Articles

Q: I believe U.S markets entered a corrective phase last April. Do you think we are entering one now? How often do they normally occur during a year?

The headlines on the front pages of major papers seldom spill over to the headlines of the business section. Instead, the two realms tend to operate as silos. Politics and economics—and more specifically, the vagaries of capital markets—are largely seen as being nearly unrelated. In reality, the spillovers are considerable in normal times, and immense in the current environment.

A great deal of financial advice is built for couples. People with a significant other benefit from two incomes, shared mortgage or rent, split bills, and certain tax advantages. When things go sideways, they have someone to look across the table at and say, “We are in this together, honey.” In a world where inflation remains a persistent and challenging part of reality, those benefits matter. Trying to apply the same advice when you are single does not always quite work.

The classic investment lesson from one of the greatest investors over the last fifty years, Warren Buffett, is to purchase businesses with a “moat”, meaning that investors should look for companies with durable competitive advantages that can withstand the vicissitudes of life.
Why should investors target companies with a “moat”?

The essence of the Client Focused Reforms (CFRs) is to require investment firms and advisors to put their clients' interests first, ahead of their own or their Firm's interests. The expected benefits of the Canadian Securities Administrators' (CSA) Client Focused Reforms for clients center on better investor protection and a more trustworthy, client-centric standard for investment advice. The CFR regulation was passed into law in late 2021. Nearly 4 years later, industry adoption is low.

Change is constant. For six decades, Warren Buffett—the Oracle of Omaha—was the face of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Berkshire) as CEO, but those days have ended. The 95-year-old has relinquished the reins and his handpicked successor, Canadian Greg Abel, now oversees the massive conglomerate. Mr. Buffett’s investing acumen is unmatched; he walks away as one of the world’s wealthiest individuals with a net worth of approximately $150B USD based primarily on his ownership of Berkshire shares.

Canadians who go online to seek a romantic partner may fall in love and end up spending the rest of their lives with a perfect match. In many cases, however, romance seekers end up just as lonely as they were before, only thousands of dollars poorer.
Every year, roughly one thousand Canadians report to authorities that they’ve fallen for romance scams, with total losses of about $50 million, says the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC).

I have spent much of my professional life looking at how financial systems treat consumers. However, some of the most painful financial stories I hear don't start in a bank office or an advisor's boardroom. They start at home, with a partner whose money habits quietly undermine everything a couple is trying to build together.

We’ve used the same wealth management company for decades, but the advisors have changed over the years due to retirement and illness. The fellow who had advised us for the longest gradually convinced us to put more and more funds into Russell Multi-Asset Income Strategy SR B (303). The Management Expense Ratio (MER) on this fund is 2.16% and the funds now represent 65% of our total assets! He was a persuasive guy, but now we feel foolish to have listened to him.