They help diversify your finance holdings

Article Excerpt

We recommend most investors hold two to three of Canada’s Big Five banks; right now, our top two favourites are TD Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia. We also advise adding non-bank stocks to your Finance sector holdings, including Great-West Lifeco and IGM Financial. Both are market leaders, and pay above average dividends.We see one of them as a buy for right now. GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $31 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; shares outstanding: 987.7 million; Market cap: $30.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 5.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s second-largest insurance company, after Manulife Financial. It also offers mutual funds and wealth management services. Power Financial Corp. (Toronto symbol PWF) owns 67.7% of the company. Great-West is now selling its U.S. individual life insurance and annuity business to Protective Life Corp. for $1.6 billion. The insurer will sell these policies below their book value. As a result, it will incur a $93 million loss as well…