Bazz 

My thoughts exactly. 

Their return in 2016 was abysmal.  The FA said it was 4.7%. If memory serves me correct, the TSX was up in the 22% range in 2016.  Even if 40% of their investments were in fixed income, their 2016 returns should have been in the double digits.  I was a little over 24% up last year, although not something I think will be repeated very often. 

I buy many of the same equities as you.  I hold 6 of the 9 you mentioned. I do stray into some small caps, but all of them are dividend payers and most are dividend growers.  My current portfolio yield is 5.1%, which beats their expected returns on yield alone. 

It would have been interesting to see what asset mix returned 4.9% last year (the FA's benchmark in the article) just to give us a better idea of their risk tolerance.