Unlike mutual funds, ETFs don’t come with sales loads, or fees to buy or redeem assets. The only direct costs an ETF investor has to fork over include the commission fee on trades and annual expenses associated with maintaining the ETF.
Some online brokerage platforms provide commission-free trades on a number of ETFs. [Six Popular Commission-Free ETF Trading Platforms]
Since most ETFs passively track an index, they have lower operating expenses than actively managed mutual funds. According to Morningstar, the average expense ratio of U.S.-listed ETFs is 0.67%, compared to 1.25% for U.S. mutual funds.
“The math that should be done by most investors is the comparison of the relative cost of each,” Ben Johnson, director of passive funds research at Morningstar, said in the article. “The one thing we know for certain that we as investors can control is the cost of investing. The more I can save for myself and not hand over to a broker or money manager, the more money I’ll have socked away for my own purposes further down the road.”
Tax Efficient
“In general, both index mutual funds and ETFs are tax-efficient, but ETFs have the edge in most cases,” Iachini said. “Actively managed funds tend to be the least tax-efficient, except for those that are managed for tax-efficiency.”
ETFs are tax efficient because most passively track indices and the ETF structure allows the investment to avoid capital gains through “in-kind” creations and redemptions. [Creations & Redemptions]
“The ETF manager isn’t seeking out overvalued or undervalued stocks, continuously buying and selling stocks in an effort to beat the market,” Iachini said. “Without this frequent buying and selling, there isn’t much chance for an ETF to realize capital gains.”
For more information on mutual funds & ETFs, visit our mutual funds category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.