On The Shelf:

(February 8, 2008) Women are more concerned than men about long-term-care needs but don’t seem to fully realize the costs associated with caring for their spouse, according to a Manulife survey.

The survey reports that 62% of women worry that their partner will end up in a nursing home or require other care in the future, while only 49% of men have the same concern.

Despite the statistics showing that women live longer than men — and that in one-third of Canadian couples the man is four years older than his spouse — only 21% of women have accounted for long-term-care costs in their retirement plans.

“As a result, many women will need to use some or all of their retirement savings to support their partner’s long-term-care needs,” says Manulife. “By proactively planning for their own long-term-care needs, women can avoid falling short when they’re alone and they need care themselves.”

Claymore fund becomes an ETF

(February 8, 2008) Claymore Investments announced Friday that its Equal Weight Banc & Lifeco Trust fund will now be traded as an ETF.

The fund met the requirements of its ETF conversion feature, says Claymore, which means advisor-class units can now trade on the TSX under the ticker symbol CEW.A. Common units of the fund have also been listed on the TSX, under the ticker CEW.

Originally, the fund was a closed-end fund, but the prospectus says the fund would automatically convert to an ETF if the daily weighted average trading price of the advisor-class units was greater than a discount of 2% of NAV per unit for a period of 10 consecutive trading days after November 15.

The move to ETF should provide investors with more efficient trading opportunities since the price of the fund’s units on the TSX will be closer to its intrinsic asset value.

(02/08/08)

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.