Investment Q&A

Q: Hi 5i team,

I am wondering if you can compare VUN to VTI. Which is better to add to my portfolio? Since the holding of VUN is VTI, are they the same ? Are them both tax efficient in RRSP and TFSA accounts?

Thanks,
Alice Liu

Q: Hi 5i team,
I am wondering if you can compare VOO to SPY. Which is better to add to my portfolio? Are them similar? Are them both tax efficient in RRSP and TFSA accounts?

Thanks,
Alice Liu

Q: I hold some ZHP. It 's going sideways since I bought it. I want to get your outlook over time on this ETF. Should I hold to it? It's down 5% since I bought it

I bought some VMO and it is down 3%. I read it is active ETF but I do not see any movement with the stock. What's your insight?

I have some US dollar and am thinking either of investing in ZTS or CSX .
Which one would you go with specially if there is an economic downturn?

Thank you

Q: Have all of these and so far all performing fairly well---they all around 2%
Want to top 2 of them up to 5%----or maybe you have a better choice.
Please advise your thoughts
Peter

Q: Hi. I have room in my TFSA for a full position - long term hold. I am looking for a financial/tech stock. I was leaning toward IPAY, but have just read your report on LSPD. What are your thoughts on LSPD vs. IPAY?

Q: Good morning 5i, I am still plodding along with asset allocator. I have only Weed left in healthcare having sold GUD, and COV. I need 9% so another 7% after WEED. Happy to buy in $US or $Cdn and looking at XHC, IHI, PFE, ZTS. I appreciate your input. Regards, Ted

Q: We have a lot of US stocks that I have done well on as well we have a bunch of ETF 's that hold US equities that hedge the dollar. I feel that the US dollar is starting to lose steam and we don't want to give up our individual US companies but don't want to lose on our dollar exposure. What is the most cost effective way to protect against dollar exposure for the long term?

Q: Good afternoon 5i.
I have some cash to invest and
I would like to invest some of it in an etf portfolio.
any sujection
Thank you
Guy

Q: I have a 2 year old RESP for a 3 year old grand daughter to which I will contribute in about a week on her birthday. It currently holds only VGG. Should I add the $3000 to VGG or can you suggest something else. I actively monitor my own investments but the RESP I look at only at this time of year.

Q: Hi Group - I am getting a bit concerned about the US dollar verses CAD, I hold 50% of my portfolio in us funds. If I believe that the US stock holdings I presently own are way more solid than Canadian companies but am concerned about the US dollar dropping significantly what defensive strategy should I consider? PS I trade with RBC direct investing Thanks

Q: I'm confused about the performance of these ETFs from CI First Asset. On the Globe and Mail site, their performance is hugely different from that listed on the CI First Asset site.
The Globe has the monthly, three month and YTD performance of RWU as: 6.5%, 11.35%, and 27.21%. Yet CI Financial has them as -1.6%, 4% and 14%
The Globe has the Monthly, three month and YTD performance of YXM as 8.28%, 4.37% and 24.64% while CI Financial listed them as -5.45%, -3.98% and 11.57%
I find it hard to believe CI Financial would under-report, but how is the Globe's information so exaggerated? What am I missing here? Their performance is impressive on the G&M site. On their own... not so much.

Q: My current portfolio is 85% Canadian and replicates your BE portfolio with ETFs for the foreign content. I am considering bringing the Canadian content back to 60%. For the foreign content, I am considering DXU (20% of total), DXG (15% of total) and VEE (5%). DXU and DXG have but 2 years history but have performed extremely well in that time. I am an old guy, not afraid of equities but wish to reduce the draw-down potential (note I said reduce; eliminate, I am aware, is impossible).
Would you agree with my thinking and if so, my choices of ETFs? And would you recommend further diversification in the foreign content ETFs?

Q: Hi,
I hold Xtr in a non registered acct, I bought it in 2019and I am wondering if you could explain the tax implications.
As a followup to a recent question asked on this investment, I was assuming it would be seen as dividend income?
Would this be better in a rrsp or tfsa?
Thanks for you help,
Gwen

Q: Hi, I am currently retired and my income comprise of 60% from a non-indexed DB pension and 40% of dividend income. I hold about 20% (12% in RRSP, 5% in Non RRSP and 3% in TFSA) of BNS stocks in my portfolio and would like to reduce that percentage to around 10% for diversification. Are there any ETFs which can provide similar dividend yields as BNS that you would recommend or should I leave it as is at this time? Thanks again for your great help.

Q: Is IYW a safe ETF to hold as part of PA? If so where is it best to hold in RRIF or TFSA?
Look forward to your answer.

Q: What is a good S&P 500 Index Fund to invest in and tuck away for 20 years? S&P 500 is already up 16.5 % this year and historically has performed about 10% per year. Seems like a good long term investment.
Thanks.

Q: Hello 5i team,
The price of the above shot up by 7% in the last 6 months; is that a reflection of the more accommodative stance of the Fed?
Thanks
Antoine

Q: For a ten year investment, what would you recommend as your top three ETFs for international equities (i.e. non-US and non-Cdn equities) from a risk-reward standpoint? Does your recommendation change if the ETFs are to go in a registered or non-registered account? Dividends are not necessarily an objective. The ETFs can be from a Canadian or a US firm (i.e. Vanguard, iShares, BMO, etc.).

Thank you for this great service!

Q: I own these 2 ETF in non-registered accounts. Are their dividends subjected to a withholding tax?

Q: Hi

My question is about structuring and managing a portfolio across multiple registered and unregistered accounts. Please forgive if this question has been asked before.

Between 4 family members (including two young children) we have 11 trading accounts on the go, including 5 unregistered (3 Cdn and 2 US), 2 tfsa’s, 2 rrsp’s, and 2 resp’s. My approach to date has generally been to try to diversify within each account and try not to duplicate between accounts, with an eye to overall diversification.

This results in three problems (at least): sub-optimal diversification within and across accounts, too many holdings (which are difficult to monitor) and a low average $ value per holding. For example, 11 accounts times ten positions per account is 110 holdings. As for low value, a 10% holding on a $50,000 registered account is $5,000, which represents only 0.5% of an aggregate $1,000,000 value (example).

I have been thinking of treating all of the accounts holistically rather than individually while accounting for tax considerations of course. My goal is to try to get the number of holdings down to 20 - 30, with an average value of 3% - 5% of aggregate portfolio value. I find the main difficulty to be in structuring the lower value accounts.

Two approaches I have been mulling over:

1) Scrap the individual account diversification approach and perhaps only hold 1 - 3 positions in lower value accounts. This approach would probably mean that no account on its own will be diversified but the aggregate portfolio will be (hopefully).
2) Try to maintain the account diversification approach by investing in only one etf per account until the account eventually reaches a size sufficient to hold more positions (then I suppose the approach would flip to the first approach). The idea being that each account would hold a different etf (and at least be somewhat diversified) that would contribute to the overall diversification of the aggregate portfolio.

Do you have any comments or guidance on managing multiple accounts? How do investment professionals manage their own family accounts? Any best practices that you are aware of, or good articles that you can direct me to? Any considerations besides tax; for example, how do you apportion risk between family members and accounts?

Thanks
Derek