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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, December 3, 2015 | 26 For more news,visit insidehalton.com/oakville-on. `Like' the Oakville Beaver on Facebook. Dollars & Sense Guest Contributor Peter Watson Investment guidelines might harm investors RAISE YOUR HAND FOR THE ENVIRONMENT When Canadians work together we can find a balance between responsible resource development and the environment. To date, Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) has invested more than 1.2 billion dollars developing and sharing 814 technologies and innovations to accelerate environmental improvements and reduce GHG emissions, making COSIA one of the most active innovation hubs in the world. Think oil and natural gas developed the Canadian way is good for Canada? Then raise your hand and show your support by joining Canada's Energy Citizens at T energycitizens.ca Not actors. Real Canadians. R0023531940-1203 here are rules and regulations designed to keep investors safe. Sometimes those rules might back re. Recently, I attended a conference designed to provide insight into guiding the type of advice given to clients. I think having strict rules in the investment industry is a good thing. Regulators that are responsible for policing our industry are there to protect the general public. Rules have to be clear and enforced to set a minimum standard for all industry participants to follow. The problem arises because nancial planning and investment advice is a practical solution on developing the best strategy for a speci c client. Rules implemented to protect everybody in some cases might not be appropriate for all investors. At the conference, an example was given for a retired couple who were dependent on their investment portfolio to have income in order to make ends meet. For the purposes of this column, we will assume the couple is both aged 70 years old. The question is, should that couple have equity investments, which are stocks, versus safer xed income investments like bonds or Guaranteed Investment Certi cates? Assume the couple had 60 per cent of its investment portfolio invested in equities and another stock market meltdown came along similar to what happened in 2008. A large part of the value of their equity investments would be lost. Can a retired couple afford to lose a signi cant amount of their investment assets as a result of the stock market decline? Remember, stock market declines are normal. see Look on p.27