Investment Q&A

Q: My largest bond fund is pmo205. As bond funds go, it is highly rated. The effective (avg?) duration is 3 yrs. In this interest rate environment, would you replace it with short-terms bond funds (hfr, csd)?

Q: Can you please recommend a couple of good Canadian equity mutual funds, like MAWER 106, with a proven track record ? Thank you.

Q: Info about and how do you rate cig50011.

thanks.

Q: Dear 5i team,
I've owned CHO100 since 2006 and I've had approximately a 75% ROI since this time which is in my opinion lackluster. I had high hopes for the is fund and its manager but things have not worked out as well as I would have hoped. That said, recently it has done well compared to pears but still. Do you think it's time to cut to the cord? Any opinions on its future prospects.

I've also owned MAW107 since 2004 and have had phenomenal results of over 500%. So much so that I am wondering if it would be a good time to cash in profits Again, any thoughts on the fund's future prospects? Both are in my RRSP and I have still at least 15 years before I will be needing to draw from it.
Many thanks in advance.

Q: I have been a long-time holder of the CHO100 fund since 2006. The fund has had ok returns but in the past few years has not kept up with the market. That said, recently it's done very well compared to industry peers. After 15 years, I've gained approximately 75% over my initial investment in both appreciation and distribution. I realize you can only comment in general terms but what do you think of its prospects moving forward? Thanks in advance.

Q: These 2 funds look quite attractive, comments, can you suggest anything else?

Q: Hello, In an effort to make my Portfolio Analytics as accurate as possible, can you provide a way to track mutual funds held through Sunlife group company rrsp?
I hold the following BLK Bond Index fund, BLK EAFE Equity Index
BLK Aggressive Balanced, BLK US Equity Index Reg. Thanks

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. I have two legacy mutual funds...RBC Canadian Equity Income Fund...series D, with a MER of 1.04% and Sentry Canadian Income Fund with a MER of 2.35%. I have owed each for just over 9 years. My original thesis was to have some professional management look after some of my portfolio with the goal of consistent dividend income and some growth of capital. I have just over 5% of the equity portion of my portfolio in each of them.

Periodically I review their performance....the thinking being that as long as they are meeting my investment goals, then the higher MER may appear worthwhile. Here is my methodology, albeit very simplified...does it make sense to you?

I took my unrealized capital gains directly from RBC Direct Investing and divided it by the holding period to create the average annual return of the capital. Then I took the dividend yield and netted out the average ROC to create a "net dividend yield". Add the two together to create the Total Return.

Example: Sentry = 42.14% unrealized CG divided by 9.17 years = 4.6%/yr. Gross dividend of 5.1% netted down by 24% average ROC creates a net dividend of 3.9%. Total Return = 8.5%/year.

For RBC = 7.4%/year (3.6% + 3.8%).

When I look at the posted RBC-5 yr (8.3%) and 10 yr (7.9%) averages, my calculation looks low, but within reason. When I look at the Sentry-5 yr (5.6%) and 10 yr (7.2%) averages, my calculation looks high. Since the original purchases, there were no additional funds added. I have trimmed each position once.

Question #1 = I know you can shoot holes through this, but from a "very ballpark" laymen's point of view, does my methodology make sense? I understand I only used "simple" averages, not "time-weighted" averages.

Q#2 = I had to create my own average for ROC. I went back through my income tax receipts which showed how the distributions were broken down into CG, Dividend, Interest income, ROC. It was actually pretty easy to do. Then I simply averaged them. For the RBC fund, the simple average since 2013 = 6% ROC. For Sentry = 24% ROC. Does your data base show any better data on a longer term average ROC...long shot, but I thought I'd ask. My data only goes back to 2013.

Q#3 = should I have ignored the ROC issue? In real simple terms I wanted to compare the capital invested versus dividends received + capital received (if I was to sell out).

Thanks for your help...much appreciated...Steve

Q: What is your opinion of Invesco International Fund Series F or other Invesco International Fund Series?

Q: hi, What yours thoughts for those Fund for 2/3% portfolio?
is it to expensive?
thanks jean guy.

Q: Hi Guys
How do you think Mawer International fund will perform going out 5 or 10 years, or would you choose Emerging Markets instead, Would China be a risk ?
Geographic Allocation
45.9% Europe Ex. U.K.
20.0% United Kingdom
14.2% Asia Pacific Ex. Japan
10.7% Japan
5.3% United States
3.9% Cash & Cash Equivalents
0.0% Middle East/Africa
0.0% Latin America
0.0% Canada

Q: How safe is the etf
Is this a good way for short term savings
And how is the income taxed
Thanks
Sam

Q: Could I have your view on the following companies.

Q: Hello,

Can I get a couple of your recommendations for the best balanced growth ETF and/or mutual fund as well as a pure growth recommendation. Sector & Geographic allocation not a huge concern.

Thanks.

Q: Dear 5i,

I am considering purchasing either PGF860 or PGF260 for my RIF and TFSA accounts.
Morningstar describes both as Global Small/Mid/Cap equity mutual funds but, PGF860 appears to have much fewer holdings. May I please have your thoughts on these two funds and whether they might be good considerations for my two different accounts. Might one be better suited for each account?
Thanks for the terrific service!

Q: hi, what is your thoughts MFC 5786:ca and MFC 5303:ca for 2-3% portfolio

thanks Jean guy

Q: Looking for feedback on a couple Fidelity Funds. Fidelity Canadian Growth Company & Fidelity Global Innovators. Notice there are some redundancies between them in holdings but each has been recommended to me by my Sun life Advisor.

Thanks.

Q: When mutual funds and ETF'S show there annual returns are they net of all fees? So if a mutual fund has a higher MER but out performs a lower fee ETF it would be obviously better to go with the Mutual fund if history shows better returns even if it's only say 0.5 %. Not guaranting future returns of course. Is this why you like recommending Mawer funds!

Q: Good afternoon:
I have a Foundation account that I am managing
for my late mother, and was wondering if you could suggest 6 mutual funds to invest in. I am not allowed to invest in any higher risk funds. (I do like
the Mawer group of funds.)
Thanks!

Q: First a big thank you for the terrific returns we received in 2020 thanks to your stellar guidance (our largest holdings we first discovered through 5i -hello LSPD,XBC and WELL!). We gifted our kids memberships in December and praise your service to everyone. This is truly an invaluable service.
Now to the question, my brother is tired of paying high fees for his CIBC pension holdings. When I looked into this for him last year, some pools had MER in the 2% range! He’s moved the following into cash and is looking for lower fee/higher return alternatives in the following areas of his pension account:
-Imperial Canadian Dividend Income Pool
-Imperial Canadian Equity High Income Pool
-Imperial US Equity Pool
-Imperial International Equity Pool
-Imperial Short Term Bond Pool
-Imperial Long Term Bond Pool
Please charge as many questions as required.