Tag: xeqt

The Cost of Asset Allocation ETFs

RobH4 Comments

Readers will know that I’m a fan of the asset-allocation ETF. In fact, the vast majority of my retirement savings are dedicated to them. (New to the concept of asset allocation ETFs? Here’s an intro.)

Owning asset-allocation ETFs means you can quite literally invest and forget. The target asset allocations are maintained automatically for you, eliminating the all-too-common desire to tinker/experiment/play and mess with your returns in the process.

As with all things investing, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. This automatic asset re-allocation is reflected in the MER1 of the asset-allocation ETFs. So what’s this automatic management actually costing the holder of the all-in-one?

To work out the answer to that question, you have to look at how the asset-allocation ETF in question is built. Some people refer to asset allocation ETFs as “funds of funds” and this is actually quite an apt description, since most asset-allocation ETFs are just constructed by buying up index ETFs issued by the same company.

For example, iShares and TD each have an all-equity asset allocation ETF, named XEQT and TEQT2, respectively. Here’s what’s actually under the hood of each of them:

(I tried to keep the colours consistent between the two: red is Canadian equity, blue is US Equity, and other colours are international equity).

The thing about the MER of an all-in-one is that it already includes the MERs of the funds from which it is built. The tip-off is phrases like this one in iShares’ literature:


…MER includes all management fees and GST/HST paid by the fund for the period, and includes the fund’s proportionate share of the MER, if any, of any underlying fund in which the fund has invested…

https://www.blackrock.com/ca/investors/en/literature/product-brief/core-etf-portfolios-product-brief.pdf3

What this means is you can work out what the MER would be if you decided to simply manage the underlying funds yourself, and in so doing, figure out the premium that the all-in-one is adding to the mix.

I did this exercise, and here’s what I found:

XEQTTEQT
MER of component parts40.103%0.089%
All-in-one MER50.20%0.17%
MER premium for all-in-one60.097%0.081%
Annual premium cost per $1000 invested7$0.97$0.81

I offer a few takeaways from this analysis:

  • The MER costs I’m talking about here are lower than a factor of 10 (at least) that what’s charged by typical investment advisors and bank-backed mutual funds
  • The cost premium of the all-in-one is small, but it’s higher than I expected; even small percentage differences are greatly amplified when you work out (say) the 10 year cost of using these products.

The alternative of managing the constituent parts can be a cheapskate alternative and can save real money over time8, but one must beware of

  • The added complexity inherent in managing a portfolio of multiple ETFs. The XEQT/TEQT example is the simplest one; if you add bonds to the mix (e.g. XBAL/TBAL) you will need to add a few more ETFs to replicate the all-in-one. I used to manage my portfolio without using all-in-ones. I enjoyed it (you may have noticed I have a deep interest in investing). In retirement I have chosen to be practical and have attempted to create an environment that won’t be cognitively overwhelming as I get older.9
  • The greater likelihood of straying from the plan due to inaction or emotion kicking in. I myself didn’t put a lot of credence to this argument, but people smarter than me have pointed out that this is probably the one biggest factor that derails investment plans.
  1. The MER (Management Expense Ratio) is the cost of operating the ETF, expressed as a percentage. You don’t directly pay MER fees, but they reduce the overall returns of your investments. Lower MERs = more money for you. ↩︎
  2. No points for originality here ↩︎
  3. In teeny tiny letters at the bottom of page 1 ↩︎
  4. Weighted MER of each of the component ETFs. ↩︎
  5. You can find these on the ETF pages for XEQT and TEQT ↩︎
  6. Subtract 2 previous rows ↩︎
  7. Just multiply. Watch those decimal points, though. ↩︎
  8. I’m ignoring trading costs which aren’t zero but ought to be very small. Rebalancing assets is necessary of course but is perhaps a monthly, quarterly or annual exercise. ↩︎
  9. And even a portfolio just based on all-in-ones may prove to be too much to handle at some point. I’ve started to pay a bit more attention to the services offered by robo-advisors. ↩︎

XEQT Shifts again

RobHLeave a comment

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but XEQT, one of my ETF all stars, recently made some changes under the hood1. Specifically, in their words:

XEQT primarily accesses its broad market U.S. equity exposure using …ITOT, a U.S.-domiciled ETF. In certain circumstances, U.S.-domiciled ETFs … are subject to limits on the sale of their shares to non-U.S. domiciled investment funds such as XEQT. Prior to July 2025, iShares Core S&P 500 Index ETF (XUS) had been held as an additional instrument… Effective July 2, 2025, XEQT has replaced XUS with iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market Index ETF (XTOT). Going forward, XEQT is expected to hold a mix of XTOT and ITOT.

https://www.blackrock.com/ca/investors/en/literature/product-brief/core-etf-portfolios-product-brief.pdf

So, in other words:

  • XEQT isn’t allowed2 to hold “just” ITOT (a broad US market ETF) to cover the US market3
  • XEQT used XUS (the 500 largest US stocks) to get around this restriction until very lately
  • XEQT now uses XTOT which is 99% the same as ITOT to get around this restriction
  • TL/DR: XEQT is now pretty much what it was at the very beginning of 2025

What this means is that lately4, XEQT has reduced its exposure somewhat to the very largest US stocks. I did a little analysis to convince myself, summarized below:

Stock5% delta change XEQT6% delta change ITOT7delta XEQT/ITOT8
Apple-1.7%1.2%-2.9%
Microsoft-2.9%0.2%-3.0%
NVIDIA3.5%6.5%-3.1%
Amazon-1.3%2.3%-3.6%
META-9.2%-6%-3.2%
Berkshire Hathaway-6%-3.4%-2.6%
Alphabet A2.6%6.4%-3.8%
Broadcom-1.0%2.3%-3.3%
Tesla-6%-4%-1.9%
Alphabet C1.6%6.5%-4.9%

The change in the contribution of the largest 10 US stocks has been consistently reduced in XEQT in the past month — that’s what the last column shows. This is what one would expect by removing the “double investing” that was going on previously when XEQT was holding both ITOT and XUS.

To me, that’s all round a good thing, since it provides greater diversification when holding XEQT. I’ve updated the What’s the deal with XEQT? post accordingly!

  1. Thanks to r/JustBuyXEQTfor pointing this out ↩︎
  2. And I don’t know why this is ↩︎
  3. XGRO, my normal go-to in this all-in-family, has not changed at all and continues to hold ITOT and never bothered adding XUS. I guess since the US portion of XGRO is smaller than that of XEQT, it can skirt this restriction. ↩︎
  4. Since July 2 to be precise ↩︎
  5. These are the top 10 US holdings of XEQT, and the top 10 for ITOT. ↩︎
  6. This is % change in the % contribution of each of these stocks between June 30 2025 and July 25, 2025 as reported by the XEQT “underlying aggregate holdings” data on its product sheet. The XEQT change is driven by both the differential in the monthly returns, AND a reduction in the weight of each of the underlying stocks. ↩︎
  7. This is the % change in the % contribution of each of these stocks between June 30 2025 and July 25, 2025 as reported by the ITOT “underlying aggregate holdings” data on its product sheet. The ITOT change is driven purely by differential monthly returns of the stocks. ↩︎
  8. Simply subtract the two previous columns ↩︎

Reddit groups worth watching

RobH1 Comment

I try to stay informed about the options out there for the DIY investor. Reddit has a lot of decent groups that help me stay in the know. Here’s a few I follow. And sometimes contribute to1.

r/Questrade

The Questrade subreddit is a good place to hear about changes on the platform. Questrade is currently my provider of choice since they are currently paying me to use their platform. Questrade employees do pay attention to this sub and will sometimes personally reach out to help (I’ve had this happen to me).

r/Wealthsimple

I have a growing relationship with Wealthsimple. I have one RRIF account with them (history of why is found here), their Cash card is a wonderful tool to save money when traveling and their chequing accounts actually pay reasonable interest rates. Lots to like. Their platform is ever evolving and the folks on the Wealthsimple sub help me to keep an eye on what’s coming up. I’m a fan of this product, and would consider using them as my primary financial services provider, once they have all the pieces I need in place. (Current shortfalls: USD support is weak, no spousal RRIF accounts last time I checked).

r/Bogleheads

No, not that kind. “Bogleheads” are folks that are disciples of Jack Bogle, credited for creating the first ever passive index fund. Bogleheads, like me, are passive index investors. The posts on the Boglehead subreddit are comprised of primarily US investors, but the concepts they talk about are applicable to the Canadian investor. My own investment philosophy is, as it turns out, strongly aligned with that of the Boglehead crew.

r/JustBuyXEQT

This sub’s biases are pretty plain to see. It’s populated by uber-fans of the all-equity all-in-one that I hold in my own portfolio,2 although not exclusively. (I prefer XGRO as it provides a bit of downside protection, but my thinking may be flawed on that front). XEQT is on my all-stars list. Posts are generally from younger investors who are looking for an easy way to invest and forget. Given my recent analysis, I’ll probably start buying into TEQT to save a few dollars on the MER front.

r/CanadianInvestor

This sub is more generally about investing in the Canadian market, and in some ways serves as a counter to the other subs that are more closely aligned with my couch potato style of investing. Unlike the other subs, I lack sufficient karma3 to contribute…I’m very close though.

r/cantax

This sub is all about the Canadian tax system. I sometimes pick up good tips this way.

Are there Reddit groups you think this community should know about? Let me know at comments@moneyengineer.ca!

  1. as u/RobHemm ↩︎
  2. About 6% as of July 2025 ↩︎
  3. You need a score of 50. I’m at 45. ↩︎

What’s in my retirement portfolio (July 2025)

RobH4 Comments

This is a (hopefully monthly) look at what’s in my retirement portfolio. The original post is here. Last month’s is here.

Portfolio Construction

The retirement portfolio is spread across a bunch of accounts:

  • 7 RRIF accounts (3 for me, 3 for my spouse, 1 at an alternative provider as a test)
  • 2 TFSA accounts
  • 4 non-registered accounts, (1 for me, 1 for my spouse, 2 joint)

The target for the overall portfolio is unchanged:

  • 80% equity, spread across Canadian, US and global markets for maximum diversification
  • 15% Bond funds, from a variety of Canadian, US and global markets
  • 5% cash, held in savings-like ETFs.

You can read about my asset-allocation approach to investing over here.

The view as of this morning

As of this morning, this is what the overall portfolio looks like:

Retirement holdings by ETF, July 2025

The portfolio is dominated by my ETF all-stars; anything not on that page is held in a non-registered account and won’t be fiddled with unless it’s part of my monthly decumulation. Otherwise I’ll rack up capital gains for no real benefit.

There weren’t big changes this month. My monthly decumulation from my RRIF accounts involves selling enough XGRO to meet RRIF-minimum payments, and the rest of my retirement paycheque is funded by my non-registered accounts. This month, given the run in the US stock market of late, that involved a sale of some shares of HXS1.

Plan for the next month

The asset-class split looks like this

The bond portion of the portfolio is a little smaller than I would like. The targets for my portfolio are unchanged:

  • 5% cash or cash-like holdings like ICSH and ZMMK
  • 15% bonds (almost all are buried in XGRO and AOA)
  • 20% Canadian equity (mostly based on ETFs that mirror the S&P/TSX 60)
  • 36% US equity (dominated by ETFs that mirror the S&P 500, with a small sprinkling of Russell 2000)
  • 24% International equity (mostly, but not exclusively, developed markets)

The change in the bond portion of the portfolio was amplified because I hadn’t updated the asset split of AOA in my multi-asset tracker in a while. AOA has drifted quite a bit since it only rebalances twice a year (next time in October). More on drifting in multi-asset ETFs here.

Overall

The retirement savings look quite healthy; even though I’ve been drawing a monthly salary for 7 months, I’m now ahead of where I was when I started my retirement journey. This is aligned with what my retirement planner told me to expect, but as you can see, the journey has had some interesting ups and downs already.

Monthly retirement savings, as percentage of Jan 2025 value

My VPW-calculated salary has hit a new high this year, a dizzying 0.77% higher than my first draw in January. This stability is thanks to the built-in shock-absorber of the VPW model (a 6-month cash cushion which smooths out the market gyrations considerably). I also think it’s an endorsement of my choice to take retirement payments monthly; my exposure to short-term market hiccups is greatly reduced since I’m not making big sales of ETFs to fund a year of spending all at once.

Monthly salary, as percentage of Jan 2025 salary
  1. Which particular ETF I sell from my non-registered portfolio is based on what asset class is the most overweight at that point in time. If it’s US Equity, then I sell US Equity. If it’s Canadian Equity, then I sell Canadian Equity. ↩︎

What’s in my retirement portfolio (June 2025)

RobH4 Comments

This is a (hopefully1 monthly) look at what’s in my retirement portfolio. The original post is here. Last month’s is here.

Portfolio Construction

The retirement portfolio is spread across a bunch of accounts2:

  • 7 RRIF accounts (3 for me, 3 for my spouse, 1 at an alternative provider as a test)
  • 2 TFSA accounts
  • 4 non-registered accounts, (1 for me, 1 for my spouse, 2 joint)

The target for the overall portfolio is unchanged:

  • 80% equity, spread across Canadian, US and global markets for maximum diversification
  • 15% Bond funds, from a variety of Canadian, US and global markets
  • 5% cash, held in savings-like ETFs.

You can read about my asset-allocation approach to investing over here.

The view as of this morning

As of this morning, this is what the overall portfolio looks like:

Retirement holdings by ETF, June 2025

The portfolio is dominated by my ETF all-stars; anything not on that page is held in a non-registered account and won’t be fiddled with unless it’s part of my monthly decumulation. Otherwise I’ll rack up capital gains for no real benefit.

The biggest changes over the last 30 days was due to a small rebalancing exercise I executed. I sold off some AOA in order to pick up more ICSH. The stock market has been roaring lately, and it caused my target allocations to become a bit cash-poor; ICSH is not, strictly speaking, “cash”, but for my purposes, it’s close enough. (You can read about my cash thoughts here). I could have instead sold XGRO to pick up more ZMMK, but US interest rates are a lot better than Canadian ones at the moment, so I figured I’d enjoy the extra few percentage points of return on my cash holdings.

Plan for the next month

The asset-class split looks like this

This looks to be pretty close to my target percentages which haven’t changed:

  • 5% cash or cash-like holdings like ICSH and ZMMK
  • 15% bonds (almost all are buried in XGRO and AOA)
  • 20% Canadian equity (mostly based on ETFs that mirror the S&P/TSX 60)
  • 36% US equity (dominated by ETFs that mirror the S&P 500, with a small sprinkling of Russell 2000)
  • 24% International equity (mostly, but not exclusively, developed markets)

The pie is looking almost perfect at the moment. I don’t see any near-term need for fiddling with what’s there.

Overall

The retirement savings look quite healthy; even though I’ve been drawing a monthly salary for 6 months, I’m now ahead of where I was3 when I started my retirement journey. This is aligned with what my retirement planner told me to expect, but as you can see, the journey has had some interesting ups and downs aready.

Monthly retirement savings, as percentage of Jan 2025 value

My VPW-calculated salary has gone back to more or less where I started at the beginning of the year. And even with the crazy market swings we’ve seen, it’s stayed remarkably stable4. That’s thanks to the built-in shock-absorber of the VPW model (a 6-month cash cushion which smooths out the market gyrations considerably). I also think it’s an endorsement of my choice to take retirement payments monthly; my exposure to short-term market hiccups is greatly reduced since I’m not making big sales of ETFs to fund a year of spending all at once.

Monthly salary, as percentage of Jan 2025 salary

  1. I know it’s July 7, but the numbers are accurate for June, more or less. ↩︎
  2. I treat retirement savings as firewalled from my day to day chequing account. ↩︎
  3. Just barely, but I’ll take it ↩︎
  4. I changed the vertical axis of this chart to align with the other chart; it makes its stability much clearer. ↩︎