Comments on: A Tour of ETFs: iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund

By: How Withholding Taxes Affect the Choice of International Investments? | Canadian Capitalist

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:24:32 +0000

[...] drag is worth highlighting. Take for instance, the iShares CDN MSCI EAFE ETF (XIN), which holds the iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund (EFA). EFA holds foreign stocks that trade in the UK, Japan, Germany, Australia etc. but the fund itself [...]

By: Roger

Roger — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:32:28 +0000

By holding US ETF in a Canadian portfolio, the value of the ETF will be affected by the value of $CAN compared to $US in case of selling, isn’t it?

By: A Tour of ETFs: Vanguard Europe Pacific ETF

A Tour of ETFs: Vanguard Europe Pacific ETF — Tue, 29 May 2007 12:12:55 +0000

[...] time, the new ETF will be of interest to long-term investors as it competes with the more popular iShares MSCI EAFE Index fund on price. The MER for the new fund is expected to be 0.15% or about 20 bps lower than the [...]

By: Canadian Money Blogs Reviewer

Canadian Money Blogs Reviewer — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 03:00:10 +0000

CC: what do you think of Claymore’s CIE? I like that it is fundamentals based … (http://www.claymoreinvestments.ca/ETFs/Public/fund/Overview.aspx?ID=78becf0d-407a-4627-8ef8-db750701f82d)

I’ve noticed that Japan composes a large chunk of this ETF … is that a justified bias?

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 14:52:57 +0000

Griff: VEU will be attractive for US investors wanting a one-decision foreign exposure ETF. Unfortunately, for Canadian investors, VEU also has a 5% exposure to our equities market. It is not a huge concern, as you can calibrate exposure to Canadian equities accordingly. My preference is to still stick with EFA+VWO but definitely VEU will be an attractive alternative.

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 14:21:09 +0000

Griff: My next post on ETFs is VWO and I’ve already mentioned it other posts. I read about the VEU in media reports, but I haven’t had a chance to look at it.

Mike: The decision between EFA and VGK+VPL is also complicated by how often rebalancing is required. For now, I am happy to hold EFA in my personal portfolios and if the position becomes large enough, I’ll consider switching.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 11:55:16 +0000

That’s interesting Griff.

I was thinking that for a typical investor, if you are making semi or annual ETF purchases, then the EFA would probably be better because of lower transaction fees.

By: Griff

Griff — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 04:05:04 +0000

I’ve been pondering the same thing, which international ETF to invest in. I liked the idea of splitting my allocation between VGK (Europe 0.18% MER) and VPL (Pacific 0.18% MER) but without VWO (Emerging Mkts 0.3% MER) the international component would not be complete.

Just over a month ago Vanguard introduced their “All World excluding US” ETF, VEU. It covers the whole planet except for the US, including emerging markets, in proportion to the size of each economy. It has an MER of 0.25% which is slightly higher than the average of VGK, VPL and VWO but unless your portfolio is large this will be more than made up for in the lower commissions for (annual?) rebalancing.

My other issue was I knew I would spend hours (weeks?) figuring out my allocation between Europe, Pacific and Emerging and probably trying to time the market unsuccessfully.

Now I’ve simplified the bulk of my portfolio down to a bond fund, Canadian equity ETF (XIU), US equity ETF (VTI) and a Global equity ETF VEU.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 02:27:31 +0000

Another good ETF post.

Regarding your comment about switching EFA to VGL and VPL in the Sleepy Portfolio – if the cost to switch is $60 and the annual saving is $34 – this is still a worthwhile move since the payback will be in two years.