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Our Mission

This web site is dedicated to mutual fund investor education and protection. The $600 billion mutual fund industry plays a key role in the savings and retirement plans of millions of Canadians. Many industry practices provide beartraps for the unsuspecting investor and securities regulations have not kept up with the pace of change in the industry. Financial literacy education in Canada has also dramatically lagged the increasing sophistication of financial products especially mutual funds. Increasing numbers of investors have expressed bitter disappointment with the returns obtained and the way they are communicated with. Smarter mutual fund investing and better financial performance is our goal. We welcome any comments.

Mutual Funds are Sold not Bought

Ken Kivenko P.Eng.
Investor Advocate
kenkiv@sympatico.ca

Investor Protection: Undisclosed Risks and Hazards in Mutual Fund Investing
Investor Education While mutual funds help reduce issuer –specific risk through diversification, they introduce a plethora of new threats to satisfactory returns that are inherent in their legal / tax structure, fees/commissions and industry sales practices. These threats are not articulated in the fund prospectus. Subtle hazards specific to the fund include “soft “ dollars (brokerage business given to brokers in exchange for research but sometimes for other goodies-there’s a reason the word soft is used), and the hazards of style drift (consciously deviating from the fund’s stated investment policies, risk profile and objectives to boost returns).

Posted by root on Saturday, June 06 @ 00:00:00 EDT (76 reads)
(Read More... | 17097 bytes more | Investor Protection | Score: 0)

Investor Protection: Investors' Guide to Effective Complaints
Investor Education  
Over 10 million Canadians make investments in stocks, bonds, GIC’s and mutual funds. It’s a BIG business and highly profitable for the banks, fund companies, dealers and brokers. Mutual funds alone collect over $10 billion in fees each year. -the sales are commission based and include embedded sales commissions. When financially unsophisticated investors meet commission or quota- driven advisers, a toxic mixture can be created. So, it's not unnatural that problems will develop due to incompetence, greed, misrepresentation, or even administrative errors. This is where an effective investor complaint process can help you recover undue financial losses. A “Complaint” is defined to include any written or verbal statement of grievance from a client or any person acting on their behalf, former client or prospective client, alleging a grievance involving a firm or representative of a firm.


Posted by root on Thursday, April 30 @ 00:00:00 EDT (0 reads)
(Read More... | 972 bytes more | Investor Protection | Score: 0)

Investor Protection: SPECIAL REPORT-INVESTOR PROTECTION IN CANADA 2008
Investor Education
While the Chairmen of provincial securities regulators publicize their wonderful contributions to regulation, investors suffered badly. Billions of dollars were lost to unsuitable investments, excessive fees and leveraging, misleading marketing, fraudulent funds and crooked advisers and brokers. Here’s a small sampling of the rattraps retail investors had to endure in 2008.


Posted by root on Friday, December 12 @ 23:00:00 EST (635 reads)
(Read More... | 28328 bytes more | Investor Protection | Score: 4.5)

Investor Protection: What the ABCP Fiasco Teaches Us
Investor Education  “This latest financial crisis [ ABCP] should serve as a wake up call for Government to finally take action on reforming the regulatory system and providing investor protection that isn't dependent upon self regulation and the charity of an industry that has a history of creating structured investment vehicles that can't be understood by ordinary investors, and exemption orders to allow regulations to be ignored” –Stan Buell, President, Small Investor Protection Association, www.sipa.ca

Posted by root on Saturday, April 26 @ 00:00:00 EDT (1145 reads)
(Read More... | 10061 bytes more | Investor Protection | Score: 4.33)

Investor Protection: OBSI Survival Guide
Investor Education
This Guide has one purpose: To assist your efforts at obtaining a restitution recommendation from OBSI.




Posted by root on Monday, October 15 @ 00:00:00 EDT (0 reads)
(Read More... | 193 bytes more | Investor Protection | Score: 0)

Technical Reference: Investment Funds in Canada and Consumer Protection
Investor Education
INVESTMENT FUNDS IN CANADA AND CONSUMER PROTECTION

STRATEGIES FOR THE MILLENNIUM


Posted by root on Saturday, September 08 @ 00:00:00 EDT (0 reads)
(Read More... | 193 bytes more | Technical Reference | Score: 0)

Investor Protection: The violence of white-collar crime
Investor Education  
“.. Mr. Diekmeyer, 73, says he lost $800,000 - his life's savings - when Bre-X collapsed. He also saw his personal friend and stock broker kill himself in 1997, riddled with guilt about his clients' losses."I survived with great difficulty and a friend of mine committed suicide over it," says Mr. Diekmeyer, who lives in a modest apartment in Beaconsfield, west of Montreal. "I only know this story. I'm fairly certain there are others that are equally disastrous…"


Posted by root on Wednesday, August 29 @ 00:00:00 EDT (2531 reads)
(Read More... | 18106 bytes more | Investor Protection | Score: 4.8)

Technical Reference: Linking Risk and Return - The Sharpe Ratio
Fund Costs One of the big issues among mutual fund investors is that they tend to only look at returns, particularly short-term returns, when approached by their adviser. Risk considerations are way in the background until the losses pour in some time later. During the tech boom some investors held 80-90 % of their portfolio in “exciting” telecom, Internet and advanced science and technology funds. In 2001-2002 they plummeted and have not recovered to this day. A number of funds were shut down or merged out of existence. BUT the losses didn’t disappear for the hapless investors who were persuaded to buy them.

Posted by root on Wednesday, April 04 @ 00:00:00 EDT (3262 reads)
(Read More... | 16182 bytes more | Technical Reference | Score: 4.57)

Technical Reference: Closed End Funds
Investor Education Fed up with dealing with the salesperson who can only sell you mutual funds? Want to get away from high MER’s? Concerned about the mutual fund trading abuse scandals? Want more flexibility on when you can buy or sell units? Do you like the idea of limit orders and stop loss orders? Feel comfortable with making investments on your own? Looking for a different asset class? Exchange traded closed- end funds (CEF’s) may have a role to play in your portfolio.

Posted by root on Sunday, November 06 @ 23:00:00 EST (4621 reads)
(Read More... | 31640 bytes more | Technical Reference | Score: 4)

Technical Reference: "Dividend" funds and your portfolio
Actively Managed Funds The basic idea of a dividend fund is to invest in blue-chip companies’ common or preferred shares that pay a steady flow of increasing tax -advantaged dividends. Holdings typically include the common stock of banks, pipelines, power utilities and insurance companies. According to the 2001 TSE yearend report only 57 Canadian stocks paid dividends non-stop for the past 25 years versus 100 companies 25 years ago.

Posted by root on Tuesday, April 26 @ 00:00:00 EDT (0 reads)
(Read More... | 443 bytes more | Technical Reference | Score: 0)

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