Zeeshan Janmohamed

05/01/2023

I recently had the pleasure of working with a dear client of mine who needed a comprehensive trust and estate plan to protect her hard-earned assets.

She had concerns about potential creditors, lawsuits, and other threats to her wealth, so we carefully analyzed her situation and came up with a customized plan that incorporated various strategies to mitigate risks and preserve her assets.

is something we are very proud of, and one of the keys to our success was the collaboration and coordination of our team with specialists ranging from estate planning, and tax planning, to investment management and insurance specialists - everyone worked together to ensure our client's plan was comprehensive and effective.

I'm proud to say my client is now much more confident about her financial future, thanks to the trust and estate plan we set up for her. If you or someone you know is in a similar situation and needs help, help them get the right help.

03/31/2023

It's just amazing how much of an influence headlines like these would make to the average retail investor at times.

You need to cut out the noise, short term predictions, the social media wars between the bulls and the bears.

Headlines like this, where Morgan Stanley called for a heavy drop in Q1 of 2024 only to see the markets standing almost a 1000 points from their prediction, really make you think. Will MS come out and acknowledge a wrong prediction? Of course not.

We keep getting taught, but we need to learn. Sometimes headlines are just headlines, that's all.

03/15/2023

This is not a repeat of 2008.

Driven by an idiosyncratic failure to manage interest rate risk, SVB fell trap to mismatching the duration of its assets (long-term treasury bonds) with its liabilities (sizeable deposits from a concentrated client base). 2008 was a widespread failure to manage credit risk resulting from aggressive and partly fraudulent mortgage lending practices.

How does that work? Well, if you tied up funds for the long term with the inability to have access to them, especially during a rising interest rate environment (where they lose value - unrealized), and you have sizeable deposits from clients focused in struggling sectors (Tech/VC/PE landscape in California) with immediate funding requirements, you have put yourself in a tight position if you didn't manage liquidity needs right.

There is nothing toxic about the assets at play here, sheer mismanagement by a regional bank not held to the same level of standards and requirements as do the bigger banks.

03/10/2023

Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB) was down ~60% yesterday on the back of a US$1.8bn loss following the sale of $21bn of its available for sale securities portfolio and a US$2.25bn equity raise.

Given the impact this has on the banking sector in general, do we need to be concerned about the Canadian banks? The short answer is no.

Why? Well, SVB has a solid deposit base, but did not have any wholesale funding. What this means is that the bank was not subject to regulatory liquidity coverage ratios and the net stable funding (NSF) ratio. This meant that SVB could do whatever it wanted with its deposits they couldn't lend out, choosing to buy fixed securities that were farther out the curve. Note that these Fixed Income securities are also booked at amortized cost on their balance sheet, under HTM (Held to Maturity) meaning volatility in the bond market pricing does not get reflected on their balance sheet.

To make it clear, the Cdn banks have to abide by these liquidity/funding requirements and therefore cannot actually put themselves into a situation like SVB did.

It is important to hold the highest quality banks though. CM seemed to have taken the market effect more heavily compared to peers - CM has become the #2 lender to U.S.-based Series A-C tech and life science companies - but we can't say with confidence the underperformance was anything more than simply sell the lower quality banks and keep the higher quality banks.

02/24/2023

Join us to explore all you need to know about income planning.

Seats are limited! RSVP at your earliest. Lunch will be served.

www.eventbrite.ca

02/13/2023

It was my pleasure to attend the Imamia Medics Canada GTA Meet & Greet this weekend where I had the honor of connecting with and presenting to IMI Directors, and Medical Professionals that are active in the health-care Industry.

I had the opportunity to discuss with members about the most important aspects of Wealth Management for health-care professionals, and how RBC Dominion Securities is a leader in supporting those in this industry.

The amazing work that is being carried out by Imamia Medics is testament to the great individuals that are part of the organization.

Always great to connect with those who have a hand in making the world a better place!

02/07/2023

Stock market vs Real Estate - we've all seen this debate, and debated it ourselves. Interested? Read on.

In its essence, a direct comparison between the stock market and residential real estate is likely to be a flawed exercise.

They've both delivered attractive long-term returns. Here is a chart displaying the returns of a $300k investment. But there's crucial points that need to be taken into account as its not an apples to apples comparison:

- Liquidity and diversification
- Barriers to entry (down payments, financing, insurance coverage, larger transaction costs and taxes, etc.)
- Daily pricing restrictions
- Leverage, and this is a big one!

200k invested as 20% downpayment can of course balloon your return on a 10% increase in asset value but a 10% drop can also deflate your equity as quickly. And this can happen, as it happened in 2022.

Example:

200k as a downpayment on a $1M property Property rises in value by 10% Your equity grows to 300k 50% Increase in Equity ($100k)

200k in an equity market portfolio Portfolio increases by 10% with no leverage Equity increases by 10% to $220k

Alternatively:

Property decreases 10% your equity decreases to $100k 50% decrease in Equity If the drop was 20% you would have lost all your equity at that point.

Equity market portfolio drops 10% Portfolio value down $20k from $200k to $180k If the drop was 20%, portfolio would be valued at $160k | You would need a 100% drop in the portfolio to lose all your equity.

Not saying one is better than the other, just emphasizing the fact that comparing real estate to stocks is fraught with many pitfalls, and can be potentially misleading.

Real estate and stocks are not a mutually exclusive decision as they can both certainly play a role in one's overall investment portfolio. But understanding the tradeoffs and differences between the stock market and real estate is crucial.

The decision of what assets to invest in and own over the long term ultimately depends on an investor's financial objective, time horizon, and risk capacity and tolerance.

02/01/2023

Market's up? Stay . Market's down? Stay Invested. Shift allocations, shift strategies, shift concentration, when and as needed, but, stay invested.

finished the month up 13%. &P500 about 7%. &P/TSX about 6%. But of course, this was just one of those good months. Yet to see what 2023 brings.

02/01/2023

Have a $500k portfolio and wondering whether you will be able to retire with peace of mind?

Find out how you can generate enough income to maintain the same lifestyle and put your money to work!

02/01/2023

Stop losing sleep over retirement!

Find out how to maintain your lifestyle throughout your life, without worrying.

01/31/2023

Declining CPI has come entirely from goods/energy/food, not services.

have greatly enjoyed the continued fall of headline CPI prints, with that number peaking in June at 8.1% in Canada and 9.1% in the US. Markets have enjoyed the consistent decline in prints since then.

Although inflation has been essentially zero for the past 6 months, that's come from falling energy/food/commodity prices, and is perhaps hiding continued strength in underlying core .