Q: Good morning, I have enjoyed and benefitted from my membership to 5I for many years. I am no longer in a position to actively manage my portfolio on a continuous basis and have been considering moving the core to an all-in- one balanced ETF like ZBAL or VBAL. The simplicity and ease of these types of ETF's appeals to me as I age. What are your thoughts on these ETF's and their place in an Seniors portfolio?
5i Research Answer:
We would be quite comfortable with these as an all-in-one easy approach. They have good diversity, both in assets (ZBAL is 60% stocks), sectors, market cap and geography. Fees are decent (0.20%) and performance reasonable (6.9% over five years, but that includes some very bad years for bonds). Yield is 2.13%. There are still risks here, but from a balanced approach we would consider these solid ETFs leaning to the side of conservatism.