Interest rates have risen over the course of 2022. At the time of writing, Canadian investors can easily find High Interest Savings Accounts (“HISAs”) paying more than 4%. This might sound pretty good to investors sitting on lots of cash. But, don’t be fooled. Anytime you’re parking your capital in a bank deposit (or any other nearly risk-free investment), your capital...
The Canadian government has proposed new reporting requirements for bare trusts, which will be effective starting in 2023. A bare trust is a trust in which the trustee holds legal title to the trust property but has no discretion over the distribution of the trust's income or capital. Under the new rules, bare trusts will be required to report the identity...
Wealthy people live in mansions, right? Not necessarily. Many wealthy investors in my network live in modest homes they purchased decades ago. These are people with tens of millions and often hundreds of millions of dollars in their investment portfolios. So, why would a wealthy person want to live in a modest house? And, what are the greater benefits of living...
Which is the best ESG ETF in Canada? This post describes how to create a low cost ESG index portfolio that aligns with your values. We will consider which Canadian ETF is the best to use and also highlight alternative ways to construct your own customized ESG portfolio. We will begin by describing what ESG investing means and what an index...
This post provides a step-by-step guide that you can use to implement your own impact measurement process. By the end of this post, you’ll have a template you can use to either implement your own impact measurement framework or use our team to implement one for you. There are three steps we’ll need to take to implement our impact measurement process. We’ll...
With the rise of private equity investments and the associated lack of standardized reporting such investments contain, it becomes more important for wealthy investors to calculate their own rates of return. One way to do this is using an internal rate of return (“IRR”) method. An Internal Rate of Return (“IRR”) is a widely accepted way to calculate an investment’s rate...
Near the end of 2022, the CRA introduced new rules that limit the proportion of interest & financing expense that may be deducted for tax purposes. These new rules may impact family office financing and income splitting arrangements. To provide clarity about how your family office financing arrangements might be influenced, this post will briefly outline what the new rules...
A master limited partnership (“MLP”) is a publicly-traded limited partnership. They payout a high level of cash income investors because of their unique tax structure. Because of this, MLPs are considered “high yield” investments; most suitable for income-oriented investors.
Modern family offices have transitioned away from paper records towards digital record keeping using secure e-mail and cloud storage. The result is increased workflow efficiency and the ease of sharing information with professional advisors. But, the transition to online communication and cloud storage also means family offices need to manage the associated cybersecurity risks carefully. This post describes which cybersecurity risks...
Overconfidence shows up as a common investing bias that can drag down our returns. But, merely recognizing our overconfidence can improve our results. This post describes some of the ways that overconfidence fools us and how to overcome it. Overconfidence bias is a cognitive bias where individuals overestimate their own abilities and the accuracy of their beliefs and predictions. This can...
