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Investment Q&A

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Q: My husband and I are in our mid 60's and were hoping to retire in the next 2-3 yrs (however we may need to postpone depending on how 2020/2021 goes). At the moment our asset allocation is 67% equities and 33% fixed income and we feel we need to shift toward fixed income.
2 questions:
1. Undercurrent conditions, would you suggest a 60/40 split,a 50/50 split or do nothing for next 6 months?
2. If it make sense to make some adjustments now, which of the following fixed assets would you add to and which equities would you recommend trimming: current fixed positions are 10% each in XBB, PMO005, ZIC; equities over 5% are TD(6%), ZUT(8%) and XIC (7%).
Read Answer Asked by Rosemin on June 25, 2020
Q: About the Pimco Monthly Income Fund. I have read some commentaries over the last week. With oil prices tanking, some are saying that this will be the beginning of significant losses for bonds, beginning with the non-investment grade bonds in the US shale companies, but then causing a re-rating of lower-tier investment grade bonds into junk status that will need to be sold by pension funds, but with essentially no buyers. I understand there is an enormous amount of investment grade corporate dept that is in this BBB category, just above junk. What are your thoughts, and if that was to happen, what would happen to this fund in particular? My elderly parents have quite a bit of their portfolio in this fund. Thanks for your help.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on March 09, 2020
Q: Hi,
I need a bit of help in structuring my Bond component for my RRSP.
I had so far running with PH&N High Yield 5%, ZST 5%, PH&N Total Return Bond 10%, PIMCO Monthly Income Fund 5% and MFT 2.5%, for a total of 27.5%. Given my age (59) and the fact that soon we may enter in a Bear market, I have to increase my Bond allocation. According to some, this should mirror my age, probably close to 60%. My question is: What combination of Funds/ETFs and weight should I use? Is probably not a good idea to invest more than 15% in a fund and probably limit my High Yield exposure to 5%. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Nicolae on March 21, 2019
Q: Hello. My parents are elderly, and we have taken over managing their financial affairs. Although difficult to predict, I expect my mother will still be alive for another 3-4 years, so that is the time horizon we are working with. They have total savings of about $2.5 million, which we are amalgamating from various mutual funds and from the sale of their house, etc. We are considering using the wealth management services of BMO. We have told them that we are primarily interested in capital preservation. My father has a pension, so their monthly income needs are met. The representative recommended the PIMCO Monthly Income Fund (Canada). I'm not sure if it the same one as has been discussed here before. The identifier on the sheet is "Series F fund code PMO205", described as a Global Fixed Income fund. In any event, they were recommending 65-70% in the above fund, and 30-35% in a "Dividend and Income Guided Portfolio" which consists of 25 blue chip Canadian and US stocks (I won't bother you with their stock selection; it looked okay to me). They said they would gradually move money from the income fund to the stock fund during market drawdowns.

My question is, what do you think of this PIMCO fund? One of my concerns is protecting their money in a market correction. Would this fund be okay? Also, are the bonds in general of high enough quality that they would not be downgraded into the high yield category if things really get ugly? Has it had any negative years?

Thanks for your help.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on July 24, 2018
Q: I have reviewed prior question responses on PMIF and PMO005. I understand that both should behave similarly (PMIF should have higher return longterm due to lower MER). My question is on the distribution. The distribution yield on PMO005 is about 3-3.5% it appears; the distribution yield on PMIF appears to be smaller and with variations in the distribution from month to month. Do you think this is temporary, as PMIF is relatively new? Do you think overtime, the distributions of PMIF will stabilize and approximate those of PMO005 with a similar yield? If not, why not, if the portfolio composition is the same in each case?

My feeling is that PMIF is 'safer' than high yield bonds such as XHY and preferred shares such as CPD/ZPR, do you agree? I hope to pair this with some VSB as my fixed income allocation. Do you think PMIF is worth the MER of 0.87%? This is for longterm, all-weather hold (irrespective of where interest rates go in the near-term/longterm) for consistent income.

Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Walter on April 20, 2018
Q: I presently have $150,000 in MMF19. It has a MER of 1.5% and has yielded about 3.5 % annually over the past two years. PMIF has a MER of 0.75 and the indicated yield is 4.6% while PM0205 has a MER of 0.75 and a yield of 3.94 %. Would you sell MMF19 and buy one of the PMICO funds as a replacement? Would you have an even better suggestion?
I'm 85 years old with no need for income but I want to reduce risk by holding some bonds.
Read Answer Asked by George on January 22, 2018
Q: I’m assuming that the holdings of PMIF are identical to PMO005, which are 48% securitized; 38% government; 22% corporate; 13% other.

Question 1: what is meant by ‘securitized’? Is that a good thing in a bond fund?

I’ve spent a day researching C$ bond ETFs and the more I research, the more confused I become.

Question 2: Is PMIF about as good as any other bond ETF out there?
I’m not too concerned about fees or yield, as what I’m looking for is low volatility, preservation of capital, with a reasonable total return.

Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Irwin on November 08, 2017
Q: Hello 5i:
I can't get a 10 year history on this fund (am presently an owner), and would like to add to it. Can you advise, using opinion if that's all that's available, how this fund would have fared in the period between 2005 and 2010? I've tried using funds in the category, but it seems to regularly beat the category, so this may not be a valid comparison. If its a true high-yield fund, the performance in ANY volatile period should be disma. Can you comment please?
thanks
Paul L
Read Answer Asked by Paul on August 29, 2017
Q: Hello 5i:
knowing this is one of your favourite funds in its category (I now own it), can you please advise something similar in the global space? Or, if possible, two funds/etf's; one which would include the US and one which would not.
thanks
Paul L
Read Answer Asked by Paul on June 05, 2017
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