Monthly Archives: December 2017

TREB vows to take battle over housing market data to Supreme Court

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By Penelope Graham, Zoocasa

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Real estate consumers will have to wait a little longer to access transparent housing market data: the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) has vowed it will take its fight to keep such information private all the way to the nation’s highest court, in response to losing its latest appeal.

The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected the real estate board’s arguments that the sharing of its database would violate both its copyright and home sellers’ privacy. It contains extensive details on past sold homes, including their asking versus sale prices, the length of time they lingered on the market, as well as the commissions earned by real estate agents.

Currently, agents can only divulge this info directly to their clients; posting it publicly on a website or emailing it to a subscriber base has been prohibited by TREB (and it has aggressively shut down past attempts to do so, including Zoocasa’s past solds emails in 2015).

Challenging Information gatekeepers

However, restricting this data was challenged by the Competition Bureau of Canada, which took TREB to the Competition Tribunal in 2011. After the case was initially dismissed and appealed, the Bureau won in 2016 (a decision immediately appealed by TREB).

The Bureau successfully argued that withholding the data was not only to the detriment of consumers, but hurt the business models of virtual online offices (VOWs for short, referring to online real estate brokerages).

The Appeals Court upheld this ruling last week, saying TREB’s database did not qualify for copyright protection, and throwing out their privacy argument. While based around the Toronto real estate market, the implications could be nationwide, setting an important precedent for how all real estate boards collect and distribute data. Currently, only Nova Scotia releases it in Canada, though it is common practice in the United States.

Better data benefits consumers

Lauren Haw, Zoocasa’s Broker of Record, says better access to sold data will help consumers make educated decisions when buying or selling real estate. For example, having access to comparable solds records can help buyers determine whether a Toronto townhouse, condo or detached home is fairly priced.

“The ability to share and display market data (such as past-sold prices) with consumers is a positive development for the real estate industry,” she says. “We strongly believe in a model where consumers are educated and able to work with experienced agents that act in an advisor capacity: not as gatekeepers of information.”

Continue Reading…

How high investment fees can diminish Investment Returns

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By Chris Ambridge, Transcend

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

The objective for most investors is to earn value-added performance. Unfortunately there are fees and other costs that can diminish investment returns. The reality is that the costs associated with investing in these products can lead to underperformance when measured against industry standard benchmarks.

The above chart shows the average annual fees and their impact on investment performance for Equity Mutual Funds, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), robo-advisors and Transcend’s Pay-for-Performance™ model. This is illustrated by comparing their returns against a benchmark. The benchmark is a universally accepted representation of a particular stock market that is used to measure the performance of a portfolio manager.  For example, a benchmark for Canadian equities is the S&P/TSX and a benchmark for U.S. equities is the S&P 500.

Ultimately, excessive fees reduce clients’ investment performance and hampers their ability to reach their financial goals.

While ETFs and robo-advisors are gaining in popularity, mutual funds are still the prevalent investment product for retail investors despite numerous studies that have confirmed the weak investment returns of equity mutual funds relative to their benchmarks. In Canada, a fairly new approach developed by S&P Dow Jones Indices called the SPIVA Canada Scorecard confirms performance failings. The latest result based upon five years of data ending December 2016 confirms that equity mutual funds have underperformed their benchmark, often because fees have such a negative impact on the overall portfolio results.

Mutual funds can charge management fees as well as administrative costs and custodial fees. They can also charge clients for trading, legal, audit and other operational expenses. In the chart above, these fees plus investment related underperformance add up to the average true cost (-2.37%) of investing during the last five years for equity mutual funds.

Even low-cost ETFs, which are designed to mirror a benchmark, tend to disappoint. The performance lag can be tied to the level of fees of 0.32%, plus trading and rebalancing costs as well as a potential cash balancing drag of up to 0.42%, based on 2015 data from the Management Reports of Fund Performance (MRFP) found on the SEDAR.ca website. This analysis does not include the negative impact of brokerage costs to buy and sell, and potential custodian or registration fees. With that in mind, the chart reveals that ETF investors underperform the market appropriate benchmark by -0.74%.

Robo-advisors to the rescue?

Another relatively new entrant to the low cost investment marketplace is the robo-advisor. Employing several common assumptions such as an average portfolio size of $50,000 and trading costs of 0.2% per year, it can be determined that the average robo-advisor fee in Canada is 0.63%.

This cost shows that it is more efficient than traditional wealth management fees, but still lags behind the Pay-for-Performance™ model. While everyone is talking about robo-advisors, the true question should be about getting value for your money and how much fees can impact actual outcomes. Continue Reading…

How to prepare for market corrections and advances

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“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” —Jim Ryun, Olympic runner

We’re working our way through the fourth quarter 2017. Many stock indices have been hovering near their tops and often keep making new highs. Daily headlines are typically a mixed bag of fears and optimism. They are often interpreted as indications of possible changes in market direction.

Some themes really stand out. For example, NAFTA talks are topics du jour in the US, Mexico and Canada. The United Kingdom is wrestling with Brexit implications. German politics are entertaining altering the seating arrangements.

Many stock indices hover near their tops and keep making new highs.

China faces pressures from increasing debt levels. US tax cut battles keep marching along. Several faces will soon change at the US Federal Reserve. Rising interest rate discussions send chills down the spines of borrowers. These few points alone are forceful enough to create trepidation in investor minds. You will have no difficulty finding headlines for every investment neighbourhood.

As a result, investors develop itchy fingers that want to migrate to the safety of the sidelines, whether it’s beneficial or not. Of course, these investors that have the need for action will make the crucial timing calls on what to buy or sell. Everyone should know by now that timing the markets is a low percentage approach, fraught with many dangers.

My Observation

This brings me to one important observation. Wise investors are in the habit of investigating what it takes to be well prepared for both market corrections and advances. They have at least sketched out a rough game plan for each case on the back of the napkin. Something to get started, aiming for the right path. I encourage you to become conversant with what you would likely do with stocks and bonds during bullish and bearish markets.

Most investors that think in this fashion prefer to have some framework of how to approach the uncertainties that come their way. Just some simple ideas are required to get started. The best news is that today’s planning is being conducted while stock prices are high.

Finding the motivation to be informed is a welcome initial step. Perhaps, discussions with your investment professional will shine more light on what actions are in your best interests. Reconfirming your family risk profile is also time well spent. Hopefully, these efforts lead to more disciplined planning for the precious nest egg. The main mission is to reach and deliver your retirement objectives.

Seasoned investors are well aware that diversification and rebalancing strategies are part and parcel of this logical planning approach. I cannot emphasize that enough as nobody knows where the markets are headed or when a directional turn comes around the curve. Bells do not ring when the time is ripe to make portfolio changes. Neither at the top, nor at the bottom.

My Recommendation

I suggest mulling over these situations in preparation for your exercise: Continue Reading…

John Bogle’s 7 tips for successful investing

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Vanguard founder John C. Bogle

Investing is not a one-way ticket to riches. Both novice and expert investors have periods of good and poor performance. Success or failure is driven largely by the markets, but how we behave also has a huge impact.

In a recent article for Financial Analysts Journal, Vanguard founder Jack Bogle summarized the rules for successful investing he developed over his 65-year career. They’ve been tried and tested through different market conditions, and we’re reproducing them here so everyone can potentially benefit.

1.) Invest you must

The biggest impediment investors face is not market volatility, but not investing in the first place. History shows that investing — as opposed to simply saving — is necessary to generate a reasonable return over the long run.

2.) Time is your friend

Investing is a virtuous habit best started as early as possible. Thanks to the “magic” of compounding (simple math, really), even modest investments made in one’s 20s can grow to surprising amounts over the course of an investment lifetime.

3.) Impulse is your enemy

Eliminate emotion from your investment programme. Have rational expectations for future returns, and avoid changing those expectations in response to the ephemeral noise coming from Wall Street. Understand that what may seem like unique insights are typically shared by millions of others. Continue Reading…