investing – keep expenses low, not chase performance, stick to the plan even when markets are terrible – and still get low returns just because our investing career coincided with a time period in which market returns were much lower than we expected at the outset. In [...]

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Today’s question is from Christine:
How can I move a self-directed RRSP account from my broker to a self-directed RRSP account with TD Waterhouse?
It’s quite simple to transfer a RRSP account between different institutions — look for a transfer authorization form from the institution you want the account transferred to (the TD Waterhouse form for transferring [...]

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The weekend edition of the Globe and Mail carried a column by Noreen Rasbach, who is pondering a switch from mutual funds to ETFs, but is worried about the extra costs for small investors:
One of the downsides of ETFs is that they are bought and sold on exchanges, so you have to pay commissions, and [...]

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Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs, pronounced “reets”), which invest in and manage commercial real estate such as office buildings, shopping malls and apartment buildings and distribute most of their income to shareholders, have risk-return characteristics different than those of stocks and bonds and thus provide valuable diversification benefits in a portfolio. But, there is a [...]

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In response to an earlier post on Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT), reader Doug raised an interesting point — While Vanguard funds have rock-bottom fees, owning US-based assets may result in an estate tax payable to Uncle Sam. Doug also posted a link to a BDO Dunwoody bulletin on U.S. Estate Tax Issues for [...]

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Now that you have a shortlist of advisors, the next step is to interview them. First, I compiled a list of sample questions to ask potential advisors from various sources. The CFP website has a list of ten questions to ask your planner. The Mackenzie funds website also features a list of interview questions that [...]

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In The Intelligent Portfolio (Book Review), the author has published real expected returns from various asset classes calculated by Financial Engines. Financial Engines uses a technique called reverse portfolio optimization - i.e. use estimated volatilities and correlations from history and solve for expected returns from an optimal portfolio, the market portfolio.
Cash - 1.7%
Short bonds - [...]

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In his latest column in Report on Business, sleuth investor Avner Mandelman asks DIY investors: “you don’t wear suits you sewed yourself, or shoes you cobbled yourself, or feed your family bread you baked yourself, so why would you try to invest your family’s assets by yourself?” and somewhat self-servingly suggests hiring a professional:

So once [...]

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The data on the size of the Canadian equity market is easily obtained – various sources suggest that it is roughly $2 trillion*. But the size of the bond market is a bit of a mystery. An article in The Province (thanks to Preet of Where Does all my Money go? for the sources in [...]

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