All posts by Jonathan Chevreau

Two thirds of investors don’t know how much they pay in fees: survey

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | July 12, 2016

JustWealth’s Andrew Kirkland

A survey released today by Justwealth Financial Inc. finds a knowledge gap about how much Canadian investors are being charged on their investments: almost two thirds of those surveyed didn’t know exactly how much they paid in annual investment fees.

The survey of Canadians across Canada aged 25 or more was conducted via Google Consumer Surveys, and also uncovered a lack of awareness around upcoming regulatory changes to investment reporting requirements.

The changes surrounding the Client Relationship Model – Phase 2 or CRM2 — will take effect this Friday (July 15, 2016). They are the third annual list of amendments to promote increased disclosure regarding fees and investment performance. According to the Justwealth survey, 65.1 per cent are not aware of the upcoming changes. {See also Graham Bodel’s recent Hub blog on these changes: Big changes for mutual fund investors and Anthony Boright’s Hub blog entitled Get ready for POS3 and CRM2 deadlines.)

Conflicts keep investors in the dark

Gold guru Peter Schiff says Goldmoney deal will draw millions to BitGold

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | July 11, 2016

Author and US-based gold guru Peter Schiff is teaming up with a Canadian gold fin-tech company — Goldmoney Inc. — in a deal both parties expect will accelerate the firm’s growth into “millions” of users seeking a “real-money” alternative to the “fiat” currencies of the world’s central banks.

Initial details were revealed on Friday, when Toronto-based Goldmoney Inc. (trading as XAU on the TSX), announced its plan to acquire Schiff Gold Inc. (SGI) and form a marketing and service agreement with Schiff (pictured left).

The Hub last looked at Goldmoney and its Bitgold in this post in March: BitGold: a cure for savers frustrated with low or negative interest rates? The link also contains my blog on this for the Financial Post.

And we looked at a couple of recent books on the soaring gold price in a Hub post in June. You can find the review, which includes Schiff’s The Real Crash, in this Hub review titled The New Case for Gold. The link also contains my blog on this for Motley Fool Canada.

The Goldmoney release describes Schiff Gold Inc. (“SGI”) as a “private, US-based dealer in precious metals” that was launched in 2010 under the name Euro Pacific Precious Metals. It in turn was described as “one of the largest and fastest growing retail gold dealers” that services a large client base with buy and sell orders for precious metals, storage and vaulting arrangements and gold & silver IRA arrangement services.”

Schiff is the “LeBron James of the gold market”

Happy (Financial) Independence Day!

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | July 4, 2016

To all our American readers, the Findependence Hub wishes a happy Independence Day, or as we like to say around here, Findependence Day.

Bloggers are fond of building posts around the July 4th celebration, and several are using the phrase Financial Independence Day. For instance, a year ago Forbes.com published a blog titled Financial Independence Day for Millennials.

In fact, on June 21st, 2016, Richard Eisenberg of Next Avenue and Forbes.com did just that, re-running a similar piece entitled How to Declare Your Financial Independence. And he did make an explicit reference to Findependence Day, more on which below.

This weekend’s Motley Fool Money podcast, as it was a year ago, is titled Declare Your Financial Independence. It features interviews with authors and radio personalities Dave Ramsey and Clark Howard. Continue Reading…

How the Age of Longevity will change your life and mine

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | July 2, 2016

100-plus-book — 100 Plus by Sonia Arrison (SingularityHub.com)

One of dozens of books I read for a talk I gave on how Longevity Changes Everything is entitled 100 Plus: How the Coming Age of Longevity will Change Everything, from Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith.

The author, Sonia Arrison, challenges the reader to at least open one’s mind to the possibility of human beings reaching the age of 150, which of course is a good 30 years longer than the age reached by modern centenarians, although still much less than the biblical Methusalah, Noah et al.

Certainly, as I was reading at the same time Moshe Milevsky’s new second edition of Pensionize Your Nest Egg, I was conscious of the financial implications of breakthroughs in human longevity. Milevsky’s preferred form of “Longevity Insurance” is life annuities and new hybrid variations of Variable Annuities that provide both stock market exposure and some guarantees and mortality credits provided by insurance companies.

Financial implications of Longevity

Brexit shocks the world as UK votes to leave EU, pound & stocks plunge, gold soars

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | June 24, 2016

North American investors woke Friday morning to the shocking news that Brexit is a reality: the United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union.

Stocks around the world are plunging while the price of gold is soaring.

As I write this just before 5 am, European stocks were down 8%, while gold was soaring almost 15%: the most in 42 years for British buyers.

One British friend, a banker, told me on Facebook that “it’s a very sad day for our country and Europe as a whole.”

Investors caught flatfooted

Were investors caught flatfooted?

“Absolutely,” she told me.

So what now? With 52% voting to leave and 48% to stay, the BBC says the report was decisive.

Here is the Economist’s report around 5 am: in an unprecedented move, the British weekly newspaper delayed publication of the print edition in order to get the historic vote in. They called it a “seismic shock.” It said this:

As soon as the results started to come in, the pound started to plunge. From around $1.50 before the polls closed, the pound dropped to $1.45, then $1.40, and then to $1.34, its lowest level since 1985. It was the worst day for sterling since the currency floated in the early 1970s. The shock was also reflected in equity markets, both within and outside Britain. The Nikkei 225 average in Tokyo has dropped 8%.

Pound suffers biggest hit since 1985

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Sign up for our Daily Digest E-Mail!