Archive For The “investment” Category

How do you account for MERs in financial planning?

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The Management Expense Ratio (MER) represents the combined total of all the fees applied to a Mutual Fund. This includes the management fee, operating expenses and taxes charged to a fund during a given year. It is expressed as a percentage of a fund’s average net assets for that year.   As a Financial Application…

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My Pyramid of Financial Planning Needs

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  Below you will find my own financial planning pyramid of needs which I have used during my career to justify the advice I have given clients and which I have used to train other advisors.   My pyramid:     http://www.manurseassociates.com/sales/life-insurance-industry-failing-canadians/   Let’s compare my pyramid to the pyramid found on Mike Nurse site….

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Should we get rid of (simple) marginal tax rates?

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In Quebec, advisors are now starting to understand the concept around the difference between efficient marginal tax rates and simple marginal tax rates with the publication of the Laferriere/Chartrand tax curves that are now freely available on the site of the CQFF.   http://www.cqff.com/claude_laferriere/accueil_courbe.htm   Most advisors and financial planners only consider efficient taxation at…

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The Financial Regulatory Apartheid

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The Canadian Securities Administrators have put forth a proposal regarding mutual funds fees which include recommendations as to the purpose of trailing commissions.   While this discussion is worthwhile and needs to happen to ensure that there is a complete synergy between the remuneration of the advisor and financial well being of the client there…

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Letter Minister of Finance

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Dear Minister of Finance   I would humbly and with a lot of respect offer my comments regarding your last budget.   I would go to the point. I am extremely and particularly disappointed with your decision of increasing old age security and guaranteed supplement income from age 65 to 67.   This change is…

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Service, what service?

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To sell an insurance policy, an advisor is subject in Quebec to a code of ethics and to the Law on the distribution and service of financial products. What is not understood is that the code of ethics and the law only regulate the actions of the advisor at the point of sale and do not…

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Licencing changes necessary in the financial industry…

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In 2009, there were net repurchases of 1.75 billion of mutual funds. This meant there were thousands of investors who were not able to face volatility. Why were these investors fully invested in the market? These investors would be surprised to learn that current regulations are preventing them from receiving a financial advice that is objective.   I…

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