- Jonathan Chevreau refers to this article by Glorianne Stromberg, a former OSC Commissioner, in his blog post on continuing criticism of the Canadian mutual fund industry for its high fees: “The incontrovertible fact is that costs matter. And Canadians who invest in the high-cost mutual funds offered by the Canadian financial services industry are unknowingly giving up an exorbitant amount of the long-term capital they would otherwise be accumulating while needlessly exposing themselves (based on their actual return) to the market risk of loss of capital. This is unconscionable.”
- How do you make an expensive investment product even more so? Why, by wrapping them in a portfolio and charging a premium, of course. My only experience with wraps was the TD Managed Index ePortfolios, which charges about 1% more than the underlying funds. I don’t think 1% is worth the few minutes it takes to rebalance a portfolio every year.
- Bell Mobility is raising the System Access Fees charged to customers on a monthly plan to $8.95 a month. The cheapest monthly plan from Bell is now a hefty $33.85 including taxes. I am so glad that we switched both our occasional use cell phones to Virgin Mobile.
- To fix or to float, is an eternal dilemma whether it is mortgage rates or natural gas prices. This CBC article tries to answer the question. The answer is fairly clear in the case of mortgage rates but less so for natural gas prices.
