The Only Relevant Investment Benchmark

By Mark Barnicutt, MBA, FCSI, CFA

Most people agree that bad habits are hard to break.  The unfortunate reality, though, is that the global investment management industry has developed a really bad habit over the past several decades: 

Convincing investor clients that their goal should be to try to consistently outperform the various stock & bond market indices.

I …

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Liability Driven Investing

By Mark Barnicutt, MBA, FCSI, CFA   

Liability driven investing (LDI) differs from a traditional policy portfolio approach in that an actual liability stream of an organization serves as the benchmark instead of a simple return target or a proxy based on market indices.       

Under an LDI approach, success is judged in terms of how closely investment returns …

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Lest We Forget

By Mark Barnicutt, MBA, FCSI, CFA

“We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.”  George Bernard Shaw

With equity markets, especially in Canada, getting close to previous bull market highs, investor behaviours appear to be changing.  Specifically, it appears that that some investors have completely forgotten about the Global Financial Crisis of …

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Trend of decreased transparency a lose-lose

By Dan Hallett, CFA, CFP

Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate love.  But on February 14, 2011, I wasn’t feeling the love from the mutual fund industry.  On that day, the Investment Funds Institute of Canada announced that it would cease reporting company-specific sales data every month to the public.  It …

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LSIFs and hedge funds with training wheels

By Dan Hallett, CFA, CFP

I was recently asked to comment on Labour Sponsored Investment Funds (LSIFs) by the Canadian Press.  The words attributed to me in this article may give readers the wrong impression.  The article says, in part:

Hallett said these funds are most attractive to higher income earners and those with long investment …

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Investing for retirement

By Dan Hallett, CFA, CFP

In Tuesday’s Globe & Mail, I shared a couple of suggestions that investors should consider for their RRSPs.  My suggestions covered two themes you’d have read here over the past several months.  One is that bonds remain a vital, albeit boring, portfolio component – hence my recommendation of a bond fund.  The …

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“Where’s the best place to invest?”

By Mark Barnicutt, MBA, FCSI, CFA

In meetings with prospective clients, I frequently get the question: “Where’s the best place to invest?

Given that the investment management industry is so “product” and “return” focused, I think investors are somewhat shocked when my response is:

I don’t know.  It depends on your goals & risk tolerances?

Investors are so used to hearing investment …

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Trusteed Group Retirement Plans

The group retirement plan landscape internationally is dominated by trustee arrangements. In these arrangements, a trustee is appointed to bear the responsibility of ensuring the safety of the assets entrusted to this legal entity. Normally, in trustee arrangements a series of providers are contracted together to cover the services necessary to meet the …

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North American Securities Administrators Association Supports Fiduciary Standards

By Mark Barnicutt, MBA, FCSI, CFA

Investment Executive today reported that the North American Securities Administrators Association recently unveiled its U.S. legislative agenda, which was highlighed by a call to impose a fiduciary duty on everyone providing investment advice.

The NASAA called upon the U.S. Congress to support implementation of regulatory reform, strengthen state-federal …

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