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(September 14, 2006) BMO Financial Group announced two distinct initiatives on Thursday, introducing a new set of tools in its online brokerage business and appointing a panel of prominent Canadians to examine retirement issues.

On the brokerage front, BMO InvestorLine introduced a number of new upgrades in response to growing investor demand for online tools and services.

The new research and benchmarking tools include third party industry analyst recommendations and reports, ratings and target prices for Canadian and U.S. stocks, analyst information, company profiles, and benchmark comparison summaries that allow clients to compare their personal portfolio performance against nine key indices. As well, the company will produce a series of educational e-mails designed to give clients specific insights about how to administer their account and access the tools, resources and support available.

Meanwhile, to counsel the company on emerging issues related to the changing realities of retirement, BMO Financial Group has formed an advisory panel of experts that includes chair John MacNaughton, Dr. Michael Baker, Mel Cappe, Don Coxe, Allan Gregg, Elena Hoffstein, Moshe Milevsky and Pamela Wallin.

The new Retirement Advisory Council, headed by the former CEO and founding president of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, was formed in response to BMO research that found that Canadians over the age of 45 “want to retire the word retire because it lacks relevance today.”

“Our clients are increasingly considering issues that have not traditionally been included in the retirement planning equation, including health and wellness, professional and career development, family wealth management, elder care and philanthropy,” says Gilles Ouellette, president and CEO of BMO’s private client group. “To ensure that we stay abreast of developments in other fields and can provide new and creative ideas to meet broader client needs, we have taken the unique step of asking a group of distinguished Canadians to assist us.”

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Boomers need to do their retirement homework

(September 14, 2006) A recent poll of more than Canadian boomers suggests older clients need help doing the math to figure out what their income will be after they retire.

“We’ve found aging boomers accept they’ll need to adjust their lifestyle when they retire. Unlike their retired counterparts, most working boomers (56%) appear far more open to return to work if their finances dictate the need. Yet at the same time, boomers are quite uncertain about how much retirement income and cash flow they’ll have and need.”

Half of those surveyed admit they do no know how much they will need to curb spending. Of those already retired, 47% report tighter cash flow. In a similar stury, 85% of respondents said they felt only somewhat financially prepared for or not at all prepared for retirement.

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Canadians bullish on stronger economic relations with Asia

(September 14, 2006) A recent survey by the Strategic Counsel, conduced on behalf of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and the Globe and Mail, suggests that a majority of Canadians believe that trade with Asia will be more important to Canada than trade with the U.S. within 20 years.

Nearly two thirds of the survey’s respondents agreed that “Canada would benefit from more Asian investment to Canada, including the energy sector” and at least 75% agreed that the Canadian government should promote greater Canadian investment in Asia.

Nearly half of survey respondents chose China as the country in Asia which Canada should place the greatest emphasis in strengthening economic and political relations, followed by Japan and India, at 26% and 22% respectively.

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