Phillips, Hager & North Dividend Fund

[ARK]

My father who is a new immigrant in this country asked me about investing around 25K. I searched different MF and this is the one which I really liked.

http://www.phn.com/thefun/thefun_privat_divide.asp

Can you guys help me and my father deciding if this will be good invesment for him keeping in view his age which is around 60. Also the performance of this fund is very good in my opinion and low MER.

Anyone currently having this fund in his/her portfolio? Please share your experience.

Thanks

[Aske001]

I and several others in my family have used PH&N for more than 20 years, and I've always found them great to deal with, and among the most consistent performers in the investment industry. They do have some of the lowest MER funds in the industry, they have a good variety of funds, and they're here in Vancouver instead of being based in Toronto (advantage for us). They aren't always the best performing funds, but they're not usually among the worst either. In any case, past performance means little - especially since PH&N has had some of their key advisors retire in the last few years. Most likely they will outperform other funds in the long run by exactly the amount that their MER is lower.

We switch money around between funds from time to time depending on market conditions, but we've been heavily in the Cdn Dividend Income fund for the last little while, and it has been doing well. It's mostly blue-chip stocks, companies with solid income, does well in an up market, but less affected by market bumps and dips. BUT, that's no guarantee that it will continue to do well. In fact, we're getting a bit antsy about the state of the stock market and probably we'll decrease our weight in Dividend Income shortly.

As for your father, maybe at his age he should be staying out of stocks and investing in something safe like strip bonds, depending on when he might need the money. But investing is always a gamble, and I'm not an investment advisor. Free advice is worth what you pay for it, and advice from stock brokers and mutual fund sales people is generally worth a lot less than that.

[jande9]

PH&N is an excellent fund company.
Whether this is a good investment for you depends on a number of things.
Considering your dad's age, is he set for retirement?
Will this be a huge blow if the value of this capitol goes down?
The risk for this fund is set for "moderate". In other words, it isn't low. It is invested in the stock market, which may be just about peaking. If there is a market correction, the value of this fund will decrease, perhaps a lot. Also, income generating stocks like the ones that this fund invests in tend to go down when interest rates go up, which they are doing now.
In general, the younger you are, the riskier your investments can be, the older, the more conservative your investments should be.
All of this should be looked at in light of all your dad's other assets and income.
What you need to do is find a financial advisor you like and can trust. Preferably one that you pay. Some advisors are paid by the mutual fund companies so they may have a conflict of interest. However, that being said, most of them are also very good and honest.

[ARK]

Thank you guys for your input