In the eye of the storm in June 2020, we published a piece on value investing. Titled “Has Value Had Its Last Dance?”, the article asked if value’s best days were behind it. Like the storied Chicago Bulls in Michael Jordan’s final year, were the good times gone? Was value dead?It’s pretty typical...

A common tactic of the hacker is to create a sense of urgency, to get people to react to their message without pausing to question what’s being asked of them. A pandemic provides a built-in sense of that urgency, so the past year has unfortunately created many new opportunities for those seeking malicious...

“It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future.” Never in our lifetimes has Yogi Berra’s proverb seemed more appropriate than in the current environment of uncertainty. While we don’t try to predict the future, given recent market strength, it’s worth doing a sanity check. Investors selling their stock in the March 202...

Milton Friedman famously said that “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” As central banks and governments have implemented record level s of government spending and money creation to counterbalance the economic impact of the global pandemic, some market watchers are wondering if we should heed that warning, worrying that rising government...

In this edition of Planning Matters, we introduce the Trusted Contact Person, an ally to you and your portfolio manager, and someone who can help protect your interests. As portfolio managers, we have more than the performance of your portfolio on our minds. We are in a fiduciary relationship with you, which means...

Over the last 15 years, responsible investing has grown dramatically in size and scope, with signatories to the Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) surging past 3,000 and representing over US$100 trillion in assets under management. With the explosion in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, many new strategies have emerged to meet the...

Over the last 15 years, responsible investing has grown dramatically in size and scope. Investors’ attention has widened beyond ethical and moral issues to include a range of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and signatories to the Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) have surged to over 3,000, representing over US$100 trillion in...

A wise client once said to me that they wanted to give their children a “hand up, not a hand-out.” This guiding principle regularly informs the advice I offer clients making gifts of substance to their adult children. In these times of COVID, youth unemployment (and under-employment) is substantially higher than average and...

This is a two-part series written for private clients as a companion piece to “Has Value Had Its Last Dance?,” a more technical article we wrote recently for our institutional clients. In part one of this series, we provide a straightforward explanation of what makes a stock “Value” or “Growth,” explore what it...

We find it somewhat ironic (and encouraging) that at the current extremes of fear and greed – moments that we Value managers need and indeed celebrate – fresh suggestions are arising that Value is dead. It is encouraging because these “capitulations” of sentiment often mark the peak of the pain and the beginning...

In this edition of Planning Matters, we turned to accountants Jeffrey Brockman and Jim Chang for tax advice. They offer some excellent tips for income splitting, deducting home renovation costs, and claiming home office expenses during COVID-19. Prescribed Rate Loan Planning As governments borrow to fund COVID-19 programs, our clients are increasingly asking...

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the past few months have been unprecedented on many levels. With the combination of elevated market volatility, a steep decline in portfolio values, and a surplus of time to get wrapped up in the daily news, many are concerned about their businesses, savings, and the resulting risk...