Welcome back to Efficient Markets! On today's episode, I review the Top 10 takeaways book "Trillions" by Robin Wigglesworth. This is the first book I have come across that provides an in depth look at the history of the people and companies that started the index fund revolution.  I hope you enjoy this brief review! Detailed notes are available on my blog at www.walhoutfinancial.ca/podcast Have a great day! Mark

Asking a close loved one or a friend to be your executor may seem like a nice thing to do.  Even an honor, that you would trust that person to handle your affairs once you've passed away.  Many people agree to be the executor for a family member or friend without thinking twice about it.  But, the job of being an executor is a challenging one.  On today's episode we talk about the job of the executor, the time it takes to do the job, and the risks that the executor takes on. Then, we introduce the role of the corporate executor, costs, and reasons why you might consider hiring a corporate executor despite the additional costs. Links and notes can be found on my blog at www.walhoutfinancial.ca/podcast Thanks for listening! Mark

On today's episode, we talk about digital estate planning. More and more of our lives are online.  Increasingly, our assets are in digital form.  Think of your social media accounts, subscriptions, rewards points, and cloud storage services. Traditional estate plans cover things like bank and investment accounts, physical assets, and real estate.  But, your digital assets need to be taken care of in your estate as well. On today's episode I talk about what assets need to be considered in your digital estate plan.  I talk about what some platforms are doing to help people do some estate planning themselves within the platform.  I explain how to get your estate attorney to help you write language into your estate documents to deal with digital assets.  And I talk about some solutions that can help you with efficiency in your planning. Links and show notes will be on my blog shortly. Thanks for listening, Mark

Welcome back to Efficient Markets! Today, we talk about a question that I have gotten from a number of clients over the past few weeks.  When do I no longer need life insurance? We talk about the role of life insurance, the different types of life insurance, what insurance is meant to do, how much it costs, and how to think about whether or not you need it anymore. Links and show notes will be available on my blog at www.walhoutfinancial.ca/podcast Thanks for listening! Mark

Welcome back to Efficient Markets! On today's episode we look at stock returns in Canada by Prime Minister going back to 1957.   From there, we talk about intra-year declines and what they mean for full year stock returns. We finish with a discussion about the behaviour gap - which is the difference between stock market returns and the actual returns realized by the investors in the market. Charts and links can be found at www.walhoutfinancial.ca/podcast Thanks for listening! Mark

Welcome back to Efficient Markets. On today's episode, we talk about home country bias. According to Statista.com - Canadian stocks make up 2.4% of the total global equity market capitalization.  According to Vanguard, Canadians, on average, allocate about 56% of their equity portfolios to Canadian stocks. This is what is called a home country bias. We talk about the issues with allocating so much of your portfolio to Canadian stocks and some of the reasons that you may want to diversify away from Canada in your portfolios. Detailed show notes and links can be found on my blog this week at www.walhoutfinancial.ca.  Thank you for listening. Mark

On today's show, we talk about tapping into home equity to fund retirement spending. I talk about some of the benefits and the potential drawbacks and pitfalls of tapping home equity to fund retirement.  I finish off with some recommendations for retirees considering using home equity to fund retirement Notes, links, and charts used in this episode can be found on my blog at www.walhoutfinancial.ca/podcast this week. Thanks for listening, Mark

Welcome back to Efficient Markets Nick Murray's writing has had a big impact on me and how I advise clients.  Today I go through the 6 keys to the upper reaches of investing that Nick lays out in his book "Behavioural Investment Counselling".   I believe that if an investor can get these 6 steps right, their long term returns will beat the majority of their friends, neighbors, and family members...and probably most professional investment managers as well. Links and notes will be posted on my website this week.  Thanks for listening! Mark

Thank you for tuning in. On today's episode I talk about the resent resurgence of the value factor.  Being a value investor has been difficult over the past 10 years, especially in the US.  But, the dramatic rebound in the value factor has given investors a nice "shot in the arm" and a reminder that factors can show up quickly and forcefully. I also talk about Larry Swedroe's research on the reason that we own factors.  We own unique risk factors for diversification purposes.  Any factor, including market beta, can go through long periods of underperformance. Detailed charts, links, and notes can be found on my blog at www.walhoutfinancial.ca/podacst Thanks for listening. Mark

Welcome back to Efficient Markets. Today we talk about high flying growth stocks being added to the S&P 500.  We compare them to the stocks that are removed from the index to make room for them. Which stocks do you think outperform going forward?  The answer might surprise you. Blog post and show notes can be found on my blog this week at www.walhoutfinancial.ca/podcast Thanks for listening! Mark