Investment Q&A

Q: If you were to establish an RESP for someone who was just born, and are starting with a small amount of money, perhaps a couple of thousand dollars, what would you invest in? Would you invest in an ETF? If so, which one? Would you consider investing in a single stock? If so, which ones would you consider?

Q: Good Morning! I have a new great granddaughter and I am in the process of setting up an RESP for her. Obviously, a long time horizon! Could you recommend 2-3 stocks/ETFs with growth in mind?
Thanks for your help, Michael

Q: At age 50 and have about $60,000 in a (diversified sector) RRSP and just starting a TFSA with $8000 in it, what ETF's or stocks would you recommend starting with?
Thanks for your reply.

Q: Is black rock XEQT all in one, all stock, ETF a good option for an RESP that would start with a $1000,00 and add $100 a month. Or do you have a better suggestion.

Q: In my RESP I currently only own VGRO and now have some money to add a 2nd ETF, which ETF would be best suited with VGRO ?
Thanks

Q: Hi Peter/Ryan, my 20 year old son wants to get into Vanguard ETF's. He has a TFSA stock account and now wants to add a Vanguard ETF. What is your opinion of Vanguard and is there one you would recommend. Thanks, Nick

Q: Can you comment on these ETF's I presently hold in a corporate unregistered acct. I have a large amount in DVY.US - not sure why (previously with a FI ) Looking to update this portfolio based on present times. In At least a 5 year hold. Please take as many credits as needed.
Thanks so much.

Q: Hi Gentleman,
I currently have a portfolio that I do not need to access for 10 years. Currently I have MFC4644 - $100K, XWD - $160K, ZLU - $190K and VGRO - $220K. Would you make any adjustments or other suggestions to my current holdings.
Thank you,
SF

Q: I sold some VBAL:CA at a loss to realize some tax losses and would like to repurchase this ETF at a lower entry point. Can I purchase a comparable ETF from another company like XBAL prior to 30 days, or would that be considered a superficial loss for tax purposes? Similarly, would purchasing a different asset mix product from the same company e.g. VGRO:CA or VCNS:CA be considered a superficial loss?

Q: What is the one stock you would suggest to go all in with this correction?

Q: Peter and team
I sold off all my equities part way through this recent collapse.
I have followed your BPort, along with some picks from the GPort.
I do not have the time to diligently follow individual stocks anymore, and was thinking of switching to ETFs.
What are your thoughts about splitting some 400k in cash between ZCN,ZDV, and ZUE. Is there too much overlap in the two Canadian ETFs, and what are your thoughts on going with the "hedged" ZUE?
This is a non registered account. I am pretty sure that ZUE is treated as a Canadian Equity with no foreign withholding tax. Correct?
Thanks

Phil

Q: Hi 5i team,
Looking at the broad US market index (apart from NASDAQ), which will be your top two index ETFs that will most likely provide the strongest gain and the quickest bounce when the market turns around? And why? Prefer Canadian listed ETFs if available.
Thanks.

Q: Does the annualized return on these funds include the dividend?
Also, if they are purchased and held for say 5 years in a non registered account,is there any tax paid other than tax on the dividend?
Finally, if one chooses to go with the DRIP, does dividend tax still need to be paid annually?
As always,thanks for the great service.
Phil

Q: Re article in today’s National Post re ETF of ETF’s, no ticker symbols were included. Can you provide same and indicate your opinion on general suitability and if favourable your choice?
Thank you for considering my question

Q: Coworker mentioned etf VGRO. The MRE is quite low. I was told this etf is a conglomerate of other etf’s. Was wondering if the mre’s in these etf are payed by the share holder (possibly hidden by hobbling the growth in share price). Basically I wonder if this conglomerate of etf’s is also a conglomerate of MRE’s.

Q: Hello 5i,
I have just opened up a Family RESP (currently ages (-0) and 1.5 yrs) and have been going through the RESP questions as well other questions. I would like to contribute $2,500 this year for existing grandchild and $5,000 next year when #2 comes along.
I think you would agree that at this point it is probably best to start with an ETF? So, given that, could you please give me a couple of your top recommendations for this point in time/cycle/interest rate environment, etc.. Should you feel that some individual equities might work better solo or in combo, any suggestions would be welcome. Based on what I have read, I was leaning towards VGRO, but am not sure that would be your top recommendation, so a couple of ETF and/or equitiy suggestions would be much appreciated!!
Best to all - and, as always, Many Thanks!!!
Cheers,
Mike

Q: My grandson is 21, he has just opened a TD trading account. He will have $12000 to invest now . And he expects to contribute about Seven to two thousand this year. Can you recommend two or three investments to start with. Thank you . Chuck

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

Q: Having been doing some research on couch potato investing as opposed to me being actively involved.
As such, I am considering VGRO for myself and VBAL for my spouse's TFSAs. 4-5 year investment time frame.
Do you think this a good idea in putting all eggs in Vanguard's basket? What alternatives would you suggest?

Appreciate the insights and information you have provided and continue to provide.

JOhn

Q: Hi

My question is about structuring and managing a portfolio across multiple registered and unregistered accounts. Please forgive if this question has been asked before.

Between 4 family members (including two young children) we have 11 trading accounts on the go, including 5 unregistered (3 Cdn and 2 US), 2 tfsa’s, 2 rrsp’s, and 2 resp’s. My approach to date has generally been to try to diversify within each account and try not to duplicate between accounts, with an eye to overall diversification.

This results in three problems (at least): sub-optimal diversification within and across accounts, too many holdings (which are difficult to monitor) and a low average $ value per holding. For example, 11 accounts times ten positions per account is 110 holdings. As for low value, a 10% holding on a $50,000 registered account is $5,000, which represents only 0.5% of an aggregate $1,000,000 value (example).

I have been thinking of treating all of the accounts holistically rather than individually while accounting for tax considerations of course. My goal is to try to get the number of holdings down to 20 - 30, with an average value of 3% - 5% of aggregate portfolio value. I find the main difficulty to be in structuring the lower value accounts.

Two approaches I have been mulling over:

1) Scrap the individual account diversification approach and perhaps only hold 1 - 3 positions in lower value accounts. This approach would probably mean that no account on its own will be diversified but the aggregate portfolio will be (hopefully).
2) Try to maintain the account diversification approach by investing in only one etf per account until the account eventually reaches a size sufficient to hold more positions (then I suppose the approach would flip to the first approach). The idea being that each account would hold a different etf (and at least be somewhat diversified) that would contribute to the overall diversification of the aggregate portfolio.

Do you have any comments or guidance on managing multiple accounts? How do investment professionals manage their own family accounts? Any best practices that you are aware of, or good articles that you can direct me to? Any considerations besides tax; for example, how do you apportion risk between family members and accounts?

Thanks
Derek