Teck Resources shares up on merger report + MORE Mar 30th

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Q: I plan on divorcing my wife in two years. What can I do right now to keep more of my assets?—All’s Fair, Whitby, Ont.
A: Getting ready to split but don’t want to share the spoils? Well, you’re out of luck if you live in Ontario, says Toronto estates lawyer Barry Corbin. According to family law, each spouse is entitled to half the assets earned during the marital years (subject to certain exceptions). But this doesn’t necessarily mean the top earner always foots the split-up bill. Say, you came to the marriage with $1 million in stock, but earned nothing over the years. Meanwhile, your wife had no assets when she married you, but acquired $400,000 during the marriage. When you got divorced, she’d end up owing you $200,000, as you only divide the assets that were acquired during marriage. Just keep in mind that Ontario courts will dismiss any attempts by disgruntled spouses trying to hide, transfer or shelter assets in order to keep them from an ex.
Got a delicate money question? Send it to ask@moneysense…

VANCOUVER – Shares of Teck Resources Ltd. (TSX:TCK.B) were up more than 14 per cent Monday amid a report that the company is in talks regarding a possible merger with Chilean copper miner Antofagasta.
Bloomberg cited unidentified sources with knowledge of the matter as saying that the companies have held early stage talks.
Teck issued a brief email statement saying only that it was company policy “not to comment on market rumours or speculation.”
Teck Resources is one of Canada’s largest mining companies with extensive copper mining operation in Chile and Peru as well as in Canada and at current stock prices has a market cap of more than $11.5 billion.
In late-day trading, the stock was up $2.48 or 14.2 per cent at $19.95 on volume of more than 4.8 million shares, double it daily average.
The heavy trading volume at one point prompted a brief trading halt due to a single-stock circuit breaker.
Teck Resources is together controlled through multiple voting shares by the Keevil family and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co…

(Getty Images/Catherine Lane)
The unusual thing about your home is that it is has aspects of being an investment but it’s also a place to live. While you can expect it to appreciate in value over a long period of time, to realize a return you also have to be willing to sell it or extract equity.
Most people fall somewhere in a continuum between two ways of thinking about their home, says Cynthia Holmes, a professor of real estate management at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management. At one extreme, they may look dispassionately on it as something they would sell to maximize their return when the price is right. At the other extreme, they might be so attached to it that they wouldn’t sell or touch the equity under any circumstances. But the common view is “that there is equity sitting in the home that can be realized at some point,” Holmes says.
There are lots of options to realize value, she points out. Many people do that by downsizing and relocating. Others sell and often use the proceeds when it becomes time to move to a retirement home…

This GIC rate is offered by Oaken Financial and was updated on 2014-12-19. Click on the link above to get more details or apply online.