The ASX ETF market seems to be growing faster by the day, and one of the ETFs that you might be considering is the iShares S&P Small-Cap ETF (ASX: IJR). In this article, we’ll provide a brief review of the IJR ETF.
1. Simple exposure
The iShares IJR ETF provides investors with exposure to small-cap US companies. This is a low-cost way to access a specific segment of the US market through a single fund.
2. Funds Under Management (FUM)
The IJR ETF had $166.29 million of money invested when we last pulled the monthly numbers. Given IJR’s total funds under management (FUM) figure is over $100 million, the ETF has met our minimum criteria for the total amount of money invested, otherwise known as FUM. We draw the line at $100 million for ETFs in the International shares sector because we believe that relative to smaller ETFs, achieving this amount of FUM derisks the ETF.
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3. Fees & costs matter
With a yearly management fee of 0.07% charged by iShares, if you invested $2,000 in the IJR ETF for a full year you could expect to pay management fees of around $1.40. For context, the average management fee (MER) of all ETFs covered by Best ETFs Australia on our complete list of ASX ETFs is 0.54% or around $10.80 per $2,000 invested. Keep in mind, small changes in fees can make a big difference after 10 or 20 years.
In addition to a yearly management fee, there are other costs investors must consider, including brokerage and taxes. A specific cost for ETF and mFund investors to consider is the buy-sell spread, which is the slippage or ‘invisible’ cost paid by an investor when he or she buys or sells the ETF. For the IJR ETF, the most recent average monthly buy-sell spread we gathered (April 2020) was 0.59%. Remember, the lower (or ‘tighter’) the buy-sell spread, the better. This buy-sell spread was above the average ETF spread of 0.51%, which means the IJR ETF has more slippage than the average ETF (that’s a bad thing).
Next steps
These are just some of the considerations or factors you would need to look at when weighing up the IJR ETF. Before doing anything, take a look at our iShares IJR report – it’s free. While you’re at it, don’t forget to search our complete list of ASX ETFs.
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