Investment Q&A

Q: 50-yr old investing for retirement. Have historically been a dividend fiend but open to juicing the growth side a bit more as a result of the excellent advice I can now obtain from 5i. Considering adding to either my consumer defensive/staples allocation or increasing international exposure (the latter via an ETF). Hoping you might help me deploy a half position in an RSP and jump in one direction from a corner of the fence (and understanding you can't personalize such advice) - considering initiating a position in NWC (CA), PBH (CA), or WMT (US) or adding to an existing position in ZWE (European covered call ETF). My current geographical exposure is 34% US; 33% CA; and 32% International (XEF, ZDI and ZWE). My total covered call ETF exposure is around 8% of my equity portion and geographically diversified. Other suggestions for staples and international ETFs will be appreciated. Thanks for the great service!

Q: What do you think about buying some zwe right now? Seems like good value for a nice dividend.

Q: I need to set up an annual income for my wife, for next 25 years. In TFSA and RRSP, using only ETF's. Dividend growth and HY dividends. Should have 5% yearly and 10% total return. Can you recommend the appropate ETF's. Vanguard/BMO/ I Shares (only)
Please NO EM ETF's One European OK--- Key is 5% annual income. Investment .5M$ It has to be buy and collect for 25 years. No input by my wife.
Thank you
Cec

Q: Debating either of these, in a registered account approx 5 to 7 years before needing. Looking ahead with positive US election and vaccine news and how the CDN dollar will likely behave; which is better fund?
Thank you

Q: Which account type is best from a withholding tax perspective?

Canadian listed US equity ETFs - RRSP or TFSA

Canadian listed International Equity ETFs(ZWE) - RRSP or TFSA

US listed US equity ETFs - RRSP or TSFA

US listed US stocks - RRSP or TFSA

Q: How would you rank these ETFs. Would you hold all three or is there to much overlap between them. If not these do have another suggestion for international exposure.
Thanks

Q: I am 72 and retired. I have been building a part of my portfolio (58.4%) for the last three years with ETFs. Current holdings are (% weight of portfolio in brackets): zwh (10.5), zwu (9.1), zwc (8.5), mft (5.9), xtr (5.3), xhy (5.2), zwe (4.7), cdz (3.2), zdh (3.2) & zre (2.9). With 24.2% cash, I plan on slowly adding to these etfs. How would you do this? The remainder of my portfolio is in dividend paying Canadian large caps.
Thanks, Jim

Q: Looking for some guidance on my International equity holdings. All of my Int’l holdings are in the above ETFs and are in my RRSP accounts. The Int’l portion represents 10% of my total investment portfolio. Generally I look for a balance between income and growth with dividends used to supplement my pension income. I have 9 years before I have to RIF.
I have only recently added ZEM for its emerging markets exposure and tax friendly structure. While the other holdings have provided good yield I have not been happy with the lack of growth even before the latest correction. I am generally comparing the lack of growth to the US market which may not be a fair comparison.
Could I have your opinion on my holdings and any suggestions for improvements and why. I am looking for good diversification across the world, ex North America, with a view to a balance between income and growth. Would like to keep my holdings in CAD.

Q: Hello 5i Team,
I am in the process of building an income portfolio and I would like your opinion on the above stocks. Would you start a .5 position in the current market environment? (While the markets are rising) All of the above are for very long term holds.
Do you think KEY's dividend is sustainable and do you think its assets might look attractive to a bigger player like ENB?
I like gold long term and I have .5 positions in AGI and YRI and comfortable with. I currently view Sprott as sort of a mini ETF for junior gold stocks. As in I do not have the expertise or tolerance for individual junior stocks but I would be able to get a diversified portfolio of such stocks run by proven leadership and expertise. Is this a reasonable view to have of SII? Another .5 position would bring my total gold exposure to 10% which is where I would like to keep it. Does adding SII make sense given a higher risk tolerance or does adding to AGI or YRI make more sense.
I currently have no ETF exposure and the yields on ZWC and ZWE are quite attractive and they offer excellent diversification. Are the yields sustainable? I have heard that with covered call funds in general the main drawback is that the upside is limited while the main advantage is that the downside is also limited through yield. Is this correct? Income is the main objective with these holdings but if held for 10+ years or more I would expect some capital gains to be made. Is this reasonable? Do these ETFs ever trade at significant discounts or premium? How is the income classified to tax purposes?

Thank you for the great service!

Q: Hello to the team
How reliable are the divi. on this companies there are an integral part of my retirement,generally they are less 10 years in the market and being clobbered,should' i reduce some of these position and replace them with some exposure to US. like PDI or wait as long that the divi is there,i'm 76.
Thank You

Q: Good morning, Peter/Ryan!
I am interested in finding more detailed info about European and emerging market dividend paying stocks, essentially of the "blue chip" variety. Do you know of any specific resources that provides coverage in that area? As well, would you by chance have any recommendations of specific stocks and/or ETFs along those lines … maybe 4 or 5?
Thanks a lot!
Paul

Q: Hi

Thinking of changing the above mentioned for PHYS.CA in my RRSP accounts for some protection in the virus situation and what is going to occur after.

I do not need the dividends.

Comments please

Thank you

Mike

Q: Hello,
I presently have a LIF and a RRIF majority is invested in zwc and zwu along with some other less then ideal stocks [interpipe,fru,hot,bpy] , have gone from 550k to 350 k in a month, expensive lesson on proper portfolio construction I guess. Would you suggest selling the covered call etfs and buy non covered call versions at this point in time ? Am I correct in thinking If the tsx returns to 17,900 again zwc and zwu will not return to previous nav due to covered call loss ? Thanks very much for Your help, great website.

Q: I have exposure to these etfs in my rrsp. Would you recommend selling zwe and adding zeq? How much overlap is there between xef and zeq?

Q: Should I continue to hold these 3 in both cash and RRSP accounts.
What would be a good replacement
I can use the loss for capital gains in my cash accounts make in January 2020.
Thank you
Sincerely
Mike

Q: I understand that a covered call investment is not the holding to have during a market rebound.

Instead of ZWE, which ETF would be appropriate holding to capitalize on a rebound.

Q: I hear that those who make covered call ETF(s) are having a problem with the level of volatility. Do you understand what that means and whether that could cause some less liquid ones to dissapear, perhaps under a condition in their prospectus? I suppose black swan events like this one can make complicated products even more complicated to manage. Thank you.

Q: Retired, conservative dividend-income investor with a "buy-and-hold & trim-add around a core position" strategy. At times like these, I take a fresh look at my holdings and ask two key questions. #1 = are there any of my equity holdings that have alarm bells going off? #2 = how safe are the dividends (knowing that no dividend is 100% secure)? The portfolio capital may rise or fall, but it is the continuation of the dividend that is more important.

For asset allocation purposes related to individual stocks (as opposed to sector allocations), I use the following:
5% targets = AQN, BCE, BNS, PBH, RY, TRP, WSP
4% targets = AD, AW, CSH, NWC
2% targets = LNF, MG, NTR
ETF targets = roughly 3-7%

Q#1 = are there any of these equities that you hear alarm bells?
Q#2 = are there any of these equities where you foresee dividend risk?
Q#3 = any thoughts on how I have my asset allocations set up (knowing it is a very personal decision?

Take a bunch of credits. Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: Could you review the situation with covered call ETFs during this type of market where everything is dropping?
Do you buy covered call ETFs to obtain income?
Do you sell your covered call ETFs?
Do you wait until the market moves upward before buying a covered call ETF?
Do you simply stay away when the market turns and buy the individual security?

Thanks....

Q: A financial adviser told me that dividends from ZWE, ie. a Canadian based cover call ETF, have the same tax advantage as dividends from a Canadian stock like BCE. Do you know if this is the case?
Thanks!