About

ETF Sage has been set-up by a private Canadian individual who wants to help other Canadians. Canadians need to become more investment savvy. We work for decades hoping to retire mortgage-free with a reasonable nest egg.

That possibility is quickly slipping away thanks to poor investment knowledge, negative stock market returns, excessive mutual fund fees and an overinflated property market.

All of us have to do everything we can to change this situation - not just for our future, but our children's too.

Significant change is needed.

The Canadian mutual fund industry needs to change - particularly in relation to excessively high fees and commission payments to Investment Advisors (IAs). Banks and other IA-employers need to pay IAs properly, not make them reliant on mutual fund commissions.

Individual Canadians need to change too. We need to become money and investment savvy. We need to spend a few hours a month reading investment magazines and websites. We need to fully understand our investments, their fees, the potential gains, risks, the other options available.

We should be able to count on Investment Advisors (IAs) but mutual fund commissions, low IA base salaries and tough sales targets has forced the majority to recommend mutual funds when ETFs are cheaper and clearly superior.

Australia and the United Kingdom are restricting the payment of commissions (or service fees) to Investment Advisors as they believe (like I do) that they are a clear conflict of interest.

When will Canada follow suit?

This conflict and the fact that Canadians pay some of the highest mutual fund fees in the world (Morningstar rates Canadian mutual fund fees highest in global 2013 survey) so incensed me that I created ETF Sage.

We applaud the Canadian ETF providers. ETFs are robust low-fee investment vehicles - they are also an excellent way to invest whilst also avoiding the tyranny of Canadian mutual fund fees.