- Accumulating: I found it hard to decide between these two.
It mostly depends on personal circumstances, I think. I.e., if I need to withdraw to cover living expenses (thinking of taking some time off from work at some point in life), and of course applicable tax regime. In some countries accumulating are a real mess to be taxed, while in others they are superior.
In the end, the deciding factor was that I plan on keeping them long-term - and will probably transfer transfer them to a securities account at my day-to-day bank. Where ETFs aren’t only very extremely expensive to buy (bi-) montly, but they also charge processing fees and currency conversion costs on distributions.
Also, for the time being, in the “accumulation phase” it’s more efficient to reinvest distributions, as the ETF savings plan is an “automated” standing order, for a fixed amount of money.
Side note: VWRA has been introduced less than a year ago. They’re probably going to calculate “virtual” distributions only after the first full year.
- I’ve already had the Lyxor for a while.
And it’s “free” (of transactional costs) for a promotional period. Has been for a while, actually. Of course I wouldn’t be astonished if there’s some “hidden” costs in spread, time of ordering and currency conversion. Long-term it doesn’t matter much though.
I’m not fixated on iShares. U.S. accounts for almost two-thirds, country-wise, whereas Switzerland comes in second at 9,something percent - though I’m already heavy in Swiss health care due to 3a.
- I prefer the idea of equal-weighting. Just haven’t found a good, inexpensive equal-weight world fund yet (as an alternative to VWRA).
We’ve discussed it previously here on the forum.