Nancy McCulver* thought she struck gold when, in the late 1980s, she went to work for a large, multinational bank based in the U.S. The only woman on a team specializing in international mergers and acquisitions, with an eye on hedge fund management. Her science and math background certainly helped. The job involved complex matters often culminating in high-stress situations, and working 14- to 16-hour... 

Liz and Phil Royal are a typical Canadian entrepreneurial couple: Close to retirement, oodles of retained earnings and no coherent plan for retirement. They are the prototypical case offered to the 100 registered financial planners who gathered for the sixth annual Institute of Advanced Financial Planners (IAFP) conference in September in Regina. To understand some of the... 

Prepare for the unexpected. That’s the lesson I grudgingly learned six years ago when my father succumbed to cancer. We had four days from firm diagnosis to his passing. It wasn’t enough time to say goodbye, let alone sort out an entire life. Thankfully my father, a project manager in the oil and gas industry and tactician by heart, handled all the legal aspects before he died, including a signed... 

Aggressive strategies are not always detrimental when constructing an investment portfolio. The problem is most investors are unsure of what it means to have an aggressive investment strategy. How does this investment style impact returns and when should an aggressive investment strategy be adopted? Moreover, if you are an aggressive (or conservative) advisor, how can this impact the advice you...