Have long been the highest cost provider but he does not know if that is still the case today.  They have a lot more headwinds than tailwinds.

As an established Canadian company, this has one of the higher dividends, close to 6%. This has been under pressure from the move away from commission based products to EFT’s, etc. The company is now positioned and the stock has been washed out. Being in one of the great bull markets of history, it is going to help all stocks, and this company is going to do just fine.

This has been a tremendous growth story over the years. Has some concerns about conventional mutual fund managers as a whole, including this company. Financial services, specifically mutual funds and asset management is a mature industry that is not growing at 2, 3, 5 or 6X GDP growth rates any more. It is becoming more fee competitive. There are costly and disruptive regulatory forces on the horizon. To the extent that management fees will be phased out over time by regulatory action, it is going to prompt a lot of disruption.

Shares could suffer when the new regulations come into place on July 15. They will force brokers and mutual funds to fully disclose all embedded fees within the clients’ statements. Thinks there will be more passive investing.

Money has been coming out of equity mutual funds. Ironically this one has been doing very well relative to the industry over the last year. A tough business and could become even tougher on July 1 when CMR2 comes out, the new mandate of the OSC, where fees are going to be disclosed. Valuation is cheap, but there are too many headwinds. He would prefer Fiera Capital Corp (FSZ-T) which focuses on the institutional and US markets.

We have an improving stock market and people generally under-own equities. If he wanted exposure to companies that benefit if the market recovers, then he would want to look at investment management companies, and this company fits that bill. This has a lot of exposure to Canada and Canadian investors, so it will benefit. He would prefer something that will benefit more from the US market. You should do fine with this as it will rally with the market, but he would prefer Blackrock (BLK-N), a big manager of ETF’s. ETF’s are growing like wildfire. They will also benefit from management fees they get paid managing these ETF’s. Dividend yield of 6.4%.

All asset management companies have been hurt in the last year, partly because the markets haven’t done very much, and they get their fees on how their assets do. Also, there are new regulations coming into the mutual fund business that is putting pressure on fees, which are way too high. A well-run company. Owns this indirectly through Power Financial (PWF-T). Thinks the asset management companies are getting into a range here where they are decent investments. He would look at this one.