Investment Q&A

Q: Hello,

This is one statement from the fund facts(The ETF will employ a currency hedging strategy that seeks to hedge its exposure to U.S. dollars or other foreign currencies within the non-Canadian fixed income asset class.)
I assume that the U.S and foreign Equity holding are unhedged? And is the cost to hedge the US bonds included in the MER?

Also if XBAL is held in a RRSP will I get the withholding taxes back from the US dividends.

Thank you.

Derek

Q: Is there any issue with withholding taxes and holding XBAL in a RRSP?

Thanks,

Joe

Q: I currently hold investments in Fidelity Balanced Income Private Pool and Franklin Quotential Diversified Income. I will be transferring the funds from these mutual funds to ETFs with lower management fees. Please provide a list of 5 suitable ETFs and rank them from 1 to 5. Thank you.

Q: Hello 5i, Could you explain what these 4 companies are about and rank them in order from best first. I just retired and am looking for one or two companies where I can sleep at night and earn some income. Thanks

Q: For a mutual fund, do you think the CIBC balance index fund managed by Jacques Prevost is a good overall fund for a conservative investor? Reported returns of 6.7% for 5 and 10 years. Mer of 1.22%. I noted 25% allocation to financials. It’s in my wife portfolio and she was looking for advice. Any comments would be appreciated. Thank you!

Q: I have these ETF's in a TFSA with a primary goal 8 to 10% annual return. I'd like your opinion if there is overlap in this portfolio and if there would be another ETF to add. This is a smaller portfolio and I don't think it would be efficient to buy the individual stocks in your balanced equity model portfolio.
Thanks!

Q: I am looking to finally replace the following mutual funds held in a self admin RSP account, to equivalent ETFs.
FID269 - Fid Monthly Inc;
FID5973 - Fid Global Innovation;
FID207 - Fid Global Concentrated Equity;
RBC460 - Sel Bal Ptf
TDB2760 - Td Retirement Balance
TDB652 - Td Global Entertainment & communication
TDB976 - Td Health Science
TDB2580 Td Tactical Monthly Inc
My goal is to replace these mutual funds with long term, high yielding where possible, low MER, CDN or US $ equivalent ETFs. Please provide 2 or 3 suggestions for each. Please deduct as many credit s as need.
Thank you for all the invaluable investment help you provide.

Q: Greetings once again and my continued thanks for your steady hand. Can you please suggest an array of balanced fund or high grade dividend fund etfs which can give me exposure to Canada, USA and the rest of the world, in roughly equal portions. KIndest regards, Al

Q: Is there any advantage to using ETFs rather than mutual funds in our fixed income portfolio? Presently, we have 35% in fixed income with DFA231, DFA 603, PM0 205 & LYS801F.

Q: Hi 5i, I can see all these institutions have a all-in-one ETFs, for an RRSP account, is it the way to go for someone who is looking for stability.
Place 45% BAL, 45% GRO, and 10% Stocks (LSPD, SHOP, GOOGL, AMZN, etc).
Thank you!

Q: Do you prefer VBAL or XBAl for an RESP? Looks like XBAL has had better performance and has a slightly higher dividend 1.8 vs 2. However XBAL has 515M assest vs VBAL which has 1.4B assets. Does this make XBAL riskier? Which would you choose?

Q: Hi, I’am retired,(65) looking for a global dividend ETF . I have no U.S. or International exposure no bonds, only Canadian stock, so thinking to spread out a little. Do you have a go to all in one etf that pays 2%+ while you wait ( 6-8) years+.
I was looking at XDG ,good mer, good div. 3.4%, global holdings 56% U.S. etc. But not sure if it’s a good long term hold?
Would like your opinion on an etf that you like
Thanks

Q: Hello,

Can I get a couple of your recommendations for the best balanced growth ETF and/or mutual fund as well as a pure growth recommendation. Sector & Geographic allocation not a huge concern.

Thanks.

Q: What ETF would you suggest for a non-registered account for a higher risk tolerance with emphasis on growth and a 10 year minimum timeline ? VGRO/XGRO sound good but the dividend yields seem low to really take advantage of the dividend tax credit.

Q: Hello,
I have some holdings in the Sun Life Granite Balanced Growth Portfolio class F as a "steady" fund for a blend of growth and safety. Thoughts on this fund please and any funds in your view that could be better in the space.

Thanks.

Q: Can you please recommend a couple of ETFs for an RESP with a six year time frame? Thank you!

Q: Could you please recommend a low cost etf for an resp for 3 or 4 years to introduce someone safely to markets. For example a dividend growth, tsx or your ideas. What are the cost for the etfs? Thank you for your assistance.

Q: First I have to say thank you! My RRIF and TFSA are certainly healthier due to info gained from 5i over the past couple of years.
My questions pertain to my Rif where I have recently inherited 2 mutual funds; Dynamic 1560 Strategic Yield Fund and Dynamic 031 Global Dividend Fund (mers 2.15-2.23%). The remainder of the Rif is comprised of Canadian stocks; old TSX 60 stalwarts and/or stocks from your income or balanced portfolios. The Dynamic funds each account for approximately 20% of the total Rif and around 13% of total investments.
Questions
1. Are there better ETFs/Funds you would suggest for exposure to US and global markets?
2. What is a reasonable weight for an individual ETF/fund within a portfolio?
3. What is a reasonable percent of one's portfolio to allocate to US markets? and to global markets?
TIA
(Good to see Peter on BNN yesterday.)

Q: My 40-year-old daughter has $42K in her RRSPs with Scotia Bank. Her advisor put her in two funds. BSN378 and BSN385. One is 45% invested in basically bonds and 40 Canadian stocks. The other is 12.3 % cash and 47 Canadian stocks. The exception is 2% invested in Microsoft. I assume there is a lot of duplication between the two funds investing in the same Canadian Companies. The MER is close to 2%. Apart from this being a travesty - I would like to move her into a self administered RRSP with a mix of a balanced ETF and three other stocks. She is regularly adding more money. She won't be withdrawing money from this account for at least 25 years.

Would you kindly suggest a suitable balanced ETF.

The three stocks I would suggest for a long term hold would be BAM, SHOP and ENB. Could I have your opinion or options please. Deduct as many questions as you see fit.

THANK YOU!
Bryan

Q: My wife has 75% of her portfolio in laddered GICs and I am looking for a one-stop solution for the remaining 25%. Would XTR be a reasonable substitute for any of the major balanced ETFs such as VBAL, XBAL, ZBAL, or HBAL or would you recommend one of the latter? XTR pays a significantly higher dividend and appears to possess a similar structure, although not quite as globally diversified on the equity side. Your opinion please. Thanks.