Our Views

For most of Canada, this past winter has been colder and snowier than average. Fortunately, with longer daylight hours, spring is finally approaching and our thoughts turn to warmer weather and, for gardening enthusiasts, digging into our outdoor spaces. It’s funny how some of the best ... Keep Reading "Why gardeners make better investors" >

Today is International Women’s Day and the campaign theme for 2019 is #BalanceforBetter, a slogan that calls for a more gender-balanced world, including greater gender balance in income and wealth. Although the gender gap in personal income has narrowed in Canada over the past several decades – ... Keep Reading "Celebrating financial empowerment on International Women’s Day" >

Over the past six months, we’ve seen textbook cases of both. Remember the fourth quarter of 2018: after a prolonged period of relative calm, global stock markets turned sharply negative, with the S&P/TSX Composite Index falling 10.89% and the S&P 500 Index down 13.97%. Equity market ... Keep Reading "Did you pass the volatility test?" >

Over the holidays, a Globe and Mail article written by Rob Carrick entitled, investing lessons for 2019 and beyond from the country’s biggest pension plan, caught our eye. We thought to share some of the highlights – sound principles for investment success regardless of the portfolio ... Keep Reading "Investment lessons from the Canada Pension Plan" >

So you’re hiring a new money manager. You have a host of questions to ask. (See our earlier blog post for a list of questions.) You’ll no doubt want to enquire about the manager’s investment performance and fees. But will you know how to interpret the answers? How do you assess what the numbers ... Keep Reading "Investment performance: what the numbers don’t say" >

Retail investors should understand the risks and opportunities of investing in alternatives. Once upon a time, alternative investments (e.g. private real estate, private debt, private equity, infrastructure, etc.) were the exclusive domain of pension funds, billionaires and sophisticated ... Keep Reading "Are your alternative investments truly alternative?" >

In case you missed it…here’s a sum-up of Newport’s investment strategy at mid-year and beyond. Narrated by Chief Investment Officer, Mark Kinney, this presentation provides an overview of what the Newport Investment Committee is doing in various asset classes and why, and how our team’s active ... Keep Reading "Q2 Investment Strategy Update" >

Sometimes clients ask us, “Am I considered wealthy?” While “wealth” is a highly subjective and relative term, involving many more factors than financial assets, a high-net-worth investor is defined as someone who has more than $1 million of financial assets (i.e. excluding real estate, private ... Keep Reading "How many high-net-worth investors in Canada?" >

“Most people have no idea of the risk they are taking in their bond portfolio.” That was the view of Richard Usher-Jones of Canso Investment Counsel, independent specialist manager for Newport’s bond portfolios, when he met with our Investment Committee this week. There are a couple reasons why ... Keep Reading "Why your bond portfolio could be riskier than your stocks" >

By now, most investors have received their year-end account statements from their financial advisors/money managers. And by now, many investors may still be wondering about their investment return. Was it a good return? Average? Poor? The question we would ask is, “Compared to what?” Compared ... Keep Reading "What was a good investment return in 2017?" >