skip to content
  1. Home
  2. >
  3. Investment Q&A
You can view 3 more answers this month. Sign up for a free trial for unlimited access.

Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: Can you please advise which ETF you prefer and why: VTI or DIA?

And secondly, why is MSI rated as a hold? I'm up 40% over the last year...and it comes with a respectable dividend of 2.54%. What am I missing here?

Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Maureen on July 31, 2019
Q: With respect to Larry's earlier question about ZST, I was surprised that you did not mention HFR as a better alternative. Althought ZST has a lower MER than HFR (0.17% vs. 0.4%) and a better distribution (2.9% vs 2.4%), its value has declined consistently (-15%) in the past eight years unlike that of HFR (0%). I see no reason to recommend ZST in preference to HFR so why would you?
Read Answer Asked by richard on July 30, 2019
Q: I am looking for ideas for 3 ETFs (to complement an existing portfolio):
(a) small cap equities (preferably, global; if not, then US-focused);
(b) global equities, ex-U.S.
(c) emerging markets.
This is for a LIRA account. I'd like all 3 ETFs to be non-hedged, in Canadian dollars, to be Canadian situs (ideally), and not to have 15% withholding on distributions. I think "VEE" might meet all of these criteria for an emerging markets fund (am not sure).
Ted
Read Answer Asked by Ted on July 29, 2019
Q: I just noticed that 60% of ZAG’s holdings are other BMO bond ETFs, and the rest are direct bonds. I am wondering about the implications of this of MER, yield, and taxation.

In the BMO documentation for ZAG, they note “as ZAG is a fund of fund, the management fees charged are reduced by those accrued in the underlying funds,” which I find confusing. ZAG’s MER is 0.09%, but the underlying ETFs have MERs ranging from 0.11% to 0.33%. Is the 0.09% MER in addition to the MER paid to the underlying ETFs, or is it just 0.09%?

Does the ‘fund of funds’ characteristic of ZAG mean there are taxation issues in terms of it’s dividends being eligible dividends in Canada?

Are the dividends considered eligible dividends or interest?

Thanks again,

Fed
Read Answer Asked by Federico on July 29, 2019
Q: Came across ZFC - BMO SIA Focused Canadian Equity Fund ETF Series in doing ETF research. Holdings are 100% Canadian ... Top 10 holdings account for about 67% of the fund (AC, QBR.B, CAE, WCN, BAD, GIB.A, CSU, CAR.UN, EFN). MER is on the high side .75 What is the 5i opinion on this for a more aggressive ETF for Canadian holdings ? Thanks as always for your advice, Steve.
Read Answer Asked by STEVEN on July 29, 2019
Q: Good morning 5i,
In the interests of simplifying my financial affairs for those who may have to look after them at some point, I have been moving in the direction of efts in my rif accounts on the US side. Up to this point I haven't considered doing the same for Canadian stocks, for two reasons: One is the capital gains that must be paid, as they are in a taxable account for the most part. Second, because of the fear that Canadian efts, like the Canadian economy, concentrate on only a few sectors. I thought, therefore, that I could simply make up my own etf out of individual companies that I buy. I can see, though, that one could suffer a real loss if one of these blew up, something like SNC Lavelan, which had previously been a staple in Canadian portfolios until recently. Also, there is the difficulty of managing these stocks by someone else, not used to doing so. I could approach it over a number of years to avoid some of the capital gain problem. So, I was wondering what you thought of this move in general? Also,I would appreciate your view on the relative dangers of holding Canadian efts? Which Canadian efts would be the best, general market or more focused? Appreciate greatly your reflections on this question.
Read Answer Asked by joseph on July 26, 2019
Q: Thank you for your Portfolio Analytics feature, I am finding it a useful tool for helping with overall perspective.

Here is a sounding board fixed income ETF allocation question.

In registered accounts I currently have 1% XBB and another 4'ish% spread generally evenly between VSC, CLF and CBO.

For general simplification purposes would it be a better idea to only hold a couple of ETFs or maybe even just a single bond fund?

Possibly keep XBB and choose one of shorter-termed VSC/CLF/CBO products? Would you suggest different ETF(s) instead? Thanks for any ideas and I recognize you are not giving individual advice.
Read Answer Asked by Richard on July 25, 2019
Q: Is CEF and CEF.U a good choice as a holding of gold and silver bullion. I realise there are storage costs involved but can you suggest an alternative that also holds the actual metals in storage. Preferably with lower MER than what Sprott collects on CEF at .73%.
An e.t.f. perhaps? Or just go with a solid producer such as AEM and forget bullion.
The maximum 5% holding is for portfolio insurance.
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Gerald on July 25, 2019
Looking for more? Sign up for a FREE 14 day trial! No credit card required

We invite you to sign up for a 14 day free trial of 5i Research!
Experience all the benefits and tools we have to offer; stock research, model portfolios, Q&A with our experts, and so much more. Join a community of like-minded investors today!