The week in review

(July 29, 2005) Due to technical difficulties with the Advisor.ca Bulletins this week, you may have missed some of the news that affects you and your practice. Here is a quick summary of stories we’re running this week.

Key to trusts: Be selective: The income trust market has produced some of the hottest financial products in the past three years, but it is starting to show signs of over development. Initial public offerings of new trusts are largely languishing, not only in the face of potentially higher interest rates, but also as some question the suitability of the structure for a given business. Please click here for the full story.

Canada, emerging markets pad pension returns: Managers of institutional pooled funds found their best returns in emerging markets stock investments in the second quarter of the year, according to Morningstar Canada. Please click here to find out why.

Advice for the ice: Players in the National Hockey League did not gain much from the 310-day lockout, but it did wake them up to what life is like without hockey–and a steady paycheque. That might not be such a bad thing for the advice industry, as play is set to begin again, and several players will be turning to professionals like advisor Gil Scott for help. To learn more about the challenges of advising pro athletes, please click here.

Returns help, but fashion is key in fund sales: It has become something of an axiom that investors continue to chase performance in the mutual fund world, but recent research indicates there is more driving sales than the latest performance ranking for a given fund. To find out what else is driving fund sales, please click here.

Ethical puts AIDS on the SRI radar: The Ethical Funds Company has conducted a preliminary review of Canadian resource companies operating in countries with high rates of HIV/AIDS infection, in an effort to benchmark current practices and determine the extent to which companies are protecting workers and the ensuring the viability of their businesses. Please click here for the full story.

The latest wisdom on energy:The energy sector is on a tear and taking the entire Canadian market with it. The fundamentals supporting the boom are still relatively solid, but some analysts say we’re reaching cyclical highs, and managers are finding out shares are getting pretty fairly valued. To find out what this means for the future of the sector, please click here.

Panel calls for state-run LTC insurance: In what could be seen as a threat to the long-term care insurance industry, a Quebec task force on health care is calling for implementation of a state-run “loss-of-independence insurance plan” to bridge the gap between current healthcare insurance and the costs incurred by the elderly in a nursing care setting. Please click here for the full story.

For all the data, headlines and other info you may have missed, be sure to visit the Advisor.ca Bulletin Archives.

Filed by Advisor Staff

(07/29/05)

Staff

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