Our goal is to continue to provide clarity, stability and confidence, even at times of short-term uncertainty.

Supporting Social Distancing

• Social distancing is the most important tool we have to combat COVID-19. To support this effort and protect our community, we will be moving to working remotely as much as possible.
• If paperwork is needed we will send electronic versions or use a courier to deliver.

Connecting with Us

• We have full access to our systems to continue to support you with everything you need. If you want to connect with us, please email us with the phone number we can call you.
• We want to stay connected and see you, but for the time being, we will be conducting all meetings via telephone or online web meetings. These online web meetings are simple to use, all you have to do is click on a link we send you via email and you will be able to see us and the presentation.

Your Investments

• As discussed in our previous blog post, although we have one of the most challenging markets in history, we are happy with the portfolio design as it has weathered much of the storm. For more details please refer to our previous update, as a reminder, here is the list of strategies we are employing…
  • World Class Portfolio Specialist
  • Currency Gains
  • High Grade Fixed Income
  • Automatic Rebalancing
  • We have been in constant communication with our portfolio specialists and are confident that they are mitigating risks and taking advantage of opportunities.

Going Forward

• Short term cash needs – We have designed the portfolio to ensure there are areas of the portfolio that have not declined (in most cases they have actually gone up) that you can pull money from if large lump sums are needed. This will allow the medium to long term equity positions to recover and grow.
• Market Volatility – Although we will continue to see uncertainty in the coming weeks and months, much of the short-term economic damage is already priced into the market.
• Economic Stimulus - Central Banks and governments around the world are taking action to support the economy.
• Tax Returns – For individuals, CRA has pushed back the filing date to June 1 as well as allowed people to defer income tax payments to Aug 31 with no interest or penalties.
• Getting paid while you wait - With interest rates decreasing and stock prices declining, your stock dividend yields are increasing and therefore, increasing the attractiveness of your stocks.
• Market Valuation – Lower market values = higher potential medium to long term returns going forward.
• Buffering the storm – Since your portfolio has decreased much less than the overall market, the hole to dig out of is much smaller.
• History – Looking at the graphs below show that after large market declines, we have seen large recoveries every time. It will take confidence and patience to be successful.