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[October 2025 Conference Call – Featuring Michael Keaveney]

 

[00:00:03.840] - Intro

All participants, please stand by. Your conference is now ready to begin. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this month's conference call with Derek Hebb from CIBC Wood Gundy. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Derek Hebb, Senior Wealth Advisor at CIBC Wood Gundy. Please go ahead, Mr. Hebb.

 

[00:00:31.060] - Derek Hebb

Thank you, Paul. Today, we're joined by Michael Keaveney, Vice President of Managed Solutions at CIBC Asset Management. Michael is responsible for representing the activities of the Total Investment Solutions team in the field, and works with internal and external partners to develop effective investment solutions for clients and advisors. He leads thought leadership initiatives for Managed Solutions with a particular focus on strategies for successful client outcomes. Michael has over 29 years of investment industry experience. Prior to returning to CIBC Asset Management in 2024, he was a Multi-Asset and Canadian Equity lead Portfolio tanager at a competitor firm. From 2011 to 2014, he was Director of Investment Management Research on CIBC Asset Management's Investment Management Research Team. Michael holds a BA in Economics from the University of Waterloo and an MSc in Financial Management from the University of London. He is a CFA Charter holder and a member of the CFA Society of Toronto. Michael, thank you for joining us this afternoon.

 

[00:01:44.000] - Michael Keaveney

Thanks, Derek. Great to be here.

 

[00:01:45.980] - Derek Hebb

It's great to have you on the call. Just to get us started, what is the overarching investment philosophy that drives the ICS Total Solution Portfolios?

 

[00:02:00.980] - Michael Keaveney

So, remaining well-diversified, so constructing well-diversified portfolios and taking an active approach to the overall long-term management is what guides the Solutions. We use our own investment management capabilities and carefully selected third party managers to meet the overall objectives in a way that might be reminiscent of the practices of large pension managers who have their own well-defined goals, their own capabilities, but also the ability and willingness to partner with other managers to meet those goals. Now, risk and returns to the portfolios are going to be governed primarily by the asset allocation to the broad asset classes we think about. So, we pay a lot of attention, long before we think about any individual managers, to the characteristics of those asset classes and how they interact together to determine how they might be purposeful to include in a particular portfolio. And then at the margin, we believe that well chosen active managers can add some incremental return over the course of a market cycle, but there's going to be some volatility in that return along the way. We look for managers with different and complementary styles for additional diversification, and then we closely monitor to make sure that they're continuing to do the things that we think that they are good at.

 

[00:03:25.800] - Derek Hebb

Thanks, Michael. So, can you speak about changes made in the ICS Total Solution Portfolios this year? Can you summarize them and speak to the thought process behind them?

 

[00:03:37.740] - Michael Keaveney

Sure. And this is an example of the ongoing active management within the portfolios. We made a number of changes this year in a couple of tranches. We started earlier in February and then finished off that particular set of tranches in September of this year. Overall, if I can summarize, there was a modest increase in equity positioning by about 2% across the overall portfolios. We moved downwards in our Canadian equity exposure with much of that going to the US, because over the longer term, we wanted to reduce our home equity bias. We believe Canada is a great place to invest, but also wanted to realign our long term exposures to reflect where we think opportunities will arise over the longer term. And for us, that meant shifting towards the US a bit. I should note that we did that particular trade over the course of a couple of tranches this year, so we still had some considerable benefit from Canada's performance this year. We also reallocated some equity assets to international markets. Some of that came from Canada. Some of it actually came from fixed income as we upped our overall equity exposure. And then some of that came from removing dedicated exposure to a real assets pool that we formerly had in the portfolio.

 

[00:04:54.740] - Michael Keaveney

Once again, that was reflective of wanting to broaden the equity opportunity set to bigger markets and take away a little bit from a more narrowly-focused real assets pool where we felt for these accumulation portfolios, we were better off moving towards the broader markets. And that's been a good transaction as international markets, as you know, Derek, have done quite well so far this year. We also made a manager change. All these things that I've formerly talked about were at the asset manager level, but we also make underlying manager changes from time to time. We made a manager change for our emerging markets equity pool. We had wanted to pull in our expected tracking era versus the emerging markets benchmark and parted company with a previous asset management firm in favour of a more systematic strategy where our expectations are for better representation of the ups and downs of emerging markets. So that happened earlier this year as well. And then when we look within fixed income, we had already been of the opinion that active management was of key importance within the fixed income asset classes, both domestically and globally. But there were a number of changes that we made that actually, once again, broaden our opportunity set and give us confidence that we have a better set of returns coming from fixed income.

 

[00:06:16.780] - Michael Keaveney

We made, for example, an asset allocation shift from a short term pool into the broader Canadian bond pool. That's simply because we think the yields are more favourable there. The opportunity set is more favourable. That's actually a transaction that is really only starting to pay relative dividends over the last couple of months as the bond markets, short term and mid-term, had moved maybe a little bit more closely together for a few months, but I think it's now starting to pay off for us. So there was change made there. Within global bonds, we had taken a look at the previous manager, whose remit was much more focused on a narrow subset of sovereign bonds, so government bonds, and reallocated to several different managers because the bond market is becoming increasingly complex. There are increasingly varied opportunities within global bonds and moving to a suite of managers who were better representatives, in our view, of a broader opportunity set within global fixed income from a previous narrow, although active opportunity set in sovereign bonds. So when all was said and done, there were a number of changes made so far this year, maybe a little bit more than the average year.

 

[00:07:35.820] - Michael Keaveney

But I think that interested investors and observers can continue to count on these portfolios to be actively managed, not just at the underlying manager level, which they certainly are at the underlying pool level, but also the overall asset allocation and mix level, which is done by the CIBC Asset Management team.

 

[00:07:58.220] - Derek Hebb

That's great. So, Michael, how have investors fared in the portfolios so far this year? What have been the highlights and the pain points?

 

[00:08:09.080] - Michael Keaveney

It's interesting, Derek, to talk about highlights and pain points, because I suppose it's an occupational hazard of being a diversified investor that there will always be pluses and minuses. And that really is the nature of diversification, because there's a little bit of uncertainty in the markets at all times for future returns. We want to diversify, but that means that there's always going to be things that outperform and a few things that underperform if those managers are doing different things. So yes, there's been highs and there's been lows. In general, of course, equities have done very well so far this year, and it's really incredible to think about if we only cast our minds back to early April, we might be thinking that we were shaping up for a pretty poor 2025. Now, of course, the year isn't over yet. We're only into the fourth quarter now. But equities have done well in multiple markets around the world. So in absolute terms, anybody who's got a balanced and diversified portfolio from those moderate profiles, which are maybe 35% or so equities, all the way up to the effectively all-equity portfolio is the Growth Plus.

 

[00:09:15.000] - Michael Keaveney

In absolute terms, the numbers are very good and above average. Highlights within that, I think active fixed income has been rewarded so far this year versus a more passive approach. So there's been some incremental returns there. Active managers have tended to be focusing a little bit more on the corporate bond market where they can eke out some incremental yield from the underlying investments. Now, spreads are relatively tight right now by historical standards, but it has worked to be active within fixed income so far this year, and that has been a plus. Making that emerging markets manager change earlier this year, I think, has been well rewarded, and we're very glad to have done so because that manager has kept up an added value over the course of the market and participated basically in the gains of every emerging market that has done well so far this year. Canadian equity, active management has been certainly fair and good so far this year. So that has been a point of good returns for us within the portfolios. But when it comes to pain points, certainly US equity markets and international markets have done well in absolute terms, and there's been some reasonable participation there.

 

[00:10:29.080] - Michael Keaveney

But what I see so far this year is in international markets, I think it probably would have paid in hindsight to have a very dedicated bias towards value types of stocks. And certainly our positioning has been much more core than that. So perhaps in relative terms, with hindsight as our guide, value would have been the place to be, but we have been more content to be core over the long term. We think it will be useful, but that's been a pain point to not have participated as much in the value stocks. And then active management in general, I think in US markets has been, let's call it challenged. I would say over the last market cycle, I'm sure many investors and interested observers are well aware of the outperformance of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks. The simple fact of the matter is that most active investment managers in US have been, let's call it, somewhat skeptical of the ability of the momentum in those particular stocks to continue over time. And just versus a broad-based benchmark, that has caused a number of managers, and most active managers, incidentally, to underperform the broad benchmarks. That's been a little bit painful, but in absolute terms, the numbers are still pretty good.

 

[00:11:50.360] - Michael Keaveney

We still believe that there is a place for active management within US equities, although we do believe that the Magnificent Seven are wonderful companies worth watching and certainly a major source of innovation around the world. Their valuations are extremely high right now, so we do believe it is prudent to have some sort of differentiated view from the broad markets and not be, perhaps, as reliant on that momentum continuing within the US markets over the short term. So, like any diversified portfolio, there's been a number of highlights, a number of pain points, which we always watch for to see if there's a need to make a change or whether that's just something that is the nature of day-to-day active management.

 

[00:12:40.760] - Derek Hebb

Thanks. So, looking ahead, what is the outlook for the rest of the year and beyond?

 

[00:12:48.780] - Michael Keaveney

So, we are cautiously optimistic. I think that right now there is a mismatch between expectations for volatility when you take a look at priced markets like the VIX index, which is a guage of implied volatility in the bellwether US markets over the course of the next 30 days. Volatility expectations from that standpoint are quite low. But when we take a look at sentiment, when you take a look at headlines, newspaper headlines, talk about unsettled trade and tariffs, sentiment is very uncertain. So there is a little bit of a mismatch there that causes us to be a little bit more watchful than we would normally be when it comes to asset allocation decisions, because companies have done well. Our expectation, earnings are good. On the bond market, our expectations are that there will be some tailwinds from central bank cuts around the world. So that should bode well, relatively well for fixed income as well. But despite that relatively positive backdrop, there is this little bit of a disconnect between volatility that's occurred in the market, and then the sentiment behind that. So I don't think that that gives us the all-clear signal to go too far beyond a neutral weighting between stocks and bonds.

 

[00:14:14.820] - Michael Keaveney

I think they're both relatively good places to be, and certainly not a time to be taking big bets in one direction or the other. So there is some cautious optimism, but certainly continuing to monitor the markets on a regular basis, speak with our underlying investment managers for their viewpoints, ensure that not everybody is saying the same thing. We certainly don't want to build a portfolio where every underlying component is built for the exact same outcome. The nature of diversification is that we do need a collection of different opinions on the market in there in order to provide that diversification. But in general, reasonable optimism that we will get balanced like returns in the balanced portfolios and reasonable equity returns going forward. But let's not forget that fixed income has some tailwinds that should be beneficial for fixed income as well.

 

[00:15:11.580] - Derek Hebb

Thanks, Michael. So, I have one more question for you. 2025 has been a widely varying investment climate. Are there any lessons for investors to take away for the future?

 

[00:15:26.100] - Michael Keaveney

2025 has been a fairly unique year. With the announcement of those tariffs in early April, we saw a relatively sleepy market when it came to volatility all of a sudden get hugely volatile in the short term. And while that was a unique individual situation, it is the nature of markets for a return to volatility from time to time. So the mechanism by which it returned to short term volatility might have been unique. But the lesson I take away from it is that volatility, temporary volatility and spikes in volatility, are a feature of equity markets as opposed to a bug or a flaw. You will from time to time, see this thing come up. What causes it to come up will vary from time to time. But I think it's a useful lesson for people to take away that when they are building their investment portfolios, number one, they should expect periodic volatility. I think the other thing related to that was it would have been very tempting back in April to read those headlines, react to the total lack of certainty that was delivered by these tariff announcements, and say, maybe it would have been safer for me to head for the sidelines and perhaps no longer invest in equities and then maybe wait for a less volatile period.

 

[00:16:55.340] - Michael Keaveney

But in our experience, it's a further illustration that the ability to do that and time that well is extremely difficult. It was only a few days of volatility, and then the markets certainly rebounded to new highs. It would have been difficult to get that timing right. And I think what probably has happened is that investors who went to the sidelines in early April may still be on the sidelines because really, we haven't resolved all of the tariff questions. And if somebody was waiting for full certainty to return to the markets, they've actually missed out on some wonderful days. While those early April days were maybe some of the worst individual trading days on certain markets, you only had to wait a few days later to see some of the best trading days on the markets. And that's the way these things tend to happen. The best days and the worst days are often commingled with each other, with the worst days maybe happening first and the best days happening soon thereafter. So resisting the temptation to trade the headlines, I think, is, I hope, a lesson that most investors take away. And 2025 gave us probably one of the best examples of that in recent memory.

 

[00:18:13.700] - Derek Hebb

Very sensible advice. And certainly the examples that you raise are very good to point out. Well, thank you, Michael. This has been a helpful, informative, and certainly a timely discussion. In the interest of time, this will conclude today's call. If anyone has questions about the information that Michael discussed, please contact me. Thanks to everyone for listening in, and Michael, thank you again for joining us on this month's call.

 

[00:18:45.110] - Michael Keaveney

So welcome, Derek. Thanks a lot.

 

[00:18:46.870] - Derek Hebb

Take care.

 

 

 

Disclaimers

 

This information, including any opinion, is based on various sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed and is subject to change. CIBC and CIBC World Markets Inc., their affiliates, directors, officers and employees may buy, sell, or hold a position in securities of a company mentioned herein, its affiliates or subsidiaries, and may also perform financial advisory services, investment banking or other services for, or have lending or other credit relationships with the same. CIBC World Markets Inc. and its representatives will receive sales commissions and/or a spread between bid and ask prices if you purchase, sell or hold the securities referred to above. © CIBC World Markets Inc. 2025.

 

Michael Keaveney is Vice-President of Managed Solutions at CIBC Asset Management. The views of Michael Keaveney do not necessarily reflect those of CIBC World Markets Inc.

 

The contents of this document are for informational purposes only and are not being provided in the context of an offering of a security, sector, or financial instrument, and is not an endorsement, recommendation, or solicitation to buy, hold or sell any security.

 

Clients are advised to seek advice regarding their particular circumstances from their personal tax and legal advisors.

 

“CIBC Private Wealth” consists of services provided by CIBC and certain of its subsidiaries through CIBC Private Banking; CIBC Private Investment Counsel, a division of CIBC Asset Management Inc. (“CAM”); CIBC Trust Corporation; and CIBC Wood Gundy, a division of CIBC World Markets Inc. (“WMI”). CIBC Private Banking provides solutions from CIBC Investor Services Inc. (“ISI”), CAM and credit products. CIBC Private Wealth services are available to qualified individuals. Insurance services are only available through CIBC Wood Gundy Financial Services Inc. In Quebec, insurance services are only available through CIBC Wood Gundy Financial Services (Quebec) Inc. The CIBC logo and “CIBC Private Wealth” are trademarks of CIBC, used under license. “Wood Gundy” is a registered trademark of CIBC World Markets Inc.

 

™ CIBC Wood Gundy Investment Consulting Service is a trademark of CIBC World Markets Inc. CIBC Wood Gundy will be responsible to CIBC Wood Gundy Investment Consulting Service clients for the advice provided by any Investment Manager. The ICS Program Manager, CIBC Asset Management Inc., is a subsidiary of CIBC.

 

If you are currently a CIBC Wood Gundy client, please contact your Investment Advisor.

 

 

 

Transcript of the Hebb Advisory Group’s July 2025 Conference Call

[00:00:05.960] - Intro

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this month's conference call with Derek Hebb from CIBC Wood Gundy. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Derek Hebb, Senior Wealth Advisor. Please go ahead, Mr. Hebb.

 

[00:00:21.460] - Derek Hebb

Thank you, Louise. Today, we're joined by Bryce Walker, President of Connor, Clark & Lunn Funds in Toronto. Bryce is responsible for the strategy and direction of the business, including working with financial institution clients and top-tier investment advisory teams to develop and deliver new and innovative investment strategies that meet evolving client needs. Prior to his current role, Bryce was Senior Vice President, Business Development at CC&L Funds. Before joining the firm in 2012, Bryce was a Regional Vice President with TD Asset Management. Preceding that, he spent 11 years at CI Investments, the last six in the role of Vice President, Sales and Marketing. Bryce holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Guelph and is a CFA Charterholder. Bryce, thank you for joining us this afternoon.

 

[00:01:15.510] - Bryce Walker

Thanks, Derek. Really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today.

 

[00:01:21.300] - Derek Hebb

Likewise. It's great to have you on the call. Thinking back, actually, to 2023, that was the last time we featured CC&L on my conference call series. And I think on that basis, it would be helpful for our listeners if you could just give us a quick refresher on your firm and how you would describe CC&L's investment philosophy.

 

[00:01:47.940] - Bryce Walker

Yeah, thanks. And again, I really appreciate being a part of the call today. And you know, Connor, Clark and Lunn is maybe less well known with individual investors, but we would be a core Canadian institutional money manager. We're actually today Canada's largest privately-owned asset management firm. That is, we're partner-owned and have no outside shareholders. We manage portfolios for some of the world's largest of the most sophisticated institutional investors. And we partnered with CIBC Wood Gundy about a decade ago to deliver our institutional investment approach to individual investors. And it's frankly been an amazing relationship. But we believe being independent, privately-owned ensures that our interests are aligned with that of our clients over the long term. Investors don't or shouldn't invest for the short-term, and we don't think we should be paid on the short-term. Our investment professionals don't get paid short-term performance bonuses. We get paid based on the equity ownership in the business. Frankly, as you know, we work in a business of intellectual capital. That is, we have no assets other than the people who work here. We think being privately-owned and to have our investment professionals, owners of the business, is the best way to attract, motivate, and retain the highest quality people, and to make sure that we're aligned with the interests of our clients.

 

[00:03:09.600] - Bryce Walker

That is, we do well when first and foremost, clients are happy with the performance and service we provide. So, that's just a quick overview of us as a firm. From an investment philosophy perspective, we manage a number of portfolios for CIBC, but however, for today's call, we're going to be focusing on our Equity Income & Growth portfolio. This portfolio really seeks to be a better solution for Canadian dividend investors. And by better, we mean the portfolio looks to deliver an attractive sustainable dividend yield plus growth to outpace inflation, which is obviously very relevant in today's environment, and to do so with less risk than the TSX; that is the Canadian stock benchmark. And over time, this has resulted in a really compelling return profile where we've participated, but not necessarily outperforming where the markets are doing really, really, really well. But typically, we've added the bulk of our value when markets are misbehaving. That is, we're down less than the market. We've done a good job of protecting capital when markets are, what we'd say, misbehaving. This is a really attractive return profile we find for most Canadian individual investors because they just tend to be a lot more sensitive to a dollar lost than a dollar gained. We've been managing this portfolio for 20 years, and the benefit of this approach has been seen over that period. But this is definitely evident during the April drawdown as our portfolio was down much less than the market.

 

[00:04:39.860] - Derek Hebb

Thank you, Bryce.

 

[00:04:41.320] - Bryce Walker

Yes, hopefully that provides some context for who we are and how we think about our Equity Income & Growth portfolio.

 

[00:04:46.830] - Derek Hebb

That's great. That's helpful. And certainly markets misbehaved during the month of April. It was a very challenging period for the markets, driven by uncertainty around trade wars and tariffs. That said, we've seen stock markets bounce back in a meaningful way. Is the bad news behind us?

 

[00:05:10.800] - Bryce Walker

Yeah, it's a great question, and you're right. You think back to April, and we had lots of volatility around the tariffs. But really, since the end of April, we've had a really significant rally in equities. And I would say our view going forward, let's say over the next 12 months, is cautiously optimistic. We definitely recognize there are some positive signs, but also a number of risks that we're watching carefully. So let me first address the positives. We recognize that economic growth is slowing, but still remains positive in both Canada and the US. Frankly, the probability of a recession has decreased from earlier this year. And that's largely because we're now past the point of peak tariff and geopolitical risk. So while they're still present, and we're still trying to figure this out, they're definitely not as heightened, and there's definitely not as much uncertainty, specifically around tariffs, as there were in March and April when we saw the big volatility and the big drops in the equity market. In addition, we continue to see supportive monetary policy. That is, in general, lower interest rates, especially from where we were a year ago or even longer.

 

[00:06:26.340] - Bryce Walker

And we also continue to see supportive fiscal policy. That is, we expect more government spending, both in Canada and the US, which should bode well for positive economic growth. We also continue to see, I'd say, a very resilient consumer. And as you know, consumer accounts for the majority of both the Canadian and US economy. So that is a strong point. And in general, employment continues to be pretty resilient as well. And I would say, finally, on the list of positives, we would expect companies to start spending again. Because of all the uncertainty in the first half of the year, companies were really hesitant to spend. And when there's lots of uncertainty, as a CEO of a company, you don't want to commit millions of dollars to a project when you don't know what the landscape is going to look like in a month or two months or three months. But now that we're past that peak concern around tariffs, we would expect to see strong capital expenditure in AI, obviously, but also in other sectors as businesses become more comfortable as some of that uncertainty, starting from the first half, dissipates in the second half of the year.

 

[00:07:34.800] - Bryce Walker

So, those would be the list of the things that we're positive about. That being said, we do recognize that there is still some downside risks. Again, most significantly, is still the unknown impact of tariffs. So, we're a couple of months into this process, and it's still not obvious what the day-to-day impact is. So that's something that we're watching very closely and something that can change, obviously, very quickly. In addition, we also continue to see concerns around US debt levels. Especially in the US, debt continues to grow at unprecedented levels, and that's likely to be a drag on future growth. So, those would be the two biggest concerns from an economic perspective. When we think about from a market perspective, we expect earnings growth in Canada and the US to be positive over the next year. So that's a good thing for stocks. But we do know that equity valuations, or the price investors are willing to pay for stocks, are at or near all-time highs. So if you look at the S&P 500, the largest US equity market, it's at its 99th percentile in terms of its valuation range over the last 20 years. So stocks, especially in the US, look expensive from a valuation perspective.

 

[00:08:53.540] - Bryce Walker

And I would say, just finally, we continue to be concerned about the resurgence of inflation and the potential for higher rates going forward. So a bit of a mixed bag, but I would say, cautiously optimistic on the outlook for stocks over the next year. But do expect, given some of those risks, that volatility is likely to be more persistent as well.

 

[00:09:13.840] - Derek Hebb

Thanks, Bryce. So as a Canadian-focused portfolio, what does this mean for the Canadian stock market?

 

[00:09:22.440] - Bryce Walker

Yeah, I would say we are actually taking a bit of a more medium to longer term view. We're actually quite excited about the outlook for Canadian equities relative to US equities. I think we all know that US stocks have outperformed Canadian stocks for much of the past decade, but we think there's a number of tailwinds for Canadian equities going forward. And first and foremost would be valuations. I talked about that just very briefly, but Canadian equities do look more attractive from a valuation perspective than US stocks at this point. So that's a positive. I'd also say we believe that we're likely to be in a higher for longer environment. That is, inflation and rates are likely to be higher this cycle than they were last cycle. And again, not saying that inflation is going back to 8 or 9% that we saw post-COVID, but we do believe it's going to be higher than what we saw during the global financial crisis in 2008. And that's due to a number of structural factors. The first one would be we've seen globalization peaks. So we're now seeing a move towards on-shoring. Moving production closer to home, that's inflationary.

 

[00:10:31.180] - Bryce Walker

Demographics are challenging in the developed world. That is lots of older people retiring, less people in the labour force. We've seen a lot of number of strikes. So that is inflationary. Meanwhile, over the last decade, we've had an underinvestment in commodities. As the global economy continues to try and transition to net zero, that's inflationary. And we're all seeing, unfortunately, aside from the more global conflict and aside from obviously the terrible human cost, war is unproductive and inflationary. So all of those forces are inflationary. And so we, as I said, expect inflation and interest rates to be higher this cycle than they were last cycle. But can't actually, given the makeup of our economy, typically does well in an inflationary environment. And that's because we have lots of exposure to resources, and commodities typically do well in an inflationary environment. So we think the backdrop for Canadian equities look attractive from that perspective. Also, a big part of our economy is oligopolies. That is, industries tend to be dominated by a handful of players. So, while this may not be great from a competitive perspective, it's great from a stability perspective. And, frankly, these businesses also tend to have pricing power given this dynamic.

 

[00:11:49.100] - Bryce Walker

And I would say the last thing in favour of Canadian Equities is we now have a leadership in place that appears to be more growth-oriented than previous leadership. So, we actually think Canada is pretty well-positioned given those factors.

 

[00:12:05.120] - Derek Hebb

Thanks. So, how are you positioning your portfolios based on this outlook?

 

[00:12:12.040] - Bryce Walker

Yeah, great question. We would say the objectives of this portfolio, that is of providing consistency and stability, as well as a dividend profile that can outpace inflation, are definitely well-suited to an environment where we would expect volatility to be more persistent. So we're actually thinking our portfolio is ideally positioned for this type of environment. But in terms of portfolio positioning, I would say we continue to be focused on resilient and stable growth businesses. So, looking for companies that can generate growth regardless of what's happening from an economic perspective. I would say also with respect to our portfolio, every stock in our portfolio pays a dividend. But what we're really looking for is we want dividend stocks that can grow their dividends over time. Dividend stocks tend to outperform over time with less risk than non-dividend stocks. But we want to find stocks that can grow their dividends faster than inflation. And that's because dividend growers outperform when volatility is rising. And that dividend growth is really important in an environment of higher inflation, because as your dividend increases, that's going to outpace inflation and generate real purchasing power. So today, if you look at our portfolio, again, every stock and it pays a dividend, but we would expect over the next year, about 80, 90% of those stocks to increase their dividends.

 

[00:13:37.760] - Bryce Walker

So, continue to be focusing on high quality, stable businesses that can generate growth, regardless of what's happening from an economic perspective and can pay that attractive sustainable dividend, but grow it to outpace inflation.

 

[00:13:56.360] - Derek Hebb

Thanks, Bryce. This has been a timely discussion. You've covered a lot of important points, especially given the market dynamics and your outlook. So thank you for that. In the interest of time, this will conclude today's call. If anyone has questions about the information that Bryce discussed, please contact me. Thanks to everyone for listening in. And Bryce, thank you again for joining us on this month's call.

 

[00:14:22.910] - Bryce Walker

Thanks, Derek. Appreciate the time.

 

[00:14:24.710] - Derek Hebb

Take care.

 

[00:14:26.270] - Bryce Walker

Take care.