Investment Q&A

Q: I am thinking of investing in VXC (or maybe XAW) in my RRSP. I understand that since this is a fund of funds and some of the underlying ETFs are US based, that there will be foreign withholding tax of some amount. To avoid the tax, am I better off to invest in the underlying ETFs (Canadian versions only) specifically VFV, VIU and VEE? (small cap I could not find). How much of an issue is the foreign withholding tax? Is it small enough to not bother buying all these underlying ETFs directly? Your thoughts please.

Q: Hello Everyone at 5i!!!! Could you please suggest both a Canadian and Us growth ETF that invest in international companies. Thank you, Tamara

Q: I'm looking for a Global (ex North America) ETF for growth that I can purchase in Cdn funds. Any suggestions?

Q: May I please have the names of 3 or 4 recommended non-North American, non-European ETFs and one European ETF?
With appreciation,
Ed

Q: Hi,

I'm a medium risk investor with a 5 year time frame.

Can you recommend 3 US ETFS to cover the whole US Market?
And 3 to cover the whole CDN market?
and 1 ETF to cover the international market?

Q: Hi Guys,

I am retired and is looking for recommendations for 10 US and 10 CDN core stocks. Also an ETF or two for ex North American exposure.
Thank you

Q: I recently purchased Portfolio Analytics and I'm severely underweight internationally.

For international (excluding US) I am thinking VIU and VEE.

Any suggestions on how I should decide an appropriate weighting ratio of these two? Does it make sense to have equal VIE and VEE... more VIE?

Are there other ETFs I should be considering for international exposure?

And finally, these ETFs would make up a substantial portion of my portfolio. Would you suggest buying in one go or over time and if so what timeframe would you suggest?

Thanks for your service.

Q: In terms of geographical allocation, I'm very deficient on International exposure. What do you suggest that I hold in a RRSP account, in terms of ETF to plug this hole?

Q: I recently borrowed from my HELOC to top up our TFSAs. I'm thinking of potentially keeping it simple and going TEC + XAW (40/60 split). This would give me quite a bit of US exposure but thought of bumping up US exposure. Would it make sense to instead buy VUN + VIU + VEE in a 70/23/7 split instead of XAW which has a lower US allocation? Do you think US equities will continue to outperform world over 10+ year horizon?

Also thinking instead of the 40% allocation in TEC, should I take a small position in ARKK or other ARK funds? Maybe 30% TEC, 10% ARKK? I feel like many of the names in ARKK fund are priced to perfection. Thanks

Q: Good Morning 5I Team, Thanks for the all your great advise.
As per the portfolio analysis I need to increase my International allocation which is currently at 10%. The Portfolio analysis classifies my following stocks/ETFs as International Brlxf, EWA, HFPC.U:CA, ATCO, BBU.UN, BPY.UN, BEP.UN, MDT.
Can you please suggest some growth stocks or ETFs to add to above holdings to increase my International allocation as well as if any of the above holdings doesn't have potential and can be reallocated? I am looking at long term over 5 to 10 years and have limits in my TFSA & RRSP account.
Please deduct Credits as deemed appropriate.
Thanks

Q: My RSP is comprised of VFV, VIU, CLF but I like the concept of the auto rebalancing of VGRO. However the longer duration bonds in VGRO are concerning. Would you make the switch. Conventional wisdom says bonds are going to be destroyed going forward, when monetary tightening eventually happens.
And by the way my 2020 5i account return was 16%. You guys Rock!!
Thanks

Q: Hi, 5i team
What are your opinions about emerging market and Europe? Are they attractive based on current value? Could you recommend some ETFs both in Canadian & US dollars?
Do you recommend to buy now to hold about 1 or 2 years?

Thanks a lot!

Q: In f/u to my earlier world ETF question, I should have stated I'm looking for CAD $ ETF's
Thanks

Q: Good Morning,
Looking for top suggestions for US based ETF's that are either total US market or Global markets that pay little or no dividends. I understand that saving the 15% withholding is not a big consideration, but, looking for something to buy and leave untouched for a long term hold within my USD$ TFSA and would rather see the growth done automatically then me reinvesting dividends/distributions.
Thanks so much!

Q: I need to increase my Global ETF or ETFs (ex- North America) exposure. I currently have some VIU but am wondering if I should consider a couple geographic areas: Europe, Asia, Japan etc. My preference would be something I can hold in CAD non-hedged and preferred non covered call.

Q: I need to increase my non-NA allocation. Could you suggest your favorite etf's to serve this purpose? What % would you assign to developed and emerging markets? Would prefer Cdn. dollar, non-hedged products. Thanks Ron

Q: Hi 5i
I am looking to add international exposure to my portfolio and would like your recommendations

Q: July 10 2019 you gave the following opinion on EDG100
"We are generally not huge fans of mutual funds for their higher fees, but EDG100 is an exception that has consistently justified the higher fees through its performance. We would be fine keeping it."
1) Just wondering what your thoughts are on this mutual fund today and are the high fee still justified by it performance?
2) What alternative that operate in the same space would you suggest looking into?

Q: I am looking for a lower risk ETF. My goal is to preserve capital, by beating inflation on an after-tax basis over a 5 to 10 year period, and not to lose any money. My view is that I can best achieve these objectives through an ETF which is diversified both sectorally and geographically. Do you agree?

I have been considering VIU, VXC, VEQT and XDG. What are your views? Do you agree with these possibilities, or do you feel there are better options available? What ETF do you think offers the best risk and reward? Do you feel the all-in-one ETFs will better achieve my investment objectives given the rebalancing feature?

Your thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated.

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