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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: I am two years before retirement and have a moderate risk profile. My current allocation is 25% Canada, 70% US, 5% Developed, and 0% Developing. Considering the state of the economy in Canada and Trump's threats about tariffs, I am wondering whether it's a good idea to decrease my allocation for Canada to 20% and instead allocate 3% to VWO and 2% to ILF. What's your opinion on this? Where do you anticipate better returns—in Canada or in the emerging markets covered by VWO and ILF?
Read Answer Asked by Ron on December 12, 2024
Q: What ETFs would you recommend to use to represent the international portion of a portfolio? What ones would you use for:
1. Europe
2. India
3. Japan
4. South America
I have excluded China because I don’t trust their reporting. How would you divide that 30% up? Is there any other countries/areas that you would view as investable that I am forgetting.

Thanks in advance.
Read Answer Asked by Brendan on September 11, 2023
Q: Regarding the T1135 form, my understanding is that by owning both ILF (U.S. ETF) and Vale (ADR), they would need to be declared (i.e. not exempt from reporting) above the $100,000 threshold correct? I believe this is true unless they are held within an RRSP or a TFSA, in which case both would be exempt.

On the other hand, ETF's with foreign holdings that are created by Canadian institutions such as the BMO's ZEM would also be exempt from reporting, even if that one was held within an open account.

If the above is true, is there a Canadian-based alternative to the ILF ETF ? I would like to have some exposure to Latin America. ZEM, for instance, has holdings I'm not really interested in.
Read Answer Asked by James on January 04, 2023
Q: Happy New Year to all the 5i team!

Question for you: should we be adding to ILF for emerging market exposure? It's dropped the past year with most everything else but is paying a monster dividend now (like 12.7 % going off of trailing year's payments). Am I missing something?

Should we be looking at something like ZEM instead?

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Marc on January 03, 2023
Q: Do you have some suggestions for ETFs that have the following characteristics, with a very long-term hold in mind:

- do not include Canadian or US stocks
- could be focused on Europe or Latin America
- could be focused on Asia, preferably with little or (better yet) no exposure to Chinese stocks
- could be focused on other geographic areas you think have excellent potential
Read Answer Asked by Doug on November 22, 2021
Q: I'm currently trying to diversify my RIF account for 2021. I've trimmed some over weight holdings to free up some cash. I have NA covered with stocks in Canada and a couple of ETF's for the US but, nothing for the rest of world.
How would you currently rate the above now, hopefully for the coming recovery post COVID. I note, South America is not represented. do I need to consider it separately?
I'm inclined to go with 2 positions @ about 6% ......your opinion please!
All the best to you and everyone at 5i for the new year!
Read Answer Asked by Henry on January 04, 2021
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