Janet Rabovsky – Benefits Canada.com

Expert panel: Unclear road ahead for institutional investors in 2022

mdunne — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 14:00:26 +0000

As has been the case for the past couple of years, we’re ending 2021 with as many questions as answers. On the surface, economic conditions seem to be improving, at least in Canada. National unemployment dropped to six per cent in November, the economy began to grow again after some coronavirus pandemic restrictions eased and […]

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Institutional investors taking closer look at Bitcoin, gold amid inflation fears

mdunne — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 13:00:16 +0000

Almost 16 months since the global coronavirus pandemic was first declared, there’s now yet another thing for institutional investors to worry about — the possibility of inflation. Lately, much has been made of the potential for inflation to emerge given sustained low interest rates and the large deficits that many governments have incurred due to […]

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Cryptocurrency exchange failure highlights due diligence in investment decisions

mschmit — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 04:30:41 +0000

As with any new investment, there are always risks that have to be carefully weighted before proceeding. The recent failure of cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX (QX) is certainly upsetting for those who may not recover their money. QX is an exchange where individuals can buy Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies and store them in a wallet. Cryptocurrencies are […]

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Is it a good time for plan sponsors to revisit value investing?

mschmit — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 04:00:08 +0000

Many institutional investors include value-oriented equity strategies in their portfolio to provide protection during declining equity markets. But not all value strategies are created equal, as many found out during the global financial crisis 10 years ago. As well, many investors expected their portfolios to perform better than the broader market, to preserve cash, but this […]

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Revisiting the case for investing in emerging market equities

mschmit — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 04:30:24 +0000

Last year, I wrote about emerging market equities and whether their time had finally come. Should investors be considering an allocation to the asset class, which theoretically offers the promise of higher returns driven off demographic trends? I think it’s a worthwhile topic to revisit, while also providing an overview of investor behaviour since that time. As […]

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Trans Mountain deal highlights issues with infrastructure investments

mschmit — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 11:34:12 +0000

The recent Trans Mountain pipeline transaction has highlighted the often polarizing discussion around infrastructure projects, raising questions such as who should own them, how much they should cost and how to balance various competing interests. Infrastructure is often defined as permanent assets a society requires to facilitate the orderly operation of an economy. They tend […]

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Are investors becoming cautious around private debt?

mschmit — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 04:30:20 +0000

With global growth improving, interest rates continued to increase in 2017, particularly in Canada and the United States. Many believe the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise rates three times in 2018, dragging the Bank of Canada along with it. On March 8, 2018, the 10-year benchmark bond sat at 2.37 per cent, which hardly represents a […]

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Why the investment industry needs to reconsider how it measures success

mschmit — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 04:30:30 +0000

Investors make decisions every day about how to allocate the monies entrusted to them, including choices which asset classes, which markets and which managers to select. Asset allocation and asset liability studies help to determine the trade-off between risk and return, which translates into an asset mix. From there, investors decide on how to invest […]

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Commercial mortgages an increasingly attractive investment option

mschmit — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 10:02:40 +0000

While fads usually refer to fashion, food, music and even hairstyles, we don’t often talk about them in the context of investments. Right now, however, mortgage investments are one of the hottest asset classes. One of the first mutual funds in Canada, launched in 1974, was a fund that invested in insured housing mortgages. At the time, […]

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Smaller plans need more investment solutions to vary the asset mix

mschmit — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 04:00:01 +0000

For years, Canadians have faced calls to invest overseas given the narrowness of the Canadian equity market and the relatively small proportion of global gross domestic product Canada represents. Publicly listed Canadian companies have ranged between three and five per cent of global GDP, and yet Canadian investors’ allocations to Canadian equities have historically been […]

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