Tax News

A place in the sun

Canadians love Florida, especially its real estate. According to the U.S. National Association of Realtors, Canadians were the largest single group of foreign residential property buyers last year, accounting for 26% of all nonresident purchases. That’s not surprising when there is a sub-prime lending crisis, house prices remain 40% to 50% below peak levels in […]

By Michelle Munro |February 16, 2010

6 min read

The beauty of ETFs

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are less expensive than mutual funds by a wide margin. Embedded mutual fund distribution costs – paid to financial advisors for selling them – are most of the difference. Claymore is the only ETF sponsor in Canada paying advisors from a separate ETF series that is 0.50% to 0.75% more expensive. While […]

February 16, 2010

3 min read

RRSP plans in a post TFSA world

This Advisor.ca Special Report is sponsored by: Some clients may be coming up short for RRSP top-ups this spring, having maxed out their TFSA contributions early in the New Year. And who can blame them? Clients are bombarded by advertisements touting the benefits of the TFSA. More often than not, the TFSA marketing message has […]

By Kate McCaffery |February 11, 2010

4 min read

The battle between debt, retirement

This Advisor.ca Special Report is sponsored by: Quelle surprise. Canadians are showing less interest in their investments this year, preferring instead to pay down debt. It’s an interesting twist for those trying to keep clients on track with their retirement savings plans. A survey conducted in mid-December for Manulife Financial found the number of people […]

By Kate McCaffery |February 11, 2010

4 min read