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Investment Q&A

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

Q: Are there disadvantages in holding a Mutual Fund in a non registered account? Thank You.
Read Answer Asked by Brian on February 20, 2014
Q: hello 5i team: i am trying to decide between active verses passive for global equity in my rrsp. this would be 15% of portfolio. comparing xwd for etf and mawer global equity also for small cap. 5% weighting of xsu or xcs to mawer global small cap. your input is greatly appreciated. thanks Larry
Read Answer Asked by Larry on February 19, 2014
Q: Currently approximately 16% of my stock portfolio is in international stocks with the largest percentage being large banks (Santander, ING, JP Morgan, HSBC and Bank of America) at 28%. The remainder typically are large American and European companies (pharma, agriculture, metals, tech, industrials and telecommunications) . I recently sold some MacKenzie mutual funds. I am planning to take the proceeds and purchase Mawer Global Small Cap Mutual (MAW150) thinking that this will increase my international exposure to approximately 20% plus balance the weighting a bit more to smaller companies. I would appreciate your comments about my thinking and would like any advice for alternates. I very much value your thoughts. Thank you very much.
Read Answer Asked by ED on February 18, 2014
Q: ..oops I forgot to add I also own BMO Dividend Fund (146)-GGF70146 thanks
Read Answer Asked by El-ann on February 13, 2014
Q: This is to follow-up on the question posed by Linda on Jan 9/14 re. tax issues/negative factors to be considered with holding US (or other foreign)dividend paying stocks in a TFSA. Your response was that, yes, in a TFSA witholding tax will be applied on foreign dividends: in an RRSP it will not.
I'm not sure how much weight to give this info when structuring your TFSA. Should it just be -No- TFSA is not the optimal place to hold foreign equity - get your foreign exposure elsewhere. Or - Yes - this is something you should be aware of - it will act as a bit of a drag on returns - but should be subordinate to the over-all objective of your TFSA.
Specifically, I would like to re-structue my TFSA to replicate a mini stand-alone portfolio. And to do so I was considering the Mawer Balanced Fund as a simple one step solution - 40% FI; 20% Can. equity: 40% foreign equity - MER below 1% and consistently outperforms its benchmark.
Question: should the negative tax implications on the 40% foreign component be cause enough not to follow this approach?
Thank-you

Read Answer Asked by William on February 09, 2014
Q: I know you have been asked this before but I couldn't find the answer.I have Sentry Canadian Income Fund NCE 717.The MER is high but the return has been pretty good.My holding is around 30K.Option 1 is to keep it.Option 2 sell it and put 50% into XIU and 25% each into CDZ and XEI.Any thoughts.Thanks for the great service.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on January 27, 2014
Q: Hi Peter I know that you are not big on mutual funds in general. However, I've been looking at investing in the health care sector and came across CI's Global Health Sciences Corp Cl.
It shows 20% return average over 5 years with the past 2 years at 44 and 59%. Management fees are high at 5%. When the company publishes these figures, have the management fees already been taken off, or should they be subtracted to get actual returns. Would you also please comment on whether this fund is worth considering investing in. Thank you. Your information is always very helpful.
Read Answer Asked by Cam on January 21, 2014
Q: Some think that 2014 will be the year for the Cdn stk mkt to shine. If you agree, what sectors would be best and what mutual fund(s) would best cover these? (I have mainly stocks in my accounts that are similar to you model, but am trying to get back to a few good mfs as well.) Thanks for you help. Alan
Read Answer Asked by Alan on January 20, 2014
Q: Hi Peter,
I know you are not a big advocate of funds at this point in your career becasue of fees etc..However, what would your favourite funds be for US large Cap & US small cap? or perhaps you could recommend US large cap & US Small cap ETF?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Chris on January 13, 2014
Q: I believe you mentioned Norrep Funds a few months ago, but
I can't find it in the archive. Would you please restate your
opinion of this family of funds? They seem to be very small,
and am concerned they can achieve the economies of scale to survive over the long term.
Read Answer Asked by gordon on January 09, 2014
Q: could I have your opinion on dynamic alpha performance fund
FT(2198) wilf.
Read Answer Asked by wilfred on January 06, 2014
Q: Hi Team
My adviser is suggesting purchasing Vertex Arbitrage fund as an alternative to a portion of fixed income type of investing. Do you know this fund and any feel what type of return may be achieved with this type of fund?

As always thank you for your advise.
Read Answer Asked by Doug on December 15, 2013
Q: I believe I have read that it is unwise to purchase mutual funds in december because they allocate certain amounts that accumulate over the year therefore you could be in for a capitol gain or other tax liability that you did note participate in. I have two funds left to liquidate as a result of moving all my accounts to a discount broker and reallocating resources to individual stocks and ETFs.
Is there any advantage to selling these two funds now to avoid this year end fund activity? I would be doing so early in the new year anyway.

Thank you so much for an educational and profitable year. All the best for the Season and 2014 to the 5i team and members.
Read Answer Asked by Brian on December 12, 2013
Q: Hi Peter & 5i: Just a comment regarding Andrew’s question (12/3/13) about switching between VUS and VUN and the possibility of not triggering a capital gain. I agree with you that his contemplated switch would crystallize a taxable gain, if executed, but I think he may have had something else in mind when mentioning what he had heard about. I think in some cases mutual fund companies are able to allow investor’s holdings to be switched between their various funds “in house,” without creating a taxable transaction for the investor. That may have been the idea. As you point out though, it doesn’t work with ETFs, even if the ETFs are both products of the same investment company.
Read Answer Asked by Lance on December 04, 2013
Q: Seems to me that if you can identify a fund with a good manager at inception, before they are swamped with cash, then you can do very well. Over the last while we have seen a Raymond Jeffries fund top the charts and more recently CI Canadian Growth. Are you able to identify and recommend similar funds when they occur?
Read Answer Asked by Peter on November 18, 2013
Q: Could you please recommend 3 or 4 solid mutual funds for my pension account Thanx Robbie
Read Answer Asked by Robert on November 12, 2013
Q: Hi Guys,
I have a comment concerning Bryon. I would eliminate all answers concerning Mutual funds and ETF's. How can you possibly know what is in an ETF of mutual fund to give a proper answer.

Just my 2 cents.

Regards
John
Read Answer Asked by John on November 11, 2013
Q: I am thinking of adding some mutual funds to my portfolio. Specifically I am looking at the Mawer funds with fairly low Mer and with no trailer fees. Maw 104, 106, 108, 120. These all have fairly good track records. Appreciate your thoughts.


G
Read Answer Asked by Ray on November 09, 2013