Tax filing season should now be over for most individuals. But don’t file
away your Notice of Assessment just yet. It contains important information
about the contribution room you have available for your Registered
Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP). And this is critical for those who want to
get a head start on contributing to their RRSPs for 2017.
Q
– I recently opened a Tax-Free Savings Account, and I was asked whether I
wanted to specify something called a “successor holder” or whether I wanted
to designate a beneficiary. I’m not quite sure what the difference is.
Could you explain why this is important? – Mary L., Kitchener, Ontario
By Mike Keerma
* Stocks perk up but stay flat on the week.
*
Canada’s inflation rate cools in May.
* Buffett snatches up Home Capital from bargain bin.
* Sears Canada now a (below) dollar store.
* Harvest Portfolios debuts global REIT ETF.
* Stocks perk up but stay flat on the week.
Stock markets perked up a bit this week, closing with small gains
week-over-week, helped along by small gains in the energy sector in
Friday’s session as well as continuing momentum among technology stocks. In
the absence of any major economic releases and geopolitical imbroglios,
stock markets were largely flat on the week. Toronto’s
S&P/TSX Composite Indexedged up 0.8% on news of cooling Canadian inflation and a bailout of
Home Capital Group (TSX: HCG) by Warren Buffett’s
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A), while New York’s
S&P 500 Composite Index held steady with a near-invisible 0.2% gain. The
Nasdaq Composite Index remained the outlier, with a 1.8% advance on the week, for a 16.4%
year-to-date gain, as tech issues sprung back to life last week, ending two
weeks of losses for the Nasdaq.
Crude oil rose 0.8% on Friday despite traders’ anxieties about a supply glut. With
summer trading seasonality starting to kick in, and not all that much for
traders to worry about in the market,
gold remained virtually flat on the week.
What’s happening to volatility, and why does it matter? This question seems
to pop up now more often now. Volatility, as measured by standard deviation
(SD), is currently at historic lows. The reasons for that are subject to
much debate by market watchers. In practical terms, however, there’s
another potential impact that we in the fund risk-rating business are
watching closely: The CSA’s new fund risk classification methodology, which
is based largely on standard deviation. It’s here that current low
volatility levels could affect funds’ risk ratings going forward.
The
Vanguard Canadian Short Term Bond Index ETF (TSX: VSB) provides exposure to a portfolio of Canadian government and corporate bonds
with maturities that range between one and five years. The index is
weighted by market capitalization, and is marked by high credit quality and
low volatility, which would make it an attractive component of conservative
portfolios.
