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The Japanese economy ranks among the top 5 in the world and hosts some of the most profitable global corporations....

Three main factors continue to drive demand for health-care products and services: the rapid aging of the population in the developed countries; the expansion of medical services in developing countries; and significant new developments in the field of medical technology and innovation.


The aging of the population in developed markets


A combination of declining fertility rates and increasing life expectancy has resulted in a rapidly aging global population.


According to the latest U.N....

The Japanese economy ranks among the top 5 in the world and hosts some of the most profitable global corporations. The economy is, however, hamstrung by a declining and rapidly aging population. Still, an older population also present opportunities, and Japanese companies are already coming up with innovative and technology-driven aids.


Here is one ETF that provides exposure to the top Japanese public companies.


JP MORGAN BETABUILDERS JAPAN ETF $22.40 (New York symbol BBJP; TSINetwork ETF Rating: Aggressive; Market cap: $3.9 billion) tracks the performance of the largest publicly listed Japanese companies.


Industrial companies account for 19.6% of the fund’s assets, while Consumer Cyclical (17.6%), Technology (13.9%), Financial Services (11.6%), Consumer Defensive (8.6%) and Health care (8.2%) are other key segments.


The ETF holds a large portfolio of 383 stocks; the top 10 make up only 18.0% of overall assets....

ETF fees have continued to drop over the past several years as fund providers increase their efforts to attract ETF investors in an increasingly competitive marketplace.


Fund investors looking for an ETF focused on Canadian stocks can now buy units of a fund holding the country’s top 60 companies by market cap for an MER as low as 0.03%.


In the U.S., Fidelity recently cut its fees on selected index funds to zero....

Discover 11 key characteristics of growth stocks worth investing in and learn also what to avoid

Can you make money off of penny stocks? It is possible, but only if you select the highest-quality penny stocks—and follow these rules

A: Stocks that are “Buys” or “Still Buys” are both ones that we recommend as a “Buy.” But we might use the term “Still a Buy” if, perhaps, the stock fell in price, or had some negative news, and we wanted to reaffirm our recommendation in the face of those developments.

Rather than aiming to set up a TFSA as a separate portfolio, we think that the best approach for investors is to treat all their holdings—regardless of what account they are in—as if they were all in a single account....

A: The decision about whether to hold/buy/sell is a personal one, depending on your individual circumstances and what else you hold in your portfolio. However, in general, if you need/want to sell something from your portfolio, you are probably better off selling our “holds” than our buys....

What are fixed-income investments, and do they have a role in a diversified portfolio? Not as much, in our view, as high-quality blue chip stocks like the ones we recommend

Investors can profit from companies that aim to increase shareholder value through stock buybacks — as well as with dividends