We are pleased to announce that the Burgeonvest Bick Securities Limited Scholarship has been awarded for the 2010-2011 academic year. The Academic Standards Committee of Redeemer University College awarded the scholarship to a third year student majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Psychology.

Burgeonvest Bick is proud to participate in this Scholarship Program. We are pleased to be able to help students who need financial aid as well as reward deserving scholars who work hard on their academics.

Clarence Bick, Partner
Burgeonvest Bick Securities Limited

Trustees come in a variety of forms. One form relates to registered plans. Investment dealers like BBSL can offer Self Directed Registered Plans to clients like you. Under the Income Tax Act, these types of Plans must have a Trustee. A Trustee provides accountable and transparent services, as they relate to Canada Revenue Agency requirements.

Who is my Trustee?

NatCan Trust Company ~ Natcan Trust Company and its parent company, General Trust of Canada, are affiliate companies of NBCN and member firms of National Bank of Canada Group. With more than $31 billion in assets under administration, they have a reputation for excellent administrative services and have developed an outstanding administrative structure to provide trust services.

Administration Fees

What is a Trustee Fee?

Most Self-Directed plans have an annual trustee fee. This fee is paid to cover significant government reporting requirements and administrative costs associated with the plans. Annual trustee fees range as low as $50 per year to over $250 per year.

When and How do I pay Trustee Fees?

BBSL trustee fees are payable annually in July. For your convenience, BBSL has a number of payment options available. Speak your Advisor for more details.

What is a Correspondent Brokerage Network?

The Correspondent Network was developed to provide administrative and back office services to the independent brokerage network. At Burgeonvest Bick Securities Limited (BBSL) we use National Bank Correspondent Network (NBCN) who is the leading supplier of correspondent brokerage services to the Canadian financial community.

About NBCN National Bank Correspondent Network (NBCN)

NBCN is an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of National Bank Financial. With over sixty associated organizations entrusting more than $20.0 billion in assets held in over 300,000 active accounts, NBCN is the leading supplier of correspondent brokerage services to the Canadian financial community.

NBCN is part of the National Bank of Canada Group and a subsidiary of National Bank Financial. With a strong capital base, National Bank of Canada is Canada’s sixth largest bank. Founded in 1859, the Bank has nearly 500 Canadian branches and representation in 20 U.S. cities and 120 foreign countries.

To learn more, visit their website at: http://www.nbcn.ca/aboutus/index.jhtml

Services Provided by NBCN

NBCN provides many resources to your independent investment advisor – and to you. In an increasingly regulated environment NBCN partners with BBSL to ensure compliance with the changing regulatory requirements. Working with your independent investment advisor, they help to ensure that your financial assets are administered in the most precise and cost-efficient manner. Here are some of the ways NBCN works to support you.

• Manage registered plan contributions and reporting
• Issue cheques and manage credit within an account
• Responsible for the receipt, delivery and safekeeping of funds and securities received
• Responsible for issuing confirmation slips for transactions directed through BBSL
• Manages the printing and delivery of account statements.
• Foreign exchange services
• Segregating of account positions.
• Accept, execute and settle trades in compliance with the instructions given to them by your Advisor with respect to transactions effected for you.

Technology NBCN has invested in technology and systems designed to expedite the timely and efficient management of your assets. Trading facilities and monthly statements reflect all IIROC regulatory requirements.

Research National Bank Financial’s equity research is highly regarded in the Canadian investment community. NBCN provides your independent investment advisor in-depth analysis and ideas from their research team as well as other international research sources retained by NBCN.

Flexible, Secure Retirement Planning NBCN provides your independent investment advisor with a comprehensive suite of product offerings allowing your independent advisor a package competitive with any bank owned firm.

Your Investments Are Secure The safety and protection of your investment assets are of the utmost importance. Each one of your separate accounts as defined by the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF) is protected by CIPF coverage. CIPF provides for up to $1,000,000 in coverage for any combination of securities and cash.

Additional Information For more information about the Administrative services provided, please contact your Advisor directly. He / she will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Seven years ago Ancaster’s Rotary A.M. Club began its signature fashion show, profiling the latest Spring collection of ladies and men’s casual and formal fashions from local retailers. We invite you to join us for this community event with proceeds to be directed organizations with a focus on youth and vulnerable persons.

My fellow Rotarian and Burgeonvest Bick colleague Leonard Bick and I are working through our Ancaster Rotary Club on this event to raise much needed funds to support individual charities and organizations in our community and worldwide. Past recipients of the proceeds of this event have included Ancaster Meals on Wheels, T.E.A.D., Interval House and Golden Horseshoe Children of Chernobyl.

A Cosmopolitan Affair ~ Fashion Show

The ticket price of $55 or $500 for a table of 10 includes light food stations, outstanding fashions, exciting prizes and raffles. Tickets can be purchased online at www.cosmopolitanaffair.ca or by calling Mackay Brehm and Smith 905-333-5753.

The Rotary Club of Ancaster has provided community service since 1978 in the Town of Ancaster and around the world. This Ancaster based group of volunteers has been able to impact the lives of thousands of people. For more information on the important initiatives that Ancaster Rotary groups are involved in, please visit our websites at: http://ancasterrotaryam.org/ and http://www.ancasterrotary.com

Bruce Gabel, CIM
Burgeonvest Bick Advisor and Rotarian

bruce.gabel@bbsl.ca

Market downturns can present a unique opportunity to take advantage of capital losses to offset capital gains. The results are tax savings and/or tax deferral which are available to qualifying investors of a non-registered portfolio. This strategy is commonly called Tax Loss Selling.

Tax Loss Selling involves selling securities with accrued capital losses and then applying the losses to offset capital gains.  The capital loss must first be applied to any capital gains of the current year.  Any unused losses can either be carried back and applied to capital gains for the prior 3 years or can be carried forward indefinitely to use at a future date.

Example

Take the example of our client Anna who realized a capital loss of $50,000 in 2008. The loss was carried back to year 2006 and applied to her capital gains for same amount.  At a 46% marginal tax bracket, she received an $11,500 tax refund.

($50,000 x 50%) x 46% = $11,500

How It Works

Many established Canadian mutual funds have a powerful investment structure that allow for taking advantage of Tax Loss Selling.  Because many mutual funds are available in both a Corporate structure and a Trust structure, moving from one structure to the other will trigger a “sale” for tax purposes with no actual change to the investments.

Individual stocks do not lend themselves as well to this strategy due to the “superficial loss rule”. CRA will disallow a loss if the same stock is repurchased within 30 days of the sale.

To realize a capital loss in any given calendar year, investors need to ensure the “sale” occurs with enough business days to settle in that calendar year.

Anna’s example is the simplest method, although there are other methods for increasingly complex situations. Before implementing a tax strategy, or for specific tax advice with respect to your personal tax implications, contact your qualified tax professional.

Diane Allie is a Certified Financial Planner with Burgeonvest Bick Securities Limited and is located in the Ancaster office. diane.allie@bbsl.ca.

• The first $10,000 or so of annual earnings is tax free, so if you’re earning very little (i.e. getting little or no deduction in an RRSP), then putting the money into a TFSA makes more sense.
• The top two tax brackets are reached at $81,453 and $126,265, respectively.  To the extent that an RRSP contribution would reduce your taxable income, you may wish to consider contributing only enough to bring your income down to the cusp of the lower bracket. The marginal utility of additional contributions will drop beyond that amount.
• Quite apart from the tax bracket you are in now, consider the bracket you are likely to be in when you retire. Remember that incomes (including pensions and RRIFs) can be split, so that most major income earners will be in a lower bracket in retirement. To the extent that this reflects your circumstances, it makes sense to contribute to RRSPs now (getting a deduction based on a higher tax bracket) and then taking out the money in retirement (when income splitting might slide you into a lower one).
• Remember that both RRSP contribution room and TFSA contribution room carry forward indefinitely. Therefore, if money is tight (for instance, if you’re between careers or have just taken on a new and large mortgage), there’s likely no harm in letting your contribution room build while you pay for current expenses out of your reduced current cash flow.
• People who have more debts than they care to acknowledge (university students and recent graduates, for instance) should give particular consideration to the previous point. Down the road, earnings will be much higher (making RRSP deductions more valuable). Instead of putting money into either and RRSP or a TFSA, simply pay down your non-deductible debt.

These considerations are by no means mutually exclusive. If you have the resources, then by all means, maximize both your RRSP and your TFSA annually. In a family where there is only one breadwinner earning a strong income, there still an opportunity to save $32,000 a year ($22,000 into a personal RRSP and $5,000 a year into a TFSA for both yourself and your spouse). Most people who save that much money while paying off all their debts over the course of their working lives should be able to retire quite comfortably.

John J. De Goey, CFP is a Vice President with Burgeonvest Bick Securities Limited located in the Toronto office.
E-mail: john.degoey@bbsl.ca

Businesses, particularly small businesses, are very dependent on a few key people. If that key person is an employee, losing that person could mean a period of lost profitability and the extra costs of replacing that person through hiring and training as well as lost profitability. There are intangible costs too to the lifestyle and effectiveness of those left behind to shoulder the load of replacing the key person, even for a short period of time. Death isn’t the only concern either.

Living benefits coverage, whether disability or critical illness insurance, can help. Short term coverage for the business itself is important to deal with a loss as great as the loss that comes from death. For the employee, knowing that they are adequately provided for helps ease or transition them out of the business. That is why executive compensation schemes can a very important part of planning for the loss of a key person.

The owner/manager adds one extra layer of complexity and perhaps is better dealt with either as part of a business continuity plan or a succession plan. Not dealt with, the death or incapacity of an owner can bankrupt an otherwise profitable company.

Anyone looking to successful risk management for the loss of a key person really should be practicing the 20/80 rule on a budget. 80% of all catastrophes can be covered by the simplest and most effective of insurance plans provided that there is a well thought out program (or 20% of the effort).

1. Decide how long it will take to hire and train the key person’s replacement;
2. Factor in the costs of recruiting (budgeting for up to one year’s salary for a placement agency);
3. Consider any decline in profitability that may come from the loss of the key person (consider the loss of a sales manager for example);
4. Ensure that the key person is not named in the restrictive covenants of any loans or agreements that the company has;
5. Consider the insurability of the proposed insured.

Strike a budget – there are two aspects to this. First, what is the company prepared to pay to get adequate coverage to replace an employee, remembering that disability and critical illness is more expensive and more difficult to get than life insurance? Second, what cost is the company prepared to pay to ease an employee off the payroll in the event of a critical illness by supplementing the benefits all employees receive or should they self insure?

One last note:  premiums for key person insurance are generally not tax deductible; on the other hand, the proceeds are not taxable.

And as for selling a key person on the idea of being insured, there is nothing more flattering than being acknowledged as a key variable to a business’s success.

Strategies that involves the use of insurance and related products and services are offered by licensed representatives operating through our affiliated company, Burgeonvest Insurance Corporation.

Dundas has won Kraft Hockeyville 2010 and is this year’s most passionate hockey town. As the winning hockey community, Dundas will be awarded prizes to help them to continue their ongoing hockey programs. Prizes include:

• $100,000 from Kraft Canada dedicated to upgrading J.L. Grightmire arena endorsed through your winning Kraft Hockeyville entry.
• An NHL® pre-season game hosted at J.L.Grightmire Arena
• A CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcast from J.L.Grightmire Arena

With 1,066,855 votes, Dundas edged the town of Bishop’s Falls, Nfld. (928,044). Cranbrook, B.C. finished third, followed by Lawrencetown, N.S., and Stanstead, Que. Each of the five finalists receives $25,000 for rink improvements from Kraft.

We congratulate our neighbours on their great success. For more information about the Kraft Hockeyville Program,
see http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/hockeyville/home/en/

However, as noted above, the Japanese will not be alone in this new segment of the global auto sector. Japanese and North American automakers have been very aggressive with their recent electric car projects not just to address the issue of rising oil prices and emissions, but also recent developments from China’s auto sector. Chinese auto companies are already introducing their next generation of electric cars to the market. New manufacturers, such as Build Your Dreams (BYD), kicked off retail sales of its electric-hybrid vehicle this week to start marketing their own vehicles within China (also fueled by government incentives). Their new model F3DM, has a retail price of 169,800 yuan, or $24,855 US. With Chinese government incentives not becoming available until July of this year, they do not expect sales to be immediately significant. However, unlike Japanese and US alternatives, what is interesting about this vehicle is that it comes with its own solar panel on the roof of the car, which allows it to run on gasoline, electricity and solar energy. Many of these components and innovations have never been mass produced for North American automobiles, especially in one vehicle.

What makes BYD particularly interesting is that they are already in the final development state of their next generation of this vehicle that will be produced with Daimler Benz next year for exclusive distribution in the European auto market. BYD’s e6, premiered at the recent Geneva Auto Convention, weighs roughly 5,000 pounds, has a range of 330km and can perform 0-60km in fourteen seconds. These specifications already outmatch many of the features that we have seen from comparable Japanese and US models. Furthermore, a report surfaced earlier this month, in the Los Angeles press, that BYD would be opening its US headquarters within the next few months, with speculation of an announcement of a one million square foot automobile assembly plant. At the recent Detroit Auto Show, representatives from BYD stated that they hope to have the e6 available to the US shortly, and start selling the car in the second half of the year. Whether or not the vehicle will be distributed through Daimler has yet to be determined.

As many of my clients already know, I have been following the development of the electric car, and the North American ’smart grid’ quite closely over the past two years. Based on my analysis, I have noted several companies that may benefit greatly from the development of this sector, across several different industries, sectors and market capitalization rates (the company’s size).

James DiCenzo is an Investment Advisor with Burgeonvest Bick Securities Limited located in our Hamilton Office.

Did You Know that used printer cartridges and discarded cell phones can take up to 100 years to decompose? Burgeonvest Bick has teamed up with Ancaster Rotary to provide a convenient way for community members to recycle these items through the Think Recycle program. We invite our clients and neighbours to simply bring in their used items to our Ancaster office.

Thinking green diverts these cartridges and cell phones from landfills and ensures that they are properly recycled. What’s more, for every 24 recyclable cartridges and cell phones collected, Think Recycle will sponsor the planting of a tree on behalf of Ancaster Rotary through Tree Canada Foundation. In addition, Think Recycle pays Ancaster Rotary for every qualifying cartridge and cell phone collected. Ancaster Rotary can use the funds to support their ongoing important community initiatives.

John Knechtel, Financial Advisor notes, “Our clients love that we provide an easy way to recycle their used items, while at the same time they are helping out their environment and their local community. It’s a win-win.”

The Think Recycle program has been in operation since 2001 and has since generated over $3 million in funding to its participants, diverted more than 930,000 lbs. of waste from landfill and recycled over 1,850,000 print cartridges and cell phones. For further information on what items qualify or how you can get involved, see their website at: www.thinkrecycle.com

John Knechtel, Len Bick and Bruce Gabel are Financial Advisors with Burgeonvest Bick located in our Ancaster Office. All three are proud and active Rotarians.