Investment Q&A

Q: Hello,
It is OK to have QQQ, VOO and VIG in TFSA accounts ? If not, are there any equivalent Canadian ETFs that are focused on US stocks like them ? Thank you very much.

Q: Hi Ryan, Peter
I am an income oriented investor and I want to increase my US exposure. I am looking for good Canada based ETFs that yield 3 to 5% dividend. I shortlisted ZDY, XHU and FCUD. I am bit concerned about their size, at least the last with less than 150m in net assets. Can you comment on these or suggest alternate ETFs

Q: My son has asked my advice on how best to invest ~$13K he holds in GICs in registered accounts. He has a very young family and wants to begin investing on the right foot with this initial investment while adding to it over time, funds permitting. My personal investing approach has been to invest in high quality, primarily Canadian, dividend paying equities but for him, just starting out and with many investing years ahead of him, EFTs seem a far more appropriate and safer choice.

Would you consider 60% CDZ and 40% ZDY a good suggestion for him or would you recommend other EFTs that better track the indexes like XIU and ZSP? Do you consider just two EFTs sufficient diversification until his portfolio grows larger? What about the percentage Canada/U.S. split? Does 60/40 seem OK? Many thanks for your thoughts on the matter.

Q: Hi 5i
Hope you can help me. I've managed my and my wife's registered and unregistered accounts for a number of years and I'm satisfied with the results. Those accounts primarily hold equities and I spend quite a bit of time overseeing them and tweaking as I think necessary.
I've now been put in the position of acting as trustee of funds for two minors. The time frames the two trusts will run are 7 and 9 years respectively and the principal amount of each is approx 75K. I want to invest the funds but I don't want to put them in individual equities and manage them as actively as I do our personal accounts. I would prefer to put them into ETF's that I can keep an eye on monthly or quarterly and not worry too much about tweaking.
Being optimistic by nature I'm hoping to arrange to get it all for these two trusts - capital appreciation, income, sensible degree of risk, Canadian, US and international exposure, favourable tax treatment, etc.
There are an awful lot of ETF's out there and I really don't know how best to evaluate them to shake out a reasonable number to look into further - especially considering how difficult it can be to identify individual holdings to effectively avoid overlap and provide diversification.
With all that in mind, could I ask you to list 5 (or so) equity based ETF's for each of CDA, the US and internationally that you think might accomplish the goals I've listed, so that I can then look into those ones further and make some decisions about where to put these funds I'm charged with managing.
Also, if you do have any general or specific advice that you think might be useful to me in the situation I've described, I would certainly appreciate your including it in your answer.
Thanks very much and please deduct credits as you feel appropriate.
Peter

Q: Looking for some guidance on my US equity holdings. All of my US holdings are in the above ETFs in my RRSP accounts. The US portion represents 21% 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 had held VGG and VUN until recently when, based on one of your answers to another persons question, I switched to ZSP as it has a slightly better return, lower MER and higher Tech weighting. Also more friendly tax structure. I also picked up ZUP at that time for more yield but might be ready to sacrifice that holding for one with more growth or simply add it to the other holdings to keep it simple.
Could I have your opinion on my holdings and any suggestions for improvements and why. I am looking for good overall diversification across the US market with a view to a balance between income and growth. Would like to keep my holdings in CAD.

Q: Hi

In my RRSP would it be wise to replace VGG, ZDY, and ZWH with ITOT.

Looking for lower fees and growth.

Thank you

Mike

Q: Hi
Would it be a wise to replace the 4 mentioned above with ITOT in my RRSP.

Thank you Mike.

Q: I sold my business and started a non-registered investment account in November 2019 and currently have no US equity. I am semi-retired and looking for total return, with a 10 year time line. Can you recommend an ETF that I can slowly add to with market dips? ZDY is down about 10% YTD, trading a 52-week low with a P/E of 14.90 and dividend of about 3.25%. But ZSP and ZLU have historically better 3-year returns. I would be grateful for your recommendations. Thank you!

Q: Greetings 5i,

What a week! Looking to sort through the rubble next week and start picking away at a few hammerd down blue chips. I have a question regarding ZDY and its dividend as I have 3 different postings for it.
TD states its $1.29/year = 4.32%
5i show its $0.20/month which should = $2.40 or 8% and yet states its 3.743%.
To make it more confusing Morning Star states 3.25%.

Hmmm.. everyone can't be correct? What are the true numbers here?

Cheers!

Q: I'm going to retire next year and have recently received a inheritance. I have this money in a non registered account. PA is telling me that I need more US and international exposure. I'm looking at ETF's with dividends but being non Canadian holding I will not get the tax credit. Should I still look at dividend ETF's and not worry about the tax? I have a low to median risk for these non Canadian ETF's. I have a diversified group of large cap Canadian stocks to take advantage of the dividend tax credit. Can you give me some names to look at buying?
Thanks Greg

Q: 25 per cent of my portfolio includes the above ETF’s. Are there other ETF’s that I should consider to replace any of these. The returns have not been exactly stellar compared to many of the individual stocks that you have recommended. Thanks
Dennis

Q: I have positions in each of these ETF's inside my RRSP. Am I paying witholding taxes on any of them? If so - What is the tax treatment if I held them in my TFSA? Also what would the tax treatment be for each if held in my non-registered account?

Q: Greetings,
I currently own ZWH, XQQ, and VUN as part of my US focus in my portfolio. I am looking to add another name or two. Time frame 5+ years. I prefer to remain with Canadian ETFs investing in the US. First of all, do you see too much overlap here? I have room to add to all 3. Can you provide 3 stable dividend ETFs you might suggest to add and a couple of growth ETFs that might complement my current holdings? Thanks in advance. KEN

Q: I have recently been making significant adjustments to my portfolio, based on the results of Portfolio Analytics. In particular, I am significantly decreasing my financials and energy, and making large increases to my US and international weights.

Despite my changes, I am still overweight by 6% based on the recommended financials, and by 5% for energy. I am underweight international by about 6%. What is your recommended tolerance? How much leeway do you suggest for the recommended allocations?

Also, I am currently invested about 11% in VIGI. What is the maximum allocation you suggest for any ETF? I am a fan of the dividend aristocrats/growers strategy. Is there any other international dividend ETF which you would recommend (if possible, sold in Canadian dollars) along these lines?

For the US dividend growers, I have DGRO, VGG and ZDY.

Thank you for this incredible service that you offer!

Q: Which of the etf ZDY or VOO would you pick for RRSP (20 yrs time frame) or maybe
other better choice. In Canadian securities option we selected MAW106 or maybe other fund or etf, same time frame.

Q: I am retired and have over the last year built a somewhat diversified portfolio that is geared toward income. I own 1000+ shares of the following of stocks and ETF’s.
Stocks : AQN, ENB (2K), BEP.UN, CVE, RY, SLF, BCE, CPG, IPL,NGD,BT,TD (U.S.),GE (U.S.)
ETF’S: ZEF,ZWE (3k),ZWU, CYH, REEM (2K),MFT (3K), XTR, ZMI (2), ZWP, ZDM, ZPW,ZWH.
I am presently holding an additional 45% in cash and feel that I am lacking in US exposure. I am thinking of purchasing either HEA or ZDY. I like the yield of HEA (6.46%) vs ZDY (2.96%). My question is should I be worried that there is not a lot of daily volume with HEA, in fact some days none. 2. How does someone go about buying 20,000 shares of an ETF with very little daily volume? Is there another ETF(income) that pays a minimum of 3% yield with a broad US exposure that you would recommend? Please note this is for a 5-7 year hold. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Q: Hi 5I,
I own the following stocks (approx 1K shares of each).
AQN,BCE,ENB(2K),BEP.UN,RY,SLF,CPG,IPL,NGD - U.S. - TD, BT & GE. My ETF's are anywhere from $1k-3K shares of each of the following:
ZEF,ZWE (3K),ZWU,CYH,REEM (2K),ZMI(3K),CYH,MFT (3K),XTR,ZWP,ZDM.ZPW,ZWH. - Also holding approximately 40% cash. I feel my portfolio is lacking U.S Exposure. Which of one HEA or ZDY would you recommend and what kind of weighting? I am retired and as you can see my portfolio is heavily weighted for monthly income. Looking at a 5-7 year hold. Any other suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Q: I have 75% ZDY and 25% CBO in my RIF & I need to sell $6K.
The ZDY is 10% of my overall portfolio. I have another 10% in CBO.
Should I sell or transfer in kind?

Q: I hold both ZWH and TXF - both "covered calls". I would like to switch out of "covered call". Do you know the equivalent ETF for these two that have no "covered call"?

Carl

Q: I currently have some cash in RRSP USD and RRSP CAD accounts. I also have some US cash for Non-Reg USD account.

I am wondering how to allocate VIG/VGG/ZDY amongst these accounts to minimize FX fees while also minimizing taxes.

For e.g. if I put VGG or ZDY in RRSP CAD, I believe a 15 per cent withholding tax applies to dividends if US stocks are held via a TSX-listed ETF (yes, even within RRSP account)!

If I put VIG in RRSP USD, I will have to pay the 15-percent withholding taxes on the US dividends.

Please do you have any recommendations on how to avoid paying these taxes?

Also given that VGG is listed in TSX and tracks the VIG ETF in the US, I am wondering whether there is any difference in putting VGG in RRSP CAD account or should I prefer putting VIG in the RRSP USD account (given smaller MER).

Thanks!