The World of ETFs

No worries. I’d suggest a global equity ETF and a global bond one would achieve much of the same and address the quasi-active fund concern.

Whether you go with Ftse all-world, MSCI world or the S&P is down to taste.

If you really want small-caps, some funds such as Vanguard’s global all-cap include them and there are some global small-cap ETFs like WLDS.

You could use a US small-cap ETF as a proxy but I’d rather pay a higher ongoing charge for a Russell 2000 one like R2SC.

It’s much bigger (£2bn vs £60m), more liquid so you’ll probably get a better spread/execution, and denominated in GBP so you won’t incur an FX fee.

In reality, a small additional slice of smallcaps is unlikely to make that much of a difference in the long-term so I wouldn’t bother.

I think it pays to keep passive investing as simple as possible.

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