Last week I attended the RioCan REIT annual general meeting, where management discussed the fiscal 2012 results and disclosed the first-quarter 2013 earnings as well. Judging from their body language, the crowd was quite content with what has been happening with their company. And rightly so. No reason for tensed shoulders and clenched fists here. RioCan REIT (TSX: REI.UN) has kept investors happy for 20 years, with stable distributions and steady growth.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index, the broadest measure of blue-chip stocks in Japan, fell more than 7% during the Thursday, May 23 trading session. And that provided investors with another data point evidencing the fickle nature of sentiment and perhaps, more importantly, the influential role of hedge funds in the short-term price action on global markets.

There have been lots of interesting things happening in the mutual fund business recently. I am hopeful the trends in motion will grow stronger over time. Most of these trends involve shrinking management expense ratios (MER), which should be music to the ears of Canada’s mutual fund investors who have long suffered with some of the highest mutual fund MERs in North America.

Stock markets ended May with an advance, despite retreating over the last week of the month, as weakening U.S. consumer spending numbers for April and falling prices for gold, oil, and copper put a damper on Toronto’s resource-weighted benchmark. All in all the big indexes remained in the black for the year to date, as U.S. market performance left Canadian stocks in the dust.

Fund company: Beutel Goodman & Company Ltd.
Fund type: U.S. Equity
FundGrade® Rating: A
Style: Large Cap Value
Risk level: Medium
Load status: No load
RRSP/RRIF suitability: Excellent
TFSA suitability: Excellent
Manager: Gavin Ivory since February 2006; Glenn Fortin since June 1997
MER: 1.43%
Code: BTG 774 (No load)
Minimum investment: $5,000

There is a large cadre of investors who turn a deaf ear whenever it is suggested that they take a look at Davis Henderson Corp. (TSX: DH) as a potential addition to their portfolios. But I am going to make that suggestion regardless, coupling it with a request that you give me a few moments to make my case. The reason is simple: D+H is one of those under-the-radar companies that has moved beyond cheque printing…way, way beyond.

Estates and trusts lawyer Margaret O'Sullivan, a regular contributor to Fund Library, has received the Ontario Bar Association 2013 Award of Excellence in Trusts and Estate Law. Over the course of her almost 30-year career, Margaret has made a significant impact on the field of trusts and estates law. She is a leader in the estates and trusts practice area – locally, nationally, and internationally.

With most GICs paying less than 2% interest and many fixed income investments expected to return low single digits for the coming year, income seeking investors need to look elsewhere to find any form of meaningful cash flow from their investments. Finding a high-quality fund that pays out a decent cash flow without significantly eroding invested capital can be a very daunting task these days.

Dividends are in fashion with investors right now, and that’s always a good thing. After all, creative accounting can produce false impressions of prosperity and hide embarrassing financial problems. But accounting can’t create cash for this year’s dividend, let alone conjure up a history of past dividends. Stick to dividend payers and you’ll avoid most of the market’s greatest disasters.

Watch the financial news, search the Internet, read the financial press and the most common theme coming from those who are supposedly “in the know” is that the US stock market is ahead of itself. And while those same talking heads are longer-term bullish, most are waiting for pullbacks to put new money to work. In other words, they are buying on a dip. That likely explains why we have seen only minor corrections that last for milliseconds.