The ASX ETF market seems to be growing faster by the day, and one of the ETFs that you might be considering is the Betashares FTSE RAFI Australia 200 ETF (ASX: QOZ). In this article, we’ll provide a brief review of the QOZ ETF.
1. Simple exposure
The BetaShares QOZ ETF provides exposure to a ‘fundamentally weighted’ index of 200 large Australian shares. This ETF focuses on weighting the portfolio with a focus on ‘economic importance’ rather than market capitalisation, while also aiming to outperform traditional market-cap weighted indices.
2. Funds Under Management (FUM)
The QOZ ETF had $252.24 million of money invested when we last pulled the monthly numbers. Given QOZ’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 Australian shares sector because we believe that relative to smaller ETFs, achieving this amount of FUM derisks the ETF.
3. Fees & costs matter
With a yearly management fee of 0.4% charged by Betashares, if you invested $2,000 in the QOZ ETF for a full year you could expect to pay management fees of around $8.00. For context, the average management fee (MER) of all ETFs covered by Best ETFs Australia on our complete list of ASX ETFs is 0.51% or around $10.20 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 QOZ ETF, the most recent average monthly buy-sell spread we gathered (July 2020) was 0.15%. Remember, the lower (or ‘tighter’) the buy-sell spread, the better. This buy-sell spread was below the average ETF spread of 0.43%, so that’s a good thing.
What now?
These are just some of the considerations or factors you would need to consider when weighing up the QOZ ETF. If you’re looking to do some further digging, be sure to read our Betashares QOZ report – it’s free. While you’re at it, don’t forget to search our complete list of ASX ETFs. You can filter the results according to sector, issuer, size, and more.
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