Ahh – the arrival of spring. After a long, hard winter, it’s a welcomed breath of fresh air. And for investors it’s an opportunity to think strategically about your portfolios for the coming year, now that the tax planning and RRSP season are behind us. What better way to start than to do a portfolio spring cleaning.

Update Your Investment Objectives

Review and make note of any substantial changes that have taken place in your life that may affect the asset allocation strategy of your investment portfolio. In discussions with your Investment Advisor, identify any important lifestyle changes to see how they affect your current investment planning objectives. Family and health considerations, career shifts or business plans that have changed, major household expenditures or children’s education expenses that are now on the horizon – these are all factors that may change your tolerance to investment risk or affect the investment balance you want between capital preservation and growth.

Bring Your Asset Allocations Back To Reality

With any change in your investment profile, your Advisor will recommend a review of your current asset allocation strategy which determines what percentage of your portfolio is invested in common equities, fixed income securities and cash or cash equivalents.

The asset mix varies with each individual, but its strategic value for every investor is to impose a discipline on your investing strategy. It helps you avoid market fads and emotional trading. Asset allocation can be more important than individual investments to the overall performance of your investment portfolio because it provides a diversity of different asset classes and a patient investment perspective that helps investors ride out short-term periods of market volatility.

Rebalance Your Investments

Within each major asset class (equities and fixed income) a performance review of individual investments might be in order. Over the past year, an outperforming investment may have gained a too dominant position in your portfolio, affecting your asset allocation ratio as well as leaving you exposed to the performance of a single investment. It may be time to rebalance by reducing your position and looking for other investment opportunities, such as Exchange Traded Funds, REITS, Royalty Trusts and so on.

You will want to work with your Advisor to see if any of these types of investments are suitable for your portfolio.

Spring is the traditional time when we put our house in order and give the old place a breath of fresh air. Do the same for your investments and call on your Raymond James Financial Advisor to help with some of the heavy lifting and decision-making that a portfolio clean-up requires.

Partnering For Performance – A Solution For Any Season

A portfolio clean-up may be an opportunity to ask your Raymond James Financial Advisor about the benefits of the Raymond James Partners Program. It’s a fee-based investment program that puts you and your Raymond James Financial Advisor at the centre of an expanded team of dedicated investment specialists that includes an elite group of highly respected portfolio managers working as part of our Raymond James Partners Program team. Working together, we can design a portfolio to match your needs and achieve your investment objectives.

We’re proud of our team of “partners” – some of the most respected portfolio managers in the world. Ask your Financial Advisor how we can partner you up for performance with one of our team.