If your brother is just starting off investing and saving then your goal should be to help him create a saving strategy and stick to it.
Making regular investments to an RRSP, TFSA or other accounts will be much more important to him in the first few years than the individual investments he picks. Looking to go via low cost index mutual funds will help as he can set up regular purchases directly out of his account.
Whether or not, in the end, they will end up being the best investment will depend on how much risk he wants to take and how involved in the process he wants to be. Claymore is now offering purchase plans on a few of their ETFs so he can even skip the step of accumulating in index funds before buying index ETFs in some cases.
I think your guidance should really be towards getting him in the right habbits at first, don't focus too much on the investment decisions and costs. They shouldn't be completely disregarded but to me they aren't your brothers main problem if he is 34 and hasn't started developing good saving habits yet.
Making regular investments to an RRSP, TFSA or other accounts will be much more important to him in the first few years than the individual investments he picks. Looking to go via low cost index mutual funds will help as he can set up regular purchases directly out of his account.
Whether or not, in the end, they will end up being the best investment will depend on how much risk he wants to take and how involved in the process he wants to be. Claymore is now offering purchase plans on a few of their ETFs so he can even skip the step of accumulating in index funds before buying index ETFs in some cases.
I think your guidance should really be towards getting him in the right habbits at first, don't focus too much on the investment decisions and costs. They shouldn't be completely disregarded but to me they aren't your brothers main problem if he is 34 and hasn't started developing good saving habits yet.