Q: I sent in a question a 3 days ago about using preferred shares in companies in lieu of savings mutual funds like DYN6000. Did you get the question? Also wondering if Preferred shares is a better option because of the dividend then could you give me a list of 6 to 8 in Canada and 4 in the US that you would recommend. Hope both you Peter and Ryan and your families are staying safe.

Regards,

Brendan

Q: Hello Ryan and Peter:

I hope you are all staying well in these trying times. We had our stock club meeting last month and one of our members was promoting hard for preferred shares because of the dividend. We purchased it for the club and I would like to know what are the advantages over the common share beyond the obvious of:
1. Preferred shares have higher pecking order in case of bankruptcy.
2. Dividend of the common share will get cut first before the preferred share dividend cut.

I see more disadvantages than advantages:
1. Dividend of the common share is similar to the preferred.
2. Very illiquid on the markets. The preferred can only trade 3000-5000 per day while the common share trades in the millions.

The slight difference in the dividend does not appear to be worth the risk of illiquidity. Also the higher pecking order in term of bankruptcy seems pointless when it comes to Canadian banks. Also the point of the common share dividend getting cut is not a big advantage when the big banks have not cut their dividend in over 80 years and National Bank I don’t include as one of the big banks.

Is there something that I am missing here.


Regards,

Brendan