Q: A full position is considered to be 5%. So if a family has say 2 tfsa’s of $50k each and an RSP of $100k for total of $200k, would you look at a 5% full position in each account, which would amount to $2500 in each tfsa and $5000 in the RSP, or would you look at 5% based on the household registered total of $10,000 and be ok with a $10,000 hold in 1 RSP account even though in that account its 20% but still only 5% of the family portfolio if you will. Hope this makes some sense.
5i Research Answer:
Different investors might look at this differently, but we prefer to take a household approach. This helps to avoid redundancies that tend to get missed (like accidentally overconcentrating in one name across accounts). In turn we would view the full position limit at the household or total portfolio level. One caveat here, as you touch on, is to still be aware of overconcentraation at the single account level. Having 20% of a TFSA in one stock could lead to inefficiencies if that name doesn't work out as it would use up a lot of the TFSA room. Some lvel of diversification within accounts is important alongside diversification across the portfolio.