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The average maturity of a corporate bond index would probably be 6-7 years. Doesn’t like the iShares product line, and prefers the laddered ETF’s to the street corporate bond ones. Nevertheless, corporate bond yields have widened out so far from government bonds, that he thinks there is going to be a very good compounding effect by owning corporate bonds from this point on, especially in the low inflation environment.

A good investment vehicle for an 89-year-old other than GICs? The only thing he would recommend would be Government of Canada treasury bills. They are the safest investment in Canada. Yield almost nothing, but you get your money back every 30 days if you buy a 30-day treasury bill. This is the ultimate in safety, liquidity and safety of principal.

Doesn’t like this very much. The convertible market in Canada is very low quality. It consists of nothing, but unrated, junior, subordinated debentures, issued by people who couldn’t borrow money any other way. There are very few decent industrial names in this, and a lot of them are energy names.

Is the 7.35% 2026 bond safe? This is not safe. There are so many bonds that this company has issued that will mature before this one does. A lot of things that are going to happen to this company. It has been propped up by governments for a long time. It is pretty safe to say that bondholders will take a haircut of some kind, before this thing is resolved.

Money Market Funds? Like all mutual funds, these never mature. They are typically invested in commercial paper, not entirely risk free. He would rather see individuals buy treasury bills, GICs and bonds. You never get your money back.

Bank Rate Reset Preferreds resetting in 3 to 5 years? He has bad news for anybody having only preferreds with the reset happening this year. Already they had resent spreads that were narrower than ones that were issued later on. Was the last drop in 5-year bond yields, that pretty well sells the fate for any of the 2016 resets. It changes in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The resets start to get wider. Hopes that interest rates will be higher a couple years from now, but there is no guarantee they will. Buying the new ones that have come out with a 5.5% annual dividend plus the massive reset spread, pretty well guarantees that you get a chance to have your money back in 5 years.

This is only a fund of funds. All it does is invest in other ETF’s. He doesn’t see any upside in these.

A safe way to play the fixed income side of a portfolio. This company roams the world looking for opportunities in the fixed income market. It has produced very good long-term returns, and he would recommend it.

6.4% bond maturing Nov 18/19 at $96. The yield to maturity is 7.63%, which is still an investment grade bond. It was rated as a BBB minus, but Moody’s downgraded it to one notch below investment grade late last year, and their bonds have fallen by about 15 points. They have 2 bonds maturing between now and 2019. Their forecasts are for about $1 billion in EBITDA in the next 2 years.

2.8% bond maturing Sept 22/25 at $102. He is all for quality these days and this is a solid single A credit that has zero problems on the credit side. There are very few of these kinds of bonds in Canada.