HighView Blog

The changing face of income trusts, hedge funds, and T-series funds

By Dan Hallett on March 12th, 2010

Here are this week’s latest media appearances by HighView Financial Group. In the March 12, 2010 Globe and Mail, I commented on the changing face of Income Trust mutual funds. In this Wall Street Journal article, I challenge the notion that...

High-payout Funds Are a Cash Flow Mirage

By Dan Hallett on November 27th, 2015

In the world of investing, nothing turns my stomach more than when a member of the investment industry misleads investors and then directly benefits from said misinformation.  Usually only subtle trickery is at play.  And most often I have seen...

Senior Investors & Suitability Panel Discussion

By Dan Hallett on October 17th, 2013

This week, I attended the MFDA’s Seniors Summit conference to participate in a panel discussion.  We tackled several questions pertaining to senior investors and suitability.  My esteemed co-panelist Tom Bradley didn’t disappoint and...

This fund is unlikely to sustain its newly-lowered monthly payout

By Dan Hallett on May 23rd, 2013

I have been writing articles in the public domain for more than 13 years.  No series of articles has generated more interest or feedback than my many critiques and analyses of monthly income fund and assessing distribution sustainability.  Below...

BMO reins in fund distributions

By Dan Hallett on March 21st, 2013

I have been writing about monthly income investment funds for nearly a dozen years, putting their distributions to the test and highlighting such funds’ mythical tax advantages.   Over the past two years, I’ve been particularly...

Leveraging + High Payout Funds = Unhappy Ending

By Dan Hallett on November 7th, 2011

The final chapter to the series of articles I’ve written this year on high-payout investments funds features leveraging.  Over the past few years, I have been contacted by several individual investors and financial advisors about strategies...

BMO Monthly Income sets the distribution bar unreachably high

By Dan Hallett on October 20th, 2011

This week the Globe and Mail’s John Heinzl took another run at a favourite fund of mine – BMO Monthly Income.  It’s not my favourite fund for investment but rather a favourite to write about.  In his recent article, Heinzl points...

Fund Facts a good start, but risk rating & suitability get thumbs-down

By Dan Hallett on July 13th, 2011

A new regulatory initiative – i.e. Mutual Fund Point of Sale – was launched this year in an attempt to better inform investors about the investment funds in which they invest.  The key feature of this Point of Sale initiative was to...

Monthly Income funds’ payout sustainability – the sequel

By Dan Hallett on May 31st, 2011

Earlier this year, I wrote about how to gauge the sustainability of monthly income funds’ fat distributions so that investors and advisors could make better decisions and set realistic expectations.  Since then, I’ve received a steady...

T Series Funds: The Tax Efficiency Myth and Structural Risk

By Dan Hallett on February 9th, 2010

Investors would rather invest in something that distributes a regular amount of cash than sell their shares to generate cash flow.  This psychological phenomenon seems to hold no matter what the source of cash distributions.  Add perceived...

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