The Vanguard International Fixed Interest Index (Hedged) ETF (ASX: VIF) and ETF Securities Physical Palladium ETF (ASX: ETPMPD) are Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) operating in the Fixed interest – International and Commodities sectors, respectively.
How would an investor add VIF to a portfolio?
The Vanguard VIF ETF provides investors with exposure to high-quality securities issued by governments from around the world. It’s a pretty simple but transparent bond ETF.
According to our most recent data, the VIF ETF had $520.49 million of money invested. With VIF’s total funds under management (FUM) figure over $100 million, the ETF meets our team’s minimum investment criteria for FUM levels. As a general rule, our team draws the line at $100 million for ETFs in the Fixed interest – International sector because we believe that, relative to smaller ETFs, achieving this amount of FUM lowers the chance that the ETF issuer will close the ETF.
Fees to consider
According to our numbers, the annual management fee on the VIF ETF is 0.2%. The issuer, Vanguard, collects this fee automatically.
Meaning, if you invested $2,000 in the VIF ETF for a full year you could expect to pay management fees of around $4.00. This fee is different from the fee you pay to your brokerage provider (e.g. CommSec, NabTrade, SelfWealth, etc.), which is the fee to buy or sell the ETF. In addition to a management fee charged by the issuer, be mindful to check the ‘spread‘ for the ETF.
How about those fees?
Fees aren’t the only key consideration for ETF investors, but it’s an easy thing to do. To understand if the ETF you’re looking at is too costly, compare it with other ETFs from the same sector, and against the industry average. For example, the average management fee (MER) across all of the ETFs covered by the Best ETFs Australia team was 0.51%, which is $10.20 per $2,000 invested. Keep in mind that small changes in the fees paid can make a big difference after 10 or 20 years. You should read the VIF Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), available on the ETF issuer’s website, because it will detail the fees, tax implications and the latest information.
The VIF ETF could be one to add to your watchlist. If you want to access our full ETF review, click here to get our full report – it’s totally free.
Getting to know the ETPMPD ETF
The ETFS ETPMPM ETF provides investors with access to the precious metal of palladium, by seeking to achieve a return equivalent to the movements in the palladium spot price, before fees and expenses. Palladium comes from the same family of metals as platinum and is used in many electronic and industrial products, particularly in the automotive industry.
With our numbers for July 2020, ETPMPD’s FUM stood at $6.57 million. Given it has less than $100 million invested, ask yourself (or your adviser) if the ETF is still too small (and if you should wait to buy into it). If you’re concerned the ETF might not be established enough, compare it alongside one of the other Index sector ETFs, using our full list of ETFs.
Fees to watch
ETF Securities, the ETF issuer, charges a yearly management fee of 0.49% for the ETPMPD ETF. Meaning, if you invested $2,000 for a full 12-month period you could expect to pay a base management fee of around $9.80.
This management fee is below the average for all ETFs on our Best ETFs Australia list of ETFs. However, you might still be able to find a cheaper ETF for less.
Picking over ETFs seems too easy to be true: ‘just pick one and put it in your bottom-drawer’. However, it’s important to get it right the first time so that you won’t end up having to chop-and-change positions (and potentially pay extra tax). To make your life a little easier, if you’re looking at the ETPMPD ETF, make sure you click here to access our analyst’s investment report. It’s free.
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