Discovery™

Discovery is part of a process your financial security advisor uses to understand your unique investor profile. This process helps develop a customized investment portfolio, specifically designed to meet your financial security goals.

The process

Your financial security advisor will use the Discovery process to:

• Take you through a comprehensive questionnaire
• Determine your risk tolerance, investment objectives and timeframe
• Suggest an investment profile, based on your preferences, that balances your risk tolerance, time horizon and investment objectives
• Recommend your proper asset allocation, specific funds and in what percentage to invest in these funds

What does asset allocation mean?

Asset allocation is about creating the right mix and weighting of investments for you.

Discovery can help minimize your taxes

Different types of investments generate various kinds of taxable income. For instance, some investment funds may provide you with interest and others may give you dividends. The government taxes different types of income—interest, dividends and capital gains—at different rates. Discovery considers the tax-effectiveness of your investment funds. It analyzes the income from specific funds, and then identifies fund combinations that may keep the taxes you have to pay to a minimum.

Discovery diversifies your portfolio

Investment markets move in cycles. Different asset classes react differently in certain phases of those cycles. This means certain investments could increase in value at the same time other investments could decrease in value.

Asset allocation combines investments that do not behave the same way during those cycles, so the strength of one supports any weakness in the other. The result is an overall reduction in risk for your portfolio.

With Discovery, you get the benefits of diversification across investment managers, investment styles, geographic region and asset class. That’s because Quadrus Group of Funds and Great-West Life offer:

• Different types of assets including stocks, bonds, mortgages and real estate
• Different choices within each type of asset class such as stocks in large, small or resource-based companies, and bonds issued by governments and corporations
• Assets in different countries including Canada, the United States and around the globe
• Different investment managers who use different investment styles

How diversification reduces your risk

Three factors influence portfolio risk:

• The risk associated with each investment in your portfolio
• The percentage of total funds invested in each investment
• The relationship of the investments to each other

By diversifying your investment portfolio—combining a variety of investments—you reduce overall risk without sacrificing long-term returns.