“Portfolio Design” by Richard Marston In a nutshell While Richard Marston’s “Portfolio Design” according to its dust jacket flap is written for “financial advisors who want to provide diversified portfolios for their clients”, I suspect much of the book is quite accessible to the diligent non-expert reader. It is an excellent book that I highly […]
OAS vs. Pension Reform Much ink has been spilled in the past couple of weeks on unspecified planned changes to the Canada’s Old Age Security system. Experts, fear mongers, protesters, advocates and politicians have come out arguing for changes ranging from ‘no change at all’ the way to ‘doing away with the OAS system completely’, […]
(Originally posted July 24, 2007) The uncertainty of one’s age at death, results in the biggest fears of retired persons, i.e. that they’ll run out of assets before they die. The risk of living too long constrains spending during “active” retirement years. Actually living too long reduces or eliminates the estate. A Longevity Insurance product, […]
(Initially posted March 17, 2010 and re-hosted in February 2012) In a nutshell -There are at least three options that you can choose from: (1) a comprehensive policy for about $4,000 (age<65 when provincial drug coverage kicks in typically) that covers some of the dental, drugs, hospitalization (semi-private differential) and extended health nursing, vision, hearing, […]
Insurance: Insure or self-insure? Public or mutual? In a nutshell Are you getting good value for your insurance dollar? Some are wondering why things seem to have deteriorated over the past decade. Why are load-factors (the percent of premium not paid out in claims, typically 10-55%) so high? Insurance: how it used to be historically […]
Advocacy There are always shortcomings in the current state of affairs due to historical reasons (it made sense to be this way 30 years ago, but things have changed), vested business interests and/or political inclinations. It is important to identify what needs changing and what are possible solutions. It is up to us to expose […]
Portfolio Management Investment Strategy Given a Strategic Asset Allocation (the proportions/weights of the various asset classes), then you must find the appropriate vehicle to implement each asset class in the portfolio. For each asset class one can choose a passive (composition same as the index of the asset class) or an active approach (whereby composition […]
Asset Allocation It is well known that risk and return are closely related. Higher returns are generally accompanied by higher risk (or variability of returns, usually measured by standard deviation of returns). For example, CDs or GICs (up to federally insured amounts) issued by banks have lower but fixed returns than expected returns of […]
Retired How much can I withdraw per year Will I run out of money Do I want to and/or will I be leaving an estate Have I got the right asset mix to achieve the desired objectives (withdrawal rate, estate) Withdrawal Strategies in Retirement Clearly, unless you are in the fortunate position of having been […]
(Originally posted February 7, 2007) Overview As we are approaching retirement there are many things to consider. The primary focus of this website is financial rather than lifestyle oriented. However, the choice of lifestyle will dramatically affect income requirements. 1. First the ‘what’: -what do you plan do in retirement? Part-time work, volunteer, study, travel? […]
RetirementAction.com 