News & Commentary

Market & Economic Environment: After weeks of ignoring the steady drumbeat of negative news emanating from China and other places suggesting that the novel coronavirus was spreading globally, investors’ complacency turned to outright panic in the last week of February, triggering the fastest-ever correction (decline of over 10%) in the S&P 500. Just days after […]

Based on what we saw in the last week of February, the coronavirus had many investors in a panic, but generally just over the value of their investment portfolio. While it’s easy for us to look at the virus and it’s impacts on the financial markets, we also need to ask ourselves how an illness […]

This week’s market correction is almost unparalleled in its ferocity (Figure 1), with major US indices plunging by double-digits in a matter of days. Incredible as it may seem, North American indices were at record highs just about a week ago. As of yesterday’s close, however, the S&P 500, DJIA and Nasdaq were more than […]

Everyone has heard the saying “there are only two certainties in life, death and taxes.” When we pass away most of our accumulated wealth is subject to income tax, probate tax or both. There are some simple things we can do to reduce this inevitable tax bill on our estates: own certain non-registered assets jointly […]

Market & Economic Environment: The first month of 2020 commenced on an inauspicious note for financial markets, as two “wild cards” injected significant uncertainty in the outlook for the year. The TSX Composite and S&P 500 equity markets had recovered from the initial spike in geopolitical risk – caused by the killing of a top […]

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