Archive for the ‘Competitive Intelligence’ Category

The rollercoaster that was 2020 has slipped into the rear view. So many of us are looking forward to a happier and healthier 2021 and beyond. The turn of the calendar is also a time of resolutions for many. Once the financial planning basics are...

Razor-thin interest rates have motivated investors to reach for extra returns for years. Accordingly, many investors have invested in investment funds holding bank loans – a.k.a. senior secured loans, leveraged loans, term loans, floating rate...

I have often criticized the investment industry for pumping out products designed to sell, rather than build, wealth for investors, and have worked to raise investor awareness of how gimmicky products destroy wealth. The battle against such products...

There is a lot to like about dividend-paying stocks. Dividends generally follow earnings, and are cold hard evidence of earnings’ existence. In Canada, this infatuation with dividend-payers is compounded by our love of bank and utility stocks, and...

When families have built wealth over years or decades, and in particular when that wealth was largely due to an event such as the sale of a business, their attention quickly turns to getting peace of mind knowing that their wealth is protected. This...

Ontario’s Minister of Finance Vic Fedeli recently issued a statement stating that his government does not support the Canadian Securities Administrators’ (CSA) proposals published on June 21, 2018. The proposals recommend – in a nutshell –...

“In a client’s best interests” is a phrase heard often in the financial industry. While many investment advisors simply talk about this concept, fiduciary financial advisors have a moral and ethical duty to live up to it. So what makes a...

A true investment fiduciary is all about putting the client’s interests first. Too many investment advisors only pay lip service to the idea of “putting the investor first”; a true fiduciary has a legal and ethical responsibility to live up to...

The Canadian Securities Administrators launched a lengthy consultation period in January on their proposal to eliminate embedded commissions – i.e. commissions paid to those selling investment products that are built into the product’s price or...

On March 22nd, 2017 the Trudeau Liberal Government presented their second Federal Budget. Compared to their first budget, which included significant increases in taxation and program stimulus, this budget provided relatively small changes to certain...