About Us
MPL Communications Inc. (publisher of AdviceForInvestors.com) is Canada’s largest provider of independent investment advice. MPL’s publications include The Investment Reporter, one of the oldest continuously published investment advisories in North America, and Investor’s Digest of Canada, Canada’s preeminent newspaper for investors.
Other MPL publications include The MoneyLetter, Money Reporter and The TaxLetter.
Through this impressive list of publications, MPL covers every aspect of the investment picture: Canadian and key foreign equities (The Investment Reporter and The MoneyLetter), mutual funds and income investments (Money Reporter), and taxation issues (The TaxLetter). Investor’s Digest of Canada takes a comprehensive look at the entire investment scene.
Through its web site, AdviceForInvestors.com, MPL is the largest online provider of independent investment advisory services in Canada. In addition to delivering each of its publications to subscribers electronically, AdviceForInvestors.com offers in-depth information and advice on Canadian companies (and key U.S. stocks), comprehensive coverage of more than 20 investing topics and a catalogue of free investment reports.
Subscribers are assured of independent, unbiased advice. MPL’s editors have no connection to any brokerages, banks or other financial institutions. There is an exception with Investor’s Digest: while the editorial stance is independent, the newspaper also brings subscribers brokerage reports (and a detailed chart of analysts’ consensus “buy-sell” calls and earnings estimates), interviews with fund managers and articles with guest columnists. In addition, some clearly-indicated articles of AdviceForInvestors.com contain advice and recommendations from outside analysts who may have positions in certain stocks discussed.
The company was founded in 1941 by investment adviser George Armstrong, who was determined to supply individual Canadian investors with the information and advice then available only to “insiders”. Mr. Armstrong’s investment philosophy — judging a company on its merits, buying undervalued stocks and holding them, building a portfolio for long-term gains — is widely practised today, usually under the heading of “value investing”.
To perpetuate his ideas, Mr. Armstrong founded the Investment Planning Committee which continues to meet regularly to assess the investment picture and discuss their “buy-sell” recommendations for Canadian investors.
Over a period of 20 years, from 1993 to 2013, the stock recommendations of this committee had a compound annualized return of 13.4 per cent. These figures come from the leading independent advisory measurement service, Dow Jones’ respected MarketWatch and its prestigious Hulbert Financial Digest. Over the same 20 years, the compound annualized return for all Canadian equity mutual funds was an average 6.8 per cent.
Our History: A Very Profitable Legacy
In the otherwise dark days of the Second World War in 1941, Canadian investors received some very good news from George Armstrong.
He began an investment advisory service with one goal in mind — to give the average Canadian investor a fair shake in the market.
Then, “small” Canadian investors didn’t find good advice growing like wheat on the prairies. Brokerage firms devoted the lion’s share of their time to their wealthiest clients.
George Armstrong didn’t simply rectify that wrong. He changed the way Canadians look at investing… and made many of them wealthy in the process.
A Canadian point of view
George Armstrong offered one asset that hadn’t existed before. He examined Canadian stocks from a Canadian point of view.
Until then, facts on Canadian equities were sparse. And, wrote George Armstrong, the worth of a stock “can only be determined by learning everything you can about the company, its markets, its competitive position in its industry, its history and its prospects for the future. Always, before you buy, get the facts.”
Regular reports from Mr. Armstrong began flowing to investors hungry for knowledge. Fact-filled assessments of the prospects of Canadian firms formed the bedrock of success for many investors who had previously been left in the dark.
What’s more, his philosophy of investing was backed with clear advice and specific “buy” and “sell” recommendations that marked out a path for investors to follow.
World-beating advice
Early on, George Armstrong made two decisions to ensure that his advisory service would endure:
First, he mandated complete independence. There would be no ties to any bank or brokerage firm. His company’s advice would never raise the least suspicion of self-interest in any of its “buy” and “sell” calls.
Second, he created the Investment Planning Committee. This group of independent analysts and advisers still meets every two weeks. The faces change, but the committee’s “buy,” “hold” and “sell” recommendations remain the most consistently profitable advice in Canada.
Today, George Armstrong’s legacy comes to Canadian investors every week in the advisory he founded, The Investment Reporter, the oldest of the six publications that today support AdviceForInvestors.com and one of the oldest continuously-published investment advisories in North America.
Mr. Armstrong would have been very proud of the steady — often spectacular — gains that have been chalked up by the editors who have succeeded him, working closely with their colleagues on the Investment Planning Committee.
The recognition of his advisory’s world-beating advice would have made George Armstrong smile. But he would be even happier to know that thousands of Canadian investors continue to profit from the investment philosophy that he established and nurtured.
