5 financial areas to focus on this winter

Winter is a great time to recharge. But with many people’s attention turning toward rest and relaxation in warmer climates or on making getaway plans for later in the year, it’s still important to remember that growing your wealth doesn’t take......

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Investment Strategy - December 2024

Our title is shamelessly self-referential since we essentially copied the one from the December 2024 Investment Strategy report and changed the year to 2025....

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2025 Canada economic outlook: On the mend

Canada’s economic environment remains as complex as it has been for the past couple of years. However, we're now dealing with a different inflation and interest rate environment....

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Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption demystified: Strategies for maximizing your gains

It’s no secret that most business owners could spend more time thinking about succession and tax planning, but there’s a $1.25-million reason to think about it – and that figure will continue to rise....

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Red Sweep: Trump the Sequel

It was a sweep. While Kamala Harris had been gaining in some polls in the last week, the U.S. chose to give Donald Trump a second term....

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Rates Scenario | An outlook on key interest and foreign exchange rates

We’ve made no major changes to our Federal Reserve and Bank of Canada calls since our last Rates Scenario (September 12), despite the Fed’s surprise 50-bp rate cut last month....

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Capital Gains Tax Update: What You Need to Know Now

As outlined in our 2024 Federal Budget Review publication, Budget 2024 proposed several important new measures impacting individuals and business owners, most notably the proposed increase in the capital gains inclusion rate (i.e., the amount of a ca...

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U.S. Estate Tax for Canadians Income Tax Considerations

The estate of a Canadian may be subject to U.S. estate tax if the Canadian owned U.S. “situs” property (U.S. assets) at the time of their death, including investments held in registered accounts – such as Registered Retirement Savings Plans (“RRSPs”)...

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Retirement Planning Calculator Tool

This Retirement calculator will allow you to input assumptions to generate a retirement illustration and a tool for estimating income in retirement.  This self-input calculator tool will provide a good high level summary while we would develop a more comprehensive tax optimized plan for our clients using our access to a more detailed and sophisticated planning software when we meet.  Enjoy!

https://www.bmo.com/financial-calculators/retirement-savings/

 

Portfolio

To Preserve & Protect Your Legacy

Managing the Health of Your Wealth by Building Smarter Portfolios

 

We believe the greatest opportunity for clients to achieve their investment objectives and to realize optimal risk-adjusted returns is by using a well-constructed portfolio combining active, passive and alternative strategies allocated to meet their unique needs. Given all of these factors, we believe portfolio construction efforts should focus on seeking a balance between growth potential and downside protection. This means being sensitive to stock valuations, ensuring wide-ranging diversification and focusing on income.
 



In its broadest sense, diversification means exposure to a variety of asset classes that have historically had lower correlations to each other.  For many investors, this could mean adding real estate, international exposure and alternative strategies (such as long-short, absolute return, and market neutral mandates) to their portfolios.

Our Portfolio construct provides adequate and prudent diversification to global equity markets and fixed income, while incorporating an allocation to Absolute Return managers. 

Please contact us to learn more about our portfolio construct and historical performance.
 

Why Select a CFA

Why Choose a CFA?

The Case for Passive VS Active US Equity

Historically, the US equity market as represented by the S&P 500 Index, has been extremely difficult to beat!  In the past 15 years, less than 3% of Active Managers have been able to Outperform the Index. 

The S&P 500 is highly efficient, liquid, and does not suffer from high single security concentration risk (ie. like the TSX Index has in Canada in the past with Nortel, RIM, Valeant, and Shopify today). 

Please click here to see the latest SPIVA research on how difficult it is to outperform the S&P 500 US equity index.  This is why our core strategy for US equity market exposure is a Passive US Equity allocation incorporating low cost Index ETFs.

Benefits of Alternatives

With markets at all-time highs, volatility at multi-year lows, high equity market valuations and general political and economic uncertainty, investors have a desire to protect capital and earn a competitive return. Absolute Return Strategies are often utilized by High Net Worth families to Enhance Returns & Add Downside Protection to complement Traditional Portfolio Asset Exposures.

Click here to discover the Power & Benefits of Adding Alternatives to your Portfolio!