Investment Strategy

We use a traditional indexed approach that offers the broadest diversification while keeping your costs and taxes as low as possible.

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Capturing Market Returns

It’s extremely difficult to beat the market over the long term. We focus instead on building low-cost, diversified portfolios that track the markets closely and offer the highest likelihood of helping you reach your goals.

  • We stick to traditional asset classes only
  • No stock picking and no market timing
  • We focus on what we can control: fees, risk, and tax-efficiency

Building Your Portfolio

We start by determining a suitable mix of stocks, fixed income, and cash based on your ability, willingness, and need to take risk. Then we build your portfolio using ETFs, GICs, and savings funds.

  • Global diversification including Canadian, U.S. and international stocks
  • We use a combination of bond ETFs and GICs to diversify fixed income
  • U.S.-listed ETFs may be used in RRSPs to reduce foreign withholding taxes

Managing Your Portfolio

Once we’ve agreed on an investment plan, we implement it based on our disciplined process, which is laid out in your Investment Policy Statement (IPS).

  • We invest new cash based on your long-term targets, not on short-term forecasts
  • We control risk by rebalancing your portfolio whenever it drifts off target
  • We set up a tax-efficient cash flow plan if you make regular withdrawals

Keeping Your Costs Low

Our management fees are among the lowest in the industry, starting at 0.75% and trending down as your portfolio grows. We also use the lowest-fee ETFs: product fees add a maximum of 0.15% to your costs.

  • Your management fee includes all trading commissions and administration fees
  • We reimburse GIC commissions, giving you an extra 0.25% interest on these products
  • We cover transfer-out fees for new clients

Model Portfolios - September 2024

These models give you a sense of how we build ETF portfolios for our clients.

We have included backtested returns for the Model Portfolios going back 20 years. While most ETFs have shorter track records, they often track indexes with a longer history. Whenever fund returns were not available, we used the underlying index returns and subtracted the current management expense ratio of the fund. In a number of cases, we have had to approximate the returns of the asset classes using other indexes.

All returns are in Canadian dollars and the portfolios are rebalanced annually.

Performance 40 / 60
Year-to-Date Return 10.12%
1-Year Total Return 19.20%
3-Year Annualized Return 3.89%
5-Year Annualized Return 5.09%
10-Year Annualized Return 5.46%
20-Year Annualized Return 5.78%
Worst Stock Market Drawdown (06/01/2007-02/28/2009) -14.00%
Drawdown - Time to Recovery (from the bottom) 7 months
20-Year Annualized Standard Deviation 5.94%
View Model Portfolio
40 / 60
Performance 50 / 50
Year-to-Date Return 11.64%
1-Year Total Return 20.84%
3-Year Annualized Return 4.92%
5-Year Annualized Return 6.22%
10-Year Annualized Return 6.29%
20-Year Annualized Return 6.28%
Worst Stock Market Drawdown (06/01/2007-02/28/2009) -19.31%
Drawdown - Time to Recovery (from the bottom) 18 months
20-Year Annualized Standard Deviation 6.71%
View Model Portfolio
50 / 50
Performance 60 / 40
Year-to-Date Return 13.18%
1-Year Total Return 22.49%
3-Year Annualized Return 5.94%
5-Year Annualized Return 7.36%
10-Year Annualized Return 7.12%
20-Year Annualized Return 6.78%
Worst Stock Market Drawdown (06/01/2007-02/28/2009) -24.34%
Drawdown - Time to Recovery (from the bottom) 20 months
20-Year Annualized Standard Deviation 7.56%
View Model Portfolio
60 / 40
Performance 70 / 30
Year-to-Date Return 14.73%
1-Year Total Return 24.16%
3-Year Annualized Return 6.97%
5-Year Annualized Return 8.49%
10-Year Annualized Return 7.94%
20-Year Annualized Return 7.13%
Worst Stock Market Drawdown (06/01/2007-02/28/2009) 7.26%
Drawdown - Time to Recovery (from the bottom) 22 months
20-Year Annualized Standard Deviation 8.46%
View Model Portfolio
70 / 30
Performance 80 / 20
Year-to-Date Return 16.30%
1-Year Total Return 25.85%
3-Year Annualized Return 7.99%
5-Year Annualized Return 9.62%
10-Year Annualized Return 8.75%
20-Year Annualized Return 7.73%
Worst Stock Market Drawdown (06/01/2007-02/28/2009) -33.58%
Drawdown - Time to Recovery (from the bottom) 26 months
20-Year Annualized Standard Deviation 9.40%
View Model Portfolio
80 / 20
Performance 100 / 0
Year-to-Date Return 19.49%
1-Year Total Return 29.28%
3-Year Annualized Return 10.05%
5-Year Annualized Return 11.88%
10-Year Annualized Return 10.37%
20-Year Annualized Return 8.63%
Worst Stock Market Drawdown (06/01/2007-02/28/2009) -41.83%
Drawdown - Time to Recovery (from the bottom) 48 months
20-Year Annualized Standard Deviation 11.36%
View Model Portfolio
100 / 0
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Meet Our Team

PWL Capital’s Bender, Bender & Bortolotti team will work hard to ensure you reach your financial goals by combining disciplined portfolio management, ongoing planning, and a commitment to attentive service.

How We Add Value

Investment advisors rarely improve your returns by picking stocks or forecasting market moves. However, we can add consistent value by focusing on discipline, tax-efficiency, and reducing transaction costs.

Investment advisors rarely improve your returns by picking stocks or forecasting market moves. However, we can add consistent value by focusing on discipline, tax-efficiency, and reducing transaction costs.


Tax-Loss Selling

Our disciplined tax-loss selling strategy can save you thousands in taxes during market downturns.

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Asset Location

We reduce your annual tax bill by choosing the best account (TFSA, RRSP, taxable) for each holding.

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Foreign Withholding Tax

We reduce withholding taxes on foreign dividends by choosing the right ETF for each account type.

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Currency Conversion

We use trading strategies to cheaply convert Canadian dollars to U.S. dollars in your portfolio.

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Other Services

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Financial Planning

Your portfolio is just a tool for reaching your financial goals. We focus on your personal objectives, whether that’s building a savings plan, paying off debt, or drawing down your nest egg in retirement.

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Client Service

Our team is dedicated to attentive service. We respond to your emails and calls promptly, and we handle your paperwork and other administrative tasks efficiently and painlessly.

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In order to keep our fees low and our service level high, PWL’s Bender, Bender & Bortolotti team is only able to work with clients with household accounts totaling $1 million or more. If you do not meet our minimum, please visit the Canadian Couch Potato and Canadian Portfolio Manager websites for a host of resources that we offer for free to all investors.