manulife financial

SUN LIFE FINANCIAL $35.32 (Toronto symbol SLF; Shares outstanding: 606.0 million; Market cap: $21.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.1%; www.sunlife.ca) sells savings, retirement, pension and life insurance products to individuals and corporations.

The company mainly operates in Canada, the U.S....

MANULIFE FINANCIAL $18.66 (Toronto symbol MFC; Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $33.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.8%; www.manulife.ca) sells life and other forms of insurance, as well as mutual funds and investment-management services. It operates globally and has $567 billion of assets under management.

Excluding one-time items, Manulife’s earnings per share rose 3.3% in the three months ended June 30, 2013, to $0.31 from $0.30. That fell short of the consensus estimate of $0.34. Revenue rose slightly, to $6.50 billion from $6.42 billion.

Insurance sales were down 3%, mostly due to lower sales in Asia, where sales were unusually high a year earlier ahead of tax changes. That offset stronger demand for mutual funds and investment products.
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The U.S. is the sole country worldwide that requires its citizens to file an income tax return and report any income regardless of where they live or whether they hold dual citizenship in another country. That’s unlike Canada, which mainly bases its tax system on country of residence, like most other nations. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimates that five to seven million American citizens reside abroad. Of that total, about one million live in Canada. Most U.S. citizens paying income taxes in Canada pay no additional U.S. income tax. However, they still have U.S. tax filing and compliance requirements....

ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX FUND $17.88 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is a good low-fee way to buy the top stocks on the TSX. The units are made up of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index, which consists of the 60 largest, most heavily traded stocks on the exchange. Expenses are just 0.17% of assets.

The index mostly consists of high-quality companies. However, it must ensure that all sectors are represented, so it holds a few we wouldn’t include.

The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 8.2%; TD Bank, 7.1%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 6.2%; Suncor Energy, 4.5%; CN Railway, 3.9%; Bank of Montreal, 3.7%; Enbridge, 3.4%; Canadian Natural Resources, 3.2%; TransCanada Corporation, 3.0%; Manulife Financial, 3.0%; BCE, 2.9%; CIBC, 2.8%; Valeant Pharmaceuticals, 2.8%; Potash Corp., 2.3%; Cenovus Energy, 2.0%; and Goldcorp, 2.0%.
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Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are set up to mirror the performance of a stock-market index or subindex. They hold a more-or-less fixed selection of securities that represent the holdings that go into the calculation of the index or sub-index.

ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks....

ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX FUND $17.66 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is a good low-fee way to buy the top stocks on the TSX. The units are made up of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index, which consists of the 60 largest, most heavily traded stocks on the exchange. Expenses are just 0.17% of assets.

The index mostly consists of high-quality companies. However, it must ensure that all sectors are represented, so it holds a few we wouldn’t include.

The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 7.8%; TD Bank, 6.7%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 6.0%; Suncor Energy, 4.6%; Bank of Montreal, 3.6%; CN Railway, 3.6%; Potash Corp., 3.3%; Enbridge, 3.1%; Trans- Canada Corp., 3.0%; BCE, 3.0%; CIBC, 2.9%; Canadian Natural Resources, 2.9%; Barrick Gold, 2.9%; Goldcorp, 2.6%; Manulife Financial, 2.3%; Cenovus Energy, 2.2%; and Telus, 1.9%.
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Most U.S. markets have risen lately, while Canada’s resource-heavy Toronto Stock Exchange has lagged. But as always, both remain subject to unexpected downturns. One way to profit from rising markets is to add exchange traded funds (ETFs) that track major stock indexes to your portfolio. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. Prices are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You must pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell ETFs, but their low management fees still give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds....

Most U.S. markets have risen lately, while Canada’s resource-heavy Toronto Stock Exchange has lagged. But as always, both remain subject to unexpected downturns. Even so, the long-term outlook is for higher stock prices.

One way to profit from rising markets is to add exchange traded funds (ETFs) that track major stock indexes to your portfolio.

ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks....

ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX FUND $18.50 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is a good low-fee way to buy the top stocks on the TSX. The units are made up of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index, which consists of the 60 largest, most heavily traded stocks on the exchange. Expenses are just 0.17% of assets.

The index mostly consists of high-quality companies. However, as the fund must ensure that all sectors are represented, it holds a few stocks we wouldn’t include.

The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 7.8%; TD Bank, 6.7%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 6.0%; Suncor Energy, 4.6%; Bank of Montreal, 3.6%; CN Railway, 3.6%; Potash Corp., 3.3%; Enbridge, 3.1%; Trans- Canada Corp., 3.0%; BCE Inc., 3.0%; CIBC, 2.9%; Canadian Natural Resources, 2.9%; Barrick Gold, 2.9%; Goldcorp, 2.6%; Manulife Financial, 2.3%; Cenovus Energy, 2.2%; and Telus Corp., 1.9%.

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Most stock markets have risen lately. But as always, they remain subject to unexpected downturns. Even so, we feel the long-term outlook is for higher stock prices. One way to profit from rising markets is to add exchange traded funds (ETFs) that track major stock indexes to your portfolio. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. Prices are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You must pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell ETFs, but their low management fees still give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds....