Search found 7726 matches

by brucecohen
04 Mar 2024 19:54
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Single premium immediate annuity (SPIA)
Replies: 95
Views: 3901

Re: Single premium immediate annuity (SPIA)

Clueless_Expat wrote: 04 Mar 2024 17:50 Perfectly understandable. Just remember that SPIAs are commodity products, so the quotes should be roughly equal for the two providers that you end up choosing.
Here's a tip I read long ago that Optsy might be able to confirm. For various reasons an insurer might not want to sell any more life annuities for a while. But rather than pull out of the market, it just provides lousy quotes.
by brucecohen
04 Mar 2024 17:27
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Nurse Practitioners / Physician Assistants
Replies: 94
Views: 2675

Re: Nurse Practitioners / Physician Assistants

This model is common today - confirmed by my sister just a couple of days ago. My GP is in a group practice under a compensation model that Ontario introduced years ago, but then closed to new entrants, I think. Each doctor is paid a flat annual fee adjusted for age and medical conditions. Thus there is extra focus on preventive medicine. Each doctor must have a minimum and maximum number of patients. The clinic is required to provide GP availability during the day and evening Mon-Fri and at least a half-day on weekends. Records are digital and there's a computer in each treatment room so a doctor filling in for mine can easily access my history and leave a note for my GP. My GP is in the office four days a week and takes normal vacation(s...
by brucecohen
04 Mar 2024 16:59
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Single premium immediate annuity (SPIA)
Replies: 95
Views: 3901

Re: Single premium immediate annuity (SPIA)

Jase wrote: 04 Mar 2024 16:33 Since I don't really see a downside to having two sources (other than the initial setup) it will help me sleep better at night.
You might get a better quote on one big purchase as opposed to two half ones. Compare the monthly income per $1,000 of purchase.
by brucecohen
02 Mar 2024 00:29
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: CDIC Money protection
Replies: 4
Views: 617

Re: CDIC Money protection

CDIC insures DEPOSITS up to $100,000 per "person" per member institution. That's a legal person, not a human one. RRSP is one person. RRIF is another. etc, etc. The big banks have multiple CDIC memberships. So a term deposit issued by TD Bank is insured separately from a GIC issued by TD Mortgage Corp. CDIC's website lists all of the members.

Mutual funds like Mawer's and ETFs are not insured and don't need it because each fund is a trust that directly holds securities which are held separately from the fund sponsor. So in the unlikely event that Mawer goes bankrupt, the securities held by each Mawer fund would still be there and belong to the fund's unitholders, not Mawer's creditors.
by brucecohen
28 Feb 2024 13:44
Forum: Taxing Situations
Topic: Tax attribution rules
Replies: 21
Views: 866

Re: Tax attribution rules

When I look around and see a MD couple writing down 100% of one of their vehicles and claiming that this is possible because they occasionally do some work from home (though they do not see any patients in their home) so they can include commuting to where they do 98% of their work... I probably could have been far more aggressive in minimizing tax. That is not something worth emulating. There is plenty of material out there to get a very clear idea how CRA views business vehicle use. Indeed. I don't see how this couple is doing it legally. If you buy a vehicle, tax rules limit how much you can depreciate each year. (I forget the rules for leasing). You can write off operating expenses like fuel and maintenance only if you keep a log showi...
by brucecohen
27 Feb 2024 21:54
Forum: Taxing Situations
Topic: Are MERs tax deductible expenses?
Replies: 16
Views: 1001

Re: Are MERs tax deductible expenses?

MERs are not tax-deductible for you. They are deductible by the mutual fund trust which actually pays them so you get an indirect benefit. If you pay an advisor a separate fee for advice on unregistered funds, you can claim a deduction for that.

more info here
by brucecohen
26 Feb 2024 23:39
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Nurse Practitioners / Physician Assistants
Replies: 94
Views: 2675

Re: Bad Customer Service

What's the difference between PAs in the US and NPs in Canada? This compares PAs and NPs in Canada. NPs have more training because they first become RNs. I was surprised by LTR's comment above. I've never encountered a PA in Canada and didn't find many, relatively speaking, when I looked up the stats a couple of years ago. I also recall that most Canadian PAs were then commuting to the US. The Wikipedia writeup on PAs in the US says they can prescribe drugs, but that was not my wife's experience at a Rhode Island walk-in. The PA diagnosed her but had to get the on-duty MD to write the scrip. US friends and relatives tell me their GPs all have PAs who do the initial interview and handle all routine cases. One friend hasn't seen his GP in ye...
by brucecohen
26 Feb 2024 16:34
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Nurse Practitioners / Physician Assistants
Replies: 94
Views: 2675

Re: Bad Customer Service

Was supposed to have my annual check-up this Monday (twice cancelled since November). Checked my client portal to notice that it was "declined" with no exclamation . No longer necessary I exclame! or as explained here: Recent[ahem!] changes to yearly physicals in Ontario Now referred to as personal health visits, annual physical exams are no longer believed to be required for healthy individuals. In November 2012, the Ontario Medical Association and the Ontario government agreed to change the OHIP fee schedule, deeming that physical exams are no longer necessary on a yearly basis. The change came about because of the results of a study by the Cochrane Review (2012) examining the benefits of general health checkups. The study foun...
by brucecohen
23 Feb 2024 19:49
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Bad Customer Service
Replies: 407
Views: 49636

Re: Bad Customer Service

I too hardly ever use coins. A supermarket near me has a machine into which you put coins and get a paper slip for use in buying groceries. I'm sure the amount is discounted from face value but I don't know by how much. The other day I saw a guy with a flour container full of coins using the machine.
by brucecohen
15 Feb 2024 14:57
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Process of buying an annuity
Replies: 10
Views: 1127

Re: Process of buying an annuity

LBP2023, I'm very surprised you had trouble finding a broker who sells annuities. As Optsy wrote, any licensed insurance agent can. Many deposit brokers are insurance-licensed and sell annuities on behalf of a range of issuers. Big deposit brokerage firms often have specialists who deal mostly in annuities. Their national association's website has a lookup where you can see if there are any near you. Note: Life annuity pricing can be weird. An insurer might not want to sell any for a while due to various reasons. But instead of pulling out of the market, they just post lousy pricing. Note: Make sure you understand how Assuris -- the life insurance industry's consumer protection fund -- covers annuities. Note: Does your mother wish to buy th...
by brucecohen
11 Feb 2024 10:14
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: I'm about to receive a sizeable gift. Need advice.
Replies: 25
Views: 1884

Re: I'm about to receive a sizeable gift. Need advice.

How about putting the excess into a taxable account investing in a ETF like VGRO. My concern with putting it all into a RRSP is that you will not benefit from taking the full deduction immediately, due to the fact that you pay a small dollar amount of taxes currently. As Jeremy pointed out above, the OP can put the money into an RRSP now but not claim the deduction until a future year. Investing in VGRO in a taxable account and then using that to fund future RRSP contributions is not a bad idea but means there will be tax due every year on the unsheltered VGRO distributions. One alternative for someone with $30k income is take money left after maxing TFSA and FTHP and invest in dividend-paying Canadian stocks or an ETF like VDY or XDV. I d...
by brucecohen
07 Feb 2024 19:24
Forum: Taxing Situations
Topic: Small estate size solutions
Replies: 23
Views: 774

Re: Small estate size solutions

No institution is obliged to release accounts without probate. Yet many institutions are willing to be quite flexible on the matter, depending on the circumstances, the size of the account usually being one. Why not find out in advance from the institutions your uncle is dealing with?? You're unlikely to get a hard and fast commitment, but you're likely to get a pretty good idea of what's possible. When there were still independent trust companies, in the early '90s IIRC, members of the Trust Companies Association of Canada agreed to waive probate requirements for accounts worth less than a set amount. I believe that amount was $30,000. But I can't find any mention of this now so I assume it fell by the wayside when the big banks bought up...
by brucecohen
30 Jan 2024 20:07
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Computer problems
Replies: 2750
Views: 79493

Re: Computer problems

Canon MF4150 P.S. On this issue, for a lot of Canon printers the drivers from Canon have trouble with Windows 11. Some people have successfully gotten around that by removing all Canon drivers from the system, plugging the printer into the USB to get the generic printer drivers installed, and then never installing the Canon drivers. For an example, here is one solution for a different model, but the logic is the same: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/canon-printer-not-responding-after-windows-11/7facac74-b137-40f9-b77b-4581c52dda56 Today my local computer tech got the printer working and my system now seems back to normal. So....... ....My desktop is now running Win 11 even though Microsoft's PC Health app says it can'...
by brucecohen
29 Jan 2024 22:49
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: CDIC advertising
Replies: 11
Views: 782

Re: CDIC advertising

CDIC began broadcast advertising 23 years ago after polling found deep and widespread knowledge gaps among financial institution staff and customers. While CDIC is a Crown corporation, its operations -- including advertising -- are funded by the premiums member banks pay. Banks are not required to be CDIC members. I used to know of several small highly specialized foreign banks that were not CDIC members because they did not take retail deposits. Some CDIC members used to, and still might, issue "jumbo" GICs that pay a bit more because they are not CDIC-insured. They were/are typically sold through deposit brokers.
by brucecohen
28 Jan 2024 16:10
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Canadians are bananas for not embracing index funds
Replies: 26
Views: 2221

Re: Canadians are bananas for not embracing index funds

Vanguard-US has a retail brokerage system. That might account for some of the difference between US and Canadian ETF use. We don't know whether and how the stats factor in employer-sponsored retirement plans. I know that Vanguard aggressively marketed that in the US, perhaps as part of its retail brokerage. I noticed group plan marketing by Vanguard-Canada only a couple of years ago and think it's all based in their Toronto office. Vanguard and Jack Bogle were high profile low-cost indexing advocates in the US for decades. Aside from a brief effort by CIBC (Ted Cadsby) I don't think Canada has had any real commitment to selling the broad public on index funds. I remember when Altamira launched several low MER index mutual funds, but then fa...
by brucecohen
28 Jan 2024 10:15
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Canadians are bananas for not embracing index funds
Replies: 26
Views: 2221

Re: Canadians are bananas for not embracing index funds

1. The old adage -- "mutual funds are sold, not bought" -- is still true. Most people still know little about investing, understand less and don't try, either because they're intimidated, too busy on other stuff, or don't care. The big banks mine this like crazy. 2. I know people who are emotionally and philosophically committed to a belief in active investing and the brilliance of professional managers. Several are retired senior executives whose careers were built on knowledge and smarts. I've sent them SPIVA reports and doubt any have skimmed, let alone read them. They don't care about consistent long-term performance because they truly believe their advisers can repeatedly jump them from a lagging horse to a winning one. I kno...
by brucecohen
25 Jan 2024 09:06
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Clippings 2024
Replies: 129
Views: 10333

Re: Clippings 2024

ghariton wrote: 24 Jan 2024 22:55 43% of banking systems in the U.S. are built on COBOL. Who will maintain them as programmers retire?

George
My ex-wife was a superb COBOL programmer at one of the big banks. When she retired they said she was welcome back as a contractor at any time on any terms.
by brucecohen
23 Jan 2024 15:16
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: Delay unlocking LIRA to age 71?
Replies: 38
Views: 2685

Re: Delay unlocking LIRA to age 71?

Yes. I've never understood why Ontario only has 50% unlocking and that Manitoba has 100% unlocking. Does it mean Ontario citizens are less financially astute than our Manitoba brethren? Why do governments continue down this paternalistic approach to adults. Unless there is some mental impairment, LIRA-LIF conversion should just be put in the RRSP/RIF format. Less bureaucracy and paper work is better. The L-plan unlock was very controversial when first proposed about 30 years ago. Provincial pension regulation was then still heavily influenced by the defined benefit plan concept which is heavily paternalistic. IIRC, Saskatchewan led the way in loosening/eliminating controls over locked-in plans, perhaps because there were few DB plans under...
by brucecohen
23 Jan 2024 14:45
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Computer password security
Replies: 132
Views: 6793

Re: Computer password security

JessiWan wrote: 23 Jan 2024 12:36
brucecohen wrote: 04 Apr 2006 20:58
If you've used letters, numbers and characters to create what you think is a unique PW, try googling it. In the worst case, you'll find that somebody has grabbed your PW and posted it on a public site.
This sounds a serious security breach. Also I don't know why they only post it on a site. If they have your passwords, why don't they go into, say, your bank accounts, and start doing bad stuff?
I wrote that 18 years ago -- before advent of "Have I Been Pwned" and other tools.
by brucecohen
22 Jan 2024 16:58
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: RIP 2024
Replies: 34
Views: 2822

Re: RIP 2024

Jewison leaves a living legacy: The Canadian Film Centre in Toronto.
The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) is a charitable organization founded in 1988 by filmmaker Norman Jewison in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally launched as a film school, today it provides training, development and advancement opportunities for professionals in the Canadian film, television and digital media industries, including directors, producers, screenwriters, actors and musicians.[1]
<snip>

As of 2018, its 30th year of operation, CFC had more than 100 residents and participants in 16 programs annually. CFC has more than 1,700 alumni and 100 alumni partner companies to date.[citation needed]
by brucecohen
22 Jan 2024 16:44
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: TFSA 2024
Replies: 68
Views: 5327

Re: TFSA 2024

A silly question for the OCDish like me: What, if anything, do you do with DRIPlets from ETFs like VEQT and VBAL?

$19.65 was left after I invested my 2024 contribution. In past years I let amounts like that ride though it bothered me to open my web page and see a cash balance not $0.00. This year I just withdrew the $19.65, moved it to my chequing account and made a calendar note to add $19.65 to my 2025 contribution limit.

Any better ideas? Aside from just taking a nap.....or a drink :D
by brucecohen
21 Jan 2024 09:54
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Computer problems
Replies: 2750
Views: 79493

Re: Computer problems

RE: My Lenovo desktop not booting There's a computer tech with a good reputation near me. I think I'll take the unit to him next week. Thanks for all the help. The desktop is now back in service. Got it from the tech yesterday. Hardware was OK as we had determined. The problem was in the OS. I had averaged one or two BSOD crashes per month over the past year or so. That didn't concern me as Windows kept repairing itself and the internet indicated that Win 10 BSOD crashes are fairly common. But the tech said each crash left a bit of damage that accumulated to the point where the system shut down. So he replaced the OS...... ...Here's the curious point. When I ran PC Health Check some time ago it said this computer can't run Win 11. But the t...
by brucecohen
21 Jan 2024 08:45
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Home internet providers - 2024
Replies: 20
Views: 1815

Re: Home internet providers - 2024

Koogie wrote: 05 Jan 2024 17:49 ^^If you are rural, I have been perfectly happy with the Bell over the air internet service as compared to thrice cursed Xplornet
I've been with Rogers over the air (Rockethub) for years. Kept getting signal dropouts a few years ago, but Rogers has since fixed that. They recently converted my hookup to 5G and doubled my bandwidth limit at no extra cost.

Last year Bell ran conduit along my road, but has not yet said anything about running cable and offering fibre service.
by brucecohen
21 Jan 2024 08:37
Forum: Taxing Situations
Topic: U.S. worker remotely working for Canadian company
Replies: 2
Views: 373

Re: U.S. worker remotely working for Canadian company

This question would be more likely to get an informed response at the Serbinski forum where the OP should indicate whether friend is an employee or a contractor. I think the simplest tax situation would be if the friend is a contractor, but then there's the issue of what state he/she lives in since some states have been defining many contractors as employees.
by brucecohen
20 Jan 2024 11:00
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Travel Insurance - Missed Flight
Replies: 26
Views: 1827

Re: Travel Insurance - Missed Flight

1. Send a letter to Alaska Air's CEO though ISTM their liability is zero or limited since the real cause of the problem was the highway crash. I don't know how customer responsive they normally are, but suspect they're now bending over backward to restore their reputation. So you might get something, maybe credit for a future flight, since a timely rebooking was impossible, but you won't get your full loss restored.

2. Check your travel insurance policy. Does it really cover a flight missed due to traffic tie-up?

I wonder if you could sue the driver deemed responsible for the crash. There'd be a police report with his/her name, address etc. Looks like the limit for BC small claims court is $35,000.