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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: I currently own 200K in vbal, 200K in vgro, 150K in xwd and 50K in vee, I am thinking of switching out vee with zlu as zlu performs better in the long run and also vee is covered in vgro and vbal.
Thoughts?
Thanks
SF
Read Answer Asked by Steve on September 17, 2019
Q: Hello,
My portfolio mentioned that I need to add more international exposure to my portfolio. Can you suggest some good international ETF(s) or individual stocks that would be good for me to help balance my portfolio?
Read Answer Asked by Ryan on September 10, 2019
Q: I am looking for an ETF recommendation to increase my international exposure.

I currently own 15% in VIU and 12% in VEE. Income is not my primary objective at this time. I was thinking XEF but through there would be too much overlap with VIU and didn’t think that made the most sense. I am ok with going mid-small cap and thought an ETF like SCZ may diversify my current holdings. What are your thoughts of this fund and do you have any other suggestions?

Also, so you have any recommendations for an international small- mid cap value ETFs? Thanks for your help.
Read Answer Asked by Aaron on September 06, 2019
Q: Just a follow up on the XEF. Would the 37%(mostly japan) Asia component be adequate for an emerging market exposure or would you want a true ETF like the ZEM you mentioned to go along with XEF?
Read Answer Asked by JEFF on September 04, 2019
Q: Hi,
I'm currently in my late 30's and have some funds in a LIRA from a previous company pension. They were invested in some funds with Sunlife before but now just sitting in cash waiting to be in invested. I'm looking for long term capital appreciation as I won't be able to take these funds out until retirement. Looking to increase my US and Intl exposure, which ETFs would be best? Currently own VGG, VUS, XEF and VEE. Should I increase these weights to my desired % or add any others? Looking for low MER core positions. Also should I approach investing in my RSP and LIRA in different ways or would you view them as the same? For example, would you buy stock A in your LIRA instead of RSP or vise versa.

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Keith on August 23, 2019
Q: Hi 5i,
I have $70,000 CAD to invest for 3-5 years and tax is not an issue. I am thinking of ETFs : 40% Canadian Stocks, 32% American stocks, 8% Global and 20% Bond.
Would you please advise what to buy? or if you have better combination.
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Tom on August 19, 2019
Q: This is a follow up to my question about EM ETFs.

The way I see it, XEC holds only IEMG, but in Canadian funds. With XEC, there are 2 layers of foreign withholding taxes, one from the EM countries, and one from the US, neither of which are recoverable. This amounts to up to 27.75% (15% + 15% of the remaining 85%) withholding taxes on dividends, none of which are not recoverable.

With IEMG, the US withholding taxes are recoverable, so the total withholding taxes are up to 15%. That is a significant difference.

The same holds for VEE (holds only VWO).

ZEM looks like it holds about 15% US based ETFs, and the rest are direct holdings. That means that the withholding taxes are mostly recoverable (4.16% are non recoverable (from 15% of the holding times 27.75% from the above calculation), but the rest may be, depending on the treaties Canada has with each EM country).

Is this correct reasoning?

If it is correct, are there any other EM ETFs that have mostly direct holdings in addition to ZEM? Also, why would you recommend XEC over IEMG and VEE over VWO, especially considering the lower MER for IEMG and VWO?

If my reasoning is not correct, why, and which ETFs would be best from a taxation perspective?

Thanks, and I hope my question is clear,

Fed
Read Answer Asked by Federico on August 09, 2019
Q: I am looking for ideas for 3 ETFs (to complement an existing portfolio):
(a) small cap equities (preferably, global; if not, then US-focused);
(b) global equities, ex-U.S.
(c) emerging markets.
This is for a LIRA account. I'd like all 3 ETFs to be non-hedged, in Canadian dollars, to be Canadian situs (ideally), and not to have 15% withholding on distributions. I think "VEE" might meet all of these criteria for an emerging markets fund (am not sure).
Ted
Read Answer Asked by Ted on July 29, 2019
Q: My current portfolio is 85% Canadian and replicates your BE portfolio with ETFs for the foreign content. I am considering bringing the Canadian content back to 60%. For the foreign content, I am considering DXU (20% of total), DXG (15% of total) and VEE (5%). DXU and DXG have but 2 years history but have performed extremely well in that time. I am an old guy, not afraid of equities but wish to reduce the draw-down potential (note I said reduce; eliminate, I am aware, is impossible).
Would you agree with my thinking and if so, my choices of ETFs? And would you recommend further diversification in the foreign content ETFs?
Read Answer Asked by Fred on July 08, 2019
Q: For a ten year investment, what would you recommend as your top three ETFs for international equities (i.e. non-US and non-Cdn equities) from a risk-reward standpoint? Does your recommendation change if the ETFs are to go in a registered or non-registered account? Dividends are not necessarily an objective. The ETFs can be from a Canadian or a US firm (i.e. Vanguard, iShares, BMO, etc.).

Thank you for this great service!
Read Answer Asked by Dale on July 05, 2019
Q: I am wondering if any of the following do not hold all their international stocks directly (ie if they are an ETF of ETFs). I am pretty sure that XEF, IEFA, and IEMG do own all stocks directly, and I think VEE does not, but please correct me if I am wrong. I cannot seem to find information about the rest.

IEMG XEF VEE XEC IEFA VGK SPDW VWO

Thanks again,

Fed
Read Answer Asked by Federico on July 05, 2019
Q: Do you like VA or better to invest in a different ETF? I own only this ETF and AFG Global Dividend Fund. The VA ETF has not performed that well and wonder if I should invest a better overall global ETF? If so what would be your recommendation?

Thanks
Read Answer Asked on June 12, 2019
Q: We have( for me) a quite large sum of money invested in managed products. Any new money is going into Canadian equities ( 30%) following your portfolios and a mix of ETF roughly
30% USA at 10% SPY, 10% VIG, 10%IWO
30% International currently VE
10% emerging currently VEE
( I know "where is your fixed income" you ask, my spouse has a federal government pension which I count as our fixed income)
To date these sums are relatively small. As I start to shift large sums from our managed products to my self managed portfolio ( following the above ratios) I am ok with the mix in the USA spread to 3 etfs run by 3 different companies. With the international and emerging I am a bit concerned about putting all that cash with one fund (and company). Is this concern silly or should I have some diversification within my ETF holdings ( both in terms of funds and companies). For example instead of having 30% of my holdings in VE I would split it 15% VE and 15% XEF. So I guess the short questions are:

1. What is the max an investor should have in any one ETF( %)
2. What is the max an investor should have with any one company ( $ or %)
Read Answer Asked by Tom on June 12, 2019