Q – I have the option to enroll in a disability insurance plan. But I’m not sure how it works. Also, how does this differ from long-term care insurance? – Stef L., Barrie, Ontario
The subject of life insurance often arises in the context of estate planning as “a way to keep the cottage in the family.” While that’s one absolutely valid use for life insurance in an estate plan, there are a number of other important life insurance strategies that should also be considered when putting together an estate plan, including paying final expenses, providing survivor income, paying off debts, preserving estate value, ensuring estate equalization, and making bequests.
With new regulations around cost disclosure coming over the next few months, many investors will be left wondering if they are paying their advisors too much for the service they are receiving. Part of the problem comes from the fact that with a few exceptions, most people do not want to really discuss the costs of investing. And because nobody is having a real honest discussion around the topic, it can be difficult to know whether what you are paying is reasonable based on what you are invested in and what type of advisor, if any, you are working with.
It may be a topsy-turvy investment world these days, but for Lisa Myers, executive vice-president of Nassau, Bahamas-based Templeton Global Advisors Ltd., that’s neither here nor there. Equity specialist Myers, who co-manages theTempleton Global Balanced Fund with lead fixed-income manager Michael Hasenstab, says the managers take no macroeconomic views. Instead, they look rigorously at the merits of individual companies. This is the classic Templeton approach, and in 2014 it paid off as the fund achieved the Fundata FundGrade® 2014 A+ Rating™.
Not understanding the nature of the game makes you a sucker – and a loser – in poker, just the same as not being aware of your limitations can make you a loser in investing. One of my most valuable investing rules resembles something I learned decades ago, as a teenage poker player.
