Investments – Prosper Canada Learning Hub

A guide to the best robo-advisors in Canada for 2022

July 18, 2022/0 Comments/in MoneySense Asset building and saving, Consumer protection Financial planning, investing Michael McCullough Research Guide Canada Financial education, Investments /by Shermeen Beg

Robo-advisors first arrived in Canada in the beginning of 2014 presenting young and middle-income investors the option of having their savings passively managed in a bundle of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) matched to their goals and risk tolerance for about a penny on the dollar per year: A perfect set-it-and-forget it solution for people with better things to do.

Fast forward to today and the honeymoon atmosphere has dissipated. Against the backdrop of an extraordinarily long-lived bull market in stocks, active management has made a comeback (not least in the ETF space), exotic asset classes like cryptocurrency are on the rise, and new competition is coming from asset-allocation ETFs that do the job of portfolio management all in one security.

Suddenly robo-advisors find themselves having to prove their worth anew, all the while trying to establish a profitable business model in a low-margin corner of the investment universe. It’s surprising, really, because amid all the competition their fee structures and value proposition are as good as or better than ever.

Investors now must probe deeper in their choice of robo-advisor, asking tough questions around performance, risk and the composition of portfolios. The 2022 survey of the Canadian robo industry shows, they’re not all the same.

Children’s Savings Account: Survey of Private and Public Funding 2019

April 20, 2021/0 Comments/in Asset building and saving Asset building, Children's savings accounts, Education savings Institute for Economic and Racial Equity, Madeline Smith-Gibbs, Rebecca Loya Research Brief United States Children, Investments, Low income, Post-secondary education /by Carrie Wong

Children’s Savings Account (CSA) programs offer a promising strategy to build a college-bound identity and make post-secondary education an achievable goal for more low- and moderate-income children. CSAs provide children (starting in elementary school or younger) with savings accounts and financial incentives for the purpose of education after high school. Beyond their financial value, CSAs are associated with beneficial effects for children and parents, including improved early child development. child health, maternal mental health, educational expectations, and academic performance. Many of these benefits are strongest for children from low-income families.

This report shares a snapshot of the scale and makeup of the funding for the CSA field in 2019. It follows similar AFN reports on CSA funding in 2014-2015 and 2017 and captures the following data on CSA programs’ financial support in calendar year 2019:

Private and public financial investments.
Private and public in-kind contributions.
Intended uses of funds.

CPA Canada 2020 Canadian Finance Study

December 17, 2020/0 Comments/in CPA Canada Financial well-being, Research and evaluation Canada, COVID-19, Financial well-being, Measurement Nielsen Research Survey / Survey results Canada Access to benefits, Budgeting, Children, Debt, Demographics, Education savings, Employment, Home ownership, Investments, Retirement planning, Saving /by Carrie Wong

Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) has released its comprehensive Canadian Finance Study 2020, which examines people's attitudes and feelings towards their personal finances. The results highlight the new financial realities that Canadians are experiencing during these unprecedented times.

Nielsen conducted the CPA Canada 2020 Canadian Finance Study via an online questionnaire, from September 4 to 16, 2020 with 2,008 randomly selected Canadian adults, aged 18 years and over, who are members of their online panel.

Among the key pandemic-related findings:

31 per cent of the participants say their income has decreased as a result of COVID-19.
30 per cent of respondents report COVID-19 has reduced the amount they are saving.
21 per cent of pre-retired respondents reveal they now plan to retire later as a result of COVID-19.
COVID-19 also is impacting the way survey participants are spending, with 55 per cent saying they are spending less, on average.
Nearly half of the respondents (46 per cent) say that their financial situation is about the same as it was a year ago.
77 per cent of those surveyed are not receiving a COVID-19-related benefit from the federal government.