Investment Q&A

Q: I get that HXS is a tax-efficient option for high earners in a non-registered account but are the higher fees (e.g., swap fee) worth it just to avoid the 15% withholding tax in a TFSA?

Q: Hello, can you please confirm these 2 ETF would not be subject to Withholding Tax? Also, can you please recommend 2 diversified stock ETF for exposure outside Canada which would not be subject to Withholding Tax, with decent dividend and buy and forget type of security. Thank you.

Q: Dear Peter et al:

This is a follow up to Lyle's question on Feb 17th. If one has a professional corporation and it's related investment account, (Non-Regd) won't holding ZEQT or VEQT cause tax drag? (Dividend withholding) Do you think holding HEQT is a better option? This goes back to my own earlier question about where should one park their investments? Which ETF goes into what bucket?! My apologies for my poor grammatical format :) Many Thanks in advance.

Q: I read in the Q&A that portfolio analytics does not give a sector breakdown for HXS.
Does this mean that the analysis of my portfolio indicating which sectors i need to increase or decrease are inaccurate?

Q: is there an equal weight S&P 500 ETF that can be bought in CAD (but not hedged) and does not pay a dividend?

Q: Hello everyone
For a 3-5 year hold, what would be your top 5 picks in order for each.

Canadian small cap
Canadian mid cap
Canadian large cap
Canadian listed total return ETF
Canadian listed income ETF

Thank you so much

Q: Hello to everyone
I am looking to simplify my portfolio. I would like to know your top 4 ETF picks in Canadian dollars for each account type (RRSP, TFSA, NON-REG).
Please included for each account type:
1 ETF for growth
1 ETF for dividends
1 ETF for conservative total returns
1 ETF for international markets
Thank you so much

Q: Hello 5i - please take the number of credits you need. I began investing last year and have the following portfolio/down rounded up: GOOG: 6%, BN 7%, CSU 4%, DOL 4%, ENB 7%, HXS 9.5%, IFC 5.5%, META 4%, SHOP 7%, WSP 5%, AXON 4%, BRKB 6.5%, ISRG 6.5%, NVDA 2.5%, CRM 2%, AEM 1.2%, BAM 6%, H 1%, LMN 2%, AMZN 5%. I have about 40% cash to add in. Can you please advise of the following: 1. any key stocks you would recommend I add? Please prioritize with 1 being highest recommendation and 5 being lowest recommendation. 2. Any stocks you would recommend I sell? I am interested in a 5 year view. Thank you so much!

Q: Please advise Corporate Class Structure ETF in SP500, Dow Jones, Nasdaq and TSX in CDN dollars. Which account is best to hold Non-RRSP or RRSP accounts.

Is there any books or video you can refer to regarding CCS.

Thank you for your great service.

Q: If I was to hold the TSX listed HXS in a cash account and the value exceeded $100,000 would I be obligated to file a T1135. Thanks.

Q: Greetings - To postpone tax liability from income, I would like to develop a balanced portfolio of stocks and ETFs for the medium term (3-10 years) that do not pay dividends or interest. Rather, I would prefer to incur the tax liability upon selling the holdings (capital gains). I am aware of Global X Total Return ETFs and stocks like BRK.B that do not pay annual dividends. Do you have any other suggestions? Thanks

Q: HXS/HXQ These ETFs seem to be lagging their US counterparts lately, any idea why?

Q: Best non-hedged ETFs in Canadian$ for the S&P500 and NASDAQ to be held in a TFSA?
Many Thanks!

Q: Hi, I'm looking for recommendations for ETFs to complement HXS and HXT in TFSA, for recurring biweekly purchases. What are your top two picks?

Q: Hi Team, as I implement the Smith Maneuver, I'm planning to invest monthly using the HELOC portion that becomes available with each mortgage payment. Given that the investment amounts will be relatively small and consistent each month, what would be the most effective investment approach in this context? Should I:

Invest the available funds into a fixed list of individual stocks (using partial shares if necessary),

Choose from the same list based on valuation or price action each month and % of portfolio or

Keep it simple and invest in a broad-market ETF for diversification and simplicity?

I’m trying to balance long-term growth potential with practicality, given the size and frequency of contributions. What do you recommend in terms of both investment strategy and tax efficiency for this kind of structure?

Thanks!

Q: Hello I am new to 5i (one week!) and am really enjoying the Q&A as a learning opportunity. I use one of the banks to invest our personal retirement funds (ie we don't have company pensions) and am keen to learn to self invest.

As a 60 yr old I have recently started an incorporated and am wanting to invest my incorp dividends appropriately. I have invested about 20% of my available funding and have a high cash position at present.

The information I have gleaned online is that a an incorporation should invest accordingly:

Corporation:

1. Corporate Class Mutual Funds/ETFs
2. Broad market ETFs (stock and bond ETFs) *capital gains only taxed when sold, reducing annual tax drag. Be mindful of whether dividends or capital gains.
3. Canadian dividend stocks (eligible for dividend refund mechanism)
4. Growth stocks (Capital gains taxed at 50% when you sell) but no Dividend reduction management benefits compared to Canadian dividend stocks.)
5. Investment Real Estate (Rental income is considered passive and taxed at 50%. Can reduce small business tax rate eligibility if passive income exceeds $50K)

The online information also indicates that incorporations should not invest in:

1, High Interest Savings accounts and GICs
2. Foreign Dividend Stocks and REITS
3. Actively managed mutual funds

As well - I have completed your portfolio questionnaire which tells me that I am an Alpha Balanced Investor. This happens to align with the personal portfolio that I hold for our retirement which is invested 70% in equities.

Based on the guidance you have been providing in the past week, I feel it is time to start $ cost averaging for my incorporation funding. I believe that my husband and I can live off of our personal portfolio and do not need to pull $ out of the incorporated for 3-10 years.

Given that my current interest is to starting investing my incorporated revenues, can you please recommend the selections?

I understand that you cannot provide personal recommendations. However, I suspect there may be additional members who have set up their own businesses recently and can benefit from a tutorial and investment recommendations. Thank you !

Q: I have CAD to invest in Canadian-dollar denominated ETFs: (1) Canadian stocks - VGG. XIU XIC XDIV; (2) US ETFs in CAD FX - HXS ZUQ ZMID and ZBK and (3) - EU ETF - HXX. How to go about assessing one against the other. Is there a better ETF in each group you would prefer? Would appreciate guidance on which ones are keepers for long-term hold? How would you evaluate them?

Q: Part of our total portfolio is invested in ETFs [non-registered accounts] and one-third is in Canadian-based and Canadian-dollar denominated US ETFs. Another third is in US ETFs - spread among Large Cap Value, Blend and Growth, and SMID. The final third is in Special US ETF - IAI ZBK AIRR PAVE SHLD PPA SMH UTES AND HXX. Your advice is requested as to which ones to over-weight, underweight or sell. Please rank each category, if you would. My lean is less tech/ M7 as already own most.

Q: On Jan 21 2025, "IVV" the IShares core S&P 500 etf is up .84%, and yet the "HXS"etf, which is the corporate class etf based on the S&P 500 is down .93%. Could you explain how this can happen?

Q: What's up with the HXS ETF today (Jan 21)? The Canadian dollar is down 0.1%, the S&P is up 0.65%, yet, instead of being 0.75% up, the HXS is down 1.2% at the moment and below yesterday's NAV. The volume is below average, so it doesn't look like any big sellers dumping shares. What can explain almost 2% difference between the expected and observed behaviour of this ETF?