January 1, 2024
XAW.TO is BlackRock’s MSCI All Country World ex Canada Index ETF, which seeks to replicate the performance of the MSCI® ACWI ex Canada IMI Index.
As of January, 2024, it has $1.810 billion under management.
As its name suggests, it is composed of holdings across the globe, excluding Canada. It’s a great option for Canadians who want to diversify their portfolios internationally.
This ETF has had an average annual return of -0.74% in the last year, 9.49% in the last 3 years, and 8.20% since inception.
In this article, we will review XAW structure, fees, and discuss its pros and cons.
Inception date: February 10, 2015
Number of ETFs: 6 holdings
Number of stocks: 9,094 holdings
Net assets: $1.810 billion
12-month trailing yield: 1.70% (as of March 9, 2023)
Distribution yield: 1.70% (as of March 9, 2023) Management fee: 0.20%
Management Expense Ratio (MER): 0.22%
Eligible accounts: Registered and non-registered accounts
Listing currency: CAD
XAW's inception date is February 2015. It's showed an average annual return of 8.2% since inception. If you had invested $10,000 at inception, your investment would now be worth over $19,000.
XAW's distribution/dividend yield is currently 1.38%, distributed semi-annually.
XAW has a 0.22% Management Expense Ratio (MER).
XAW distributes dividends to investors twice a year which is otherwise known as a semi-annual basis.
Its distribution yield as of March 2023, is 1.70%, and it has an identical 12-month trailing yield of 1.70%.
XAW is pretty popular for Canadian passive investors, partly because it was featured in the Canadian Couch Potato (CCP) model in 2017 and 2018. In case you're not familiar with the CCP, it is a blog (developed by Dan Bortolotti) and designed for Canadians who want to learn more about investing using index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The CCP curates variations of ETF portfolios with different stock and bond allocations that many passive investors follow.
Another reason for its popularity is that XAW is a diversification tool. Many Canadians invest primarily in Canadian assets. Outside of familiarity and wanting to invest in the local economy, these investments are often more advantageous in terms of fees, taxes, and of course currency risks.
That being said, a portfolio with exposure to only one country's economy can be risky. XAW is an easy and cheap way for Canadians to add international assets to their portofolios, and diversify their risks.
Note that because of foreign withholding tax on dividends, you may want to consider investing in international assets in your RRSP (TFSAs are not recognized as tax shelters outside of Canada).
Vanguard's VXC.TO is an alternative to BlackRock's XAW. They're fairly similar in terms of allocation, MER, performance and dividend yield, so there would be very little difference in holding either of these funds in your portfolio.
If rebalancing is no big deal to you (which is likely the case if you're using Passiv), then there may be cheaper options to own international assets and diversify your portfolio.
XAW's geographical allocation is about 60% US. For exposure to U.S. markets, you could choose to invest in a Canadian-listed ETF that tracks the U.S. total stock market, such as VUS.TO or XUU.TO. Another option is to track the S&P500 Index such as VFV.TO or XUS.TO.
The rest of XAW's geographical allocation is split between other developed countries and emerging countries.
Other developed countries represent about 28% of XAW's allocation. For exposure to developed markets outside of the U.S. and Canada, VIU.TO or XIN.TO can be good Canadian-listed options.
Emerging countries represent about 12% of XAW's allocation. For exposure to emerging markets, you could look into VEE.TO or XEM.TO.
XAW.TO is a Canadian-listed ETF that allows you to diversify your portfolio across the globe. If you own mostly Canadian assets, XAW is a cheap and easy way to have exposure to international markets.
Source: BlackRock Canada
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