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Hard to believe it was only two years ago, but 2007 was a good year for Canadians, income and tax-wise.

The median after-tax income, adjusted for inflation for families with two or more people, rose 3.7% from 2006 to $61,800 in 2007, according to data just released from Statistics Canada.

For unattached individuals, the median after-tax income rose 3.9% from 2006 to $24,200 in 2007.

This growth was an improvement from the growth since 2002 of 1.8% for families and 1.4% for individuals.

As a result of changes to tax system effective 2007, the median income taxes paid by families amounted to $8,600, down 6.5% from 2006.

Other highlights of the survey show that the number of people living in low-income situation has decreased by four million. This represents a 9.2% of the population, the lowest low-income rate since 1976.

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More funds merge at Mackenzie

At a special meeting today, unitholders of select Keystone Sceptre funds and Mackenzie approved the resolution to merge the following funds:

• Keystone Sceptre Canadian Large Cap Fund to the Mackenzie Maxxum Canadian Equity Growth Fund
• Keystone Sceptre Canadian Small Cap Fund to the Mackenzie Ivy Enterprise Fund
• Mackenzie Putnam Global Equity Fund to the Mackenzie Ivy Foreign Equity Class

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PlanPlus Inc markets multilingual financial planning software in U.S.

PlanPlus Inc. is introducing their financial planning software, PlanPlus Web Advisor to the U.S. Market, specifically the multilingual U.S. market.

The company sees opportunities for high-level financial planning tools for the rapidly growing Spanish and Chinese market segments.

“The U.S. has a lot of financial software solutions,” said Brad Greer, vice-president of Global Sales for PlanPlus, “but we feel there is a significant market to help service emerging segments of the population that are currently underserved. For example, the Chinese community is generally good savers and often affluent, but unlikely until now to receive written financial plans in their own language.”

PlanPlus Web Advisor includes a web-based IPS solution, mutual fund and stock data provided by Morningstar for the U.S. marketplace and the ability to integrate to an advisory firm’s back office.

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Desjardins makes changes to funds

Desjardins du Queacute;bec, the manager and promoter of the Desjardins family of mutual funds, has made a few changes to certain funds.

These changes affect the portfolio management of the Desjardins Canadian Equity Value Fund and Desjardins Alternative Investment Fund. They also reflect the revision of the risk tolerance level associated with an investment in each of the SocieTerra Growth and SocieTerra Growth Plus Portfolios.

The risk tolerance associated for investment into SocieTerra Growth and SocieTerra Growth Plus Portfolios has been adjusted to be more conservative to better reflect reality. The SocieTerra Growth Portfolio the risk tolerance level changes from “moderate” to “low to moderate.” And for the SocieTerra Growth Plus Portfolio, it changes from “moderate to high” to “moderate.”

With regard to the Desjardins Canadian Equity Value Fund, Tetrem Capital Management Ltd. and LSV Asset Management will remain as sole sub-advisors to Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. (DGAM). The investment strategies of the fund will not be affected by this change which will be made effective on or about June 8, 2009.

As for Desjardins Alternative Investment Fund, SINOPIA Asset Management of Paris, France, has been retained as the sole subadvisor to DGAM with specific responsibility for the management of inflation-linked bonds.

(06/03/09)