Similar to last year, we took some time off once the girls were done school so that we could get some quality time in with them. It’s been a very busy year so far so we needed to take some time off and just be parents for a week. Last year, we drove the kids out to Kitimat, BC. This year, we headed East and spent some time enjoying the warm weather of the prairies. We met with a couple clients along the way and stayed in hotels with pools which the girls really loved!
Before we left the office, we hit some record highs on the Toronto Stock Market. After a strong start to the year, we went through a very rough patch with volatility we hadn’t seen in a long time. The TSE had 11 days of gains in May and followed that up by reaching levels never seen before in June. We’re still dealing with a lot of fear about trade wars and this is hitting the US Stock Market more negatively. As I write this, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is still trading 2,000 points lower than it was in January of this year. I’d love to tell you that we’ll see some certainty with global trade soon, but I just can’t do that. We have seen some positive news with Bonds as we’ve actually seen the Bond Market rise with the volatility in Stocks. We’ve seen Bond Prices depreciate over the last year due to higher Interest Rates so at least we’ve seen some returns this month. Staying well diversified in this climate is key.
By now, anyone with a Canadian Western Trust Plan should have seen the transition into a Portfolio Strategies Nominee Account. We’ve talked a lot about this move over the last few months and things went into motion on June 25th. The new Nominee Plans offer more flexibility, lower costs and access to F-Series Funds. We’ll have a busy July and August following-up with clients about these new platforms and talking about the benefits. If you have any questions at all, don’t be afraid to give us a shout!
Bryce A. Borden
