May 16, 2019
| Quiet Counsel
| 7 min read
Battling Short-Termism
The past eight months have provided investors with an important reminder of what volatility in capital markets actually looks like. For nascent investors – even those with upwards of 10 years of experience in the gently rising equity markets – all the stories of the Creat Recession and the lnternet Bubble, Long-Term Capital...
May 15, 2019
| Institutional Perspectives
| 8 min read
Core Plus Bond Funds: What’s All The “Plus” About?
Core Plus strategies promise the best of all worlds: a core fixed-income strategy, with a suite of sophisticated strategies layered on top to augment the return profile while managing risk. However, our analysis suggests that most of the additional returns that Core Plus strategies provide is not generated by the sexy bells and...
May 15, 2019
| Planning Matters
| 6 min read
Common Pitfalls and Challenges of Intergenerational Wealth Transfer
Throughout the world there is a proverbial saying that “Wealth never survives three generations.” In Canada and America we say “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” In Lancashire it’s “there’s nobbut three generations atween a clog and clog” and Italians say, “dalle stalle alle stelle alle stalle” (“from stalls to stars to stalls”)...
February 16, 2019
| Quiet Counsel
| 8 min read
The Case for Being Bold
While meeting with some Ontario-based clients in January, l got caught in the “polar vortex,” which resulted in a cancelled flight, a treacherous drive to Toronto, and a long wait at the airport – and left me with plenty of time to reflect on weather patterns, and capital markets.Many are surprised to learn...
February 15, 2019
| Institutional Perspectives
| 6 min read
The Case for Emerging Markets
As stock pickers in the developed world, we find unicorns high-quality businesses with sustainable growth opportunities and deeply discounted prices to be rare. Identifying one requires not only the skill and resources to break through the noise obscuring that value, but also sufficient noise to fool the rest of the market in the...
February 15, 2019
| Planning Matters
| 7 min read
Understanding Tax Treatment of Investment Income
As investors review their tax returns at this time each year, they are reminded that taxation of investment income varies depending on the type of investment and the type of account. Interest income, dividend income, foreign income, and capital gains all attract different levels of tax and investors are well-advised to structure their...
November 16, 2018
| Quiet Counsel
| 8 min read
Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble
The market decline in October got us thinking. Thinking about the “big picture” of the market’s direction, as we spend some small portion of our time doing, and about the “smaller pictures” – the collection of little stories and themes that capture our attention (or not) and ultimately feed into newspaper headlines. We...
November 15, 2018
| Planning Matters
| 4 min read
Navigating the New Tax Rules for Your Small Business
The 2018 budget marked the culmination of a tumultuous year in which we saw the proposal of the most significant tax changes in the last 45 years, many specifically targeted at professionals including dentists, lawyers, and doctors. Through the budget, the federal government confirmed it would be moving forward with changes regarding income...
August 16, 2018
| Quiet Counsel
| 5 min read
Cause or Effect? The Role of Dividends in an Outperforming Portfolio
John D. Rockefeller, the world’s first billionaire, once famously remarked, “Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It’s to see my dividends coming in.” 1 Dividend-paying stocks represent a key element of a long-term total return approach, so it is important to understand the role they can play in portfolios...
August 15, 2018
| Planning Matters
| 7 min read
Strategies for Cottage Ownership and Transfers
There was a day a few years ago when my cottage was much simpler to look after. I used to drive to Muskoka on the first long weekend in the summer and, in a total of 12 minutes, have the place ready to go. It was called a tent, and it came with...
May 16, 2018
| Quiet Counsel
| 7 min read
Value Through the Cycle
Being a “value” investor through a growth market cycle requires patience and discipline, and this past decade has required a bigger dose than usual of both. But a look at the many factors that have driven this growth run and how they have been rapidly changing of late makes a compelling case that...
May 15, 2018
| Planning Matters
| 7 min read
Managing Capacity: Planning for the Risk of Dementia
It’s human nature to avoid thinking about the fallibility of our bodies – that we might one day lose the use of our legs, or our eyes, or our minds. Perhaps it is in our DNA, an automatic suppression of the consequences of our natural decay, like the fading memory of a first...