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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: Good Morning. Further to questions and answers re dividend tax credits and the recent article in the Financial Post, how does income from pensions affect the tax credits? Is pension income considered different from income from a job? I could (and should) experiment in a tax program but wondered if you had a quick answer while the topic is current.

Thanks,
Cathy
Read Answer Asked by Catherine on April 21, 2017
Q: Hi 5i,
A question related to my flow-through partnership units: I purchased in 2016. Some weeks after purchase, the partnership units were listed in my self-directed account, showing an associated value with a footnote indicating that these are not securities that trade on a daily basis. Initially the listed value was around 23 percent below my actual cost of purchase, which I took as mainly an indication of all the fees and management expenses taken out up front. Since then, the account listed unit price has been adjusted every so often (maybe every couple of weeks or monthly). Gradually the unit price has climbed to where the holding is now a couple of percent in the black (relative to my actual cost). My understanding is that I can’t sell the holding until the partnership units roll over into mutual fund units next year sometime. So my question is: in the meantime, what is that partnership unit price showing in my brokerage account based on? Is it actually something like a present market value estimate (just as though it were possible to market the units currently)? If so, are such estimates normally pretty reliable (so that the account listed value from immediately before the roll-over translates reasonably accurately into the value of the resulting mutual fund units – barring some perfectly timed market collapse of course)? Or is it more of an exercise in fiction? Thanks for any help with my understanding on this!
Read Answer Asked by Lance on April 21, 2017
Q: Hi,
I remain somewhat confused about which account it's best to hold Dividend paying stocks in. I've noticed some responses where you indicate it's best to hold the dividend payers in non registered accounts and higher growth stocks (capital gainers) in a registered TFSA or RRSP account.
For whatever reason, I assumed the opposite as I thought receiving dividends was more along the lines of receiving income (i.e.- cash) so it would be best to put these into your registered accounts to lower the tax bill.
So, in my situation, as I receive approx 60k in annual pension income- am I better to put the dividend payers into the registered or non registered accounts to keep the tax bill as low as possible.
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Alan on April 21, 2017
Q: Hello

Do you have an opinion on Senvest capital or Sec.

Is it a good buy for valueinvesting and there is a good marge of safety or is it too risky

By the way, dou think you will find a company who will deserve A+ one time or it couldnt happen because the perfectionis not in this world

Thanks and I appreciate your opinions
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Alexandre on April 21, 2017
Q: Hi, folks
I'm very new to 5i Research, and trying to get myself orientated around.
I have some questions on the balanced portfolio
1) with less capital like $50k, what your recommendations on how to follow this portfolio?
2) when there is a add/remove in the portfolio, how quickly I will be notified?
3) in the report, when you add or trim a position, do you provide at what price to buy or sell?
4) for how long I need to hold the stocks in your portfolio? Do I need to have a stop loss/trailing stop to max my gain and minimize my loss?
5) what is the average holding period for a stock in this portfolio roughly? You can give me a range the longest to the shortest...
6) to initiate to build this portfolio for my own, is it better to wait for the market to pull back? or Do you have a recommendation about when to buy?

By the way, is it ok for me to ask questions about stocks/ETF's outside Canada or large cap's inside/outside Canada (I know you guys are focus on mid to small caps)

Thanks a lot!
Jane
Read Answer Asked by Jane on April 21, 2017
Q: Hello all -

Regarding Hector's T1135 question a couple of days ago, he mentions that he has American stocks with a value of 120K with Canadian Broker.

First I will say I am not an expert on this subject.
It's my understanding though that he would only need to fill out the form if the total actual "cost" (converted to CAD, each at date of purchase) exceeded 100K. Is this not correct?

Secondly, this 100K (again, total cost in CAD) applies to accounts outside RRSP's and TFSA's. So in other words, if his total cost was under 100K outside his registered accounts, yet amounts inside either or both his registered accounts exceeded 100K, he would still not be required to fill out this form. Those amounts are not affected.

Is my understanding (hopefully) correct on this?

Thanks.

Jim
Read Answer Asked by James on April 21, 2017
Q: Team,
My full service brokerage account currently has a cash position of 16% and my broker's position on this is that the account will be positioned for an anticipated market pullback and her thought is then to enter with the cash.
I am retired and live off the income provided by the account. The account is entirely Canadian dividend payers ( total of 23 equity positions) which range from 3% to 7% yields. The portfolio is largely banks/insurance ,pipelines/processors and some telecoms. My thought is to reduce the cash to around 5% and add to existing positions or else add a few defensive positions.
Appreciate your comments on the current position and thoughts as to best way to proceed.
Thx
Read Answer Asked by Peter on April 21, 2017
Q: I am trying to understand how you do things and can only re-visit this topic when my time permits.

I understand there are 11 sectors:
1. Technology
2. Basic Materials
3. Industrials
4. Financials
5. Consumer Cyclicals
6. Consumer Non-cyclicals
7. Utilities
8. Telecommunications
9. Healthcare
10. Energy
11. Real Estate

Would you agree with above?

Keeping this in mind, you have a representative of each sector in the Balanced Portfolio?

Do you feel that a person should have all sectors represented in their portfolio at all times?

Thank you in advance for your help with this.
Read Answer Asked by Margaret on April 21, 2017
Q: I would just like to echo Rod L's response to "complaint re KWH.UN etc". I have been a very happy member since May of 2013. Not everything has gone well, but by roughly following a 5i model (I think diversification, self risk assessment, and time) I have much more than exceeded my investment expectations. I think anyone would be hard pressed to find a better investment service anywhere - and the price is a bargain!!
Read Answer Asked by Jim on April 21, 2017
Q: I feel I have to respond to "dave's " complaint re KWH.UN etc. I have been a member since 2012 plus spent my life in the investment business . I'm now 75 . I challenge Dave to provide me with a comparable service to 5i's for the depth of their research plus the vault of data available - for a very low cost. There is not a service anywhere like it where you can ask - and receive such expert response quickly. My portfolios have benefitted substantially since joining and any little response problems are minuscule. Print if you wish.

Rod

Rod
Read Answer Asked by Rodney on April 20, 2017
Q: Having recently become eligible for the company RRSP matching program, I have a small investment in the Mackenzie Ivy Global Balanced fund.

I am limited in this program to the Mackenzie Funds, so it seems I am stuck with the high MER as a trade off for the company matching.

I have limited experience picking mutual funds and the advisor's picks would have seen me with 55% fixed income at age 35 which I feel is far too conservative given the high MER for this companies funds. As the current value in these funds is insignificant compared with my own funds, I just directed most of the funds to the balanced fund, and skipped the advisors other suggestion with the high bond allocation for the time being.

Is there anything specific I should watch out for when reviewing/selecting funds when my annual meeting with the 'advisor' comes around. If I stay where I am for the long term this will represent the bulk of my RRSP contributions for the foreseeable future.
Read Answer Asked by Jeffrey on April 20, 2017