VFEM

Overview

Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (USD) Distributing (VFEM) tracks the FTSE Emerging Markets index and holds its constituents directly, a physical replication managed by Vanguard. Dividends are paid out to holders rather than reinvested, so VFEM suits investors seeking regular income. The fund is domiciled in IE, which determines the withholding tax treatment applied to its dividends. Annual charges come to 0.22% of assets, and the fund holds 6.0B under management. Over five years the fund returned 3.5% a year on average, against 12.8% over three years. It is not eligible for the French PEA, but can be held in a securities account, a UK ISA or a German Depot. Its risk level is rated high. Launched on 2012-05-22, the fund is denominated in USD and has 14 years of track record. It is a UCITS fund, so it follows the European framework on diversification, liquidity and asset segregation. Because VFEM distributes, every payment is taxable in the year it is received, against the dividend allowance in a general account, while it stays sheltered inside an ISA or a SIPP. Domicile in IE sets the withholding the fund itself suffers on the dividends it receives, a cost absent from the stated fee but present in the return.

Ongoing charges of 0.22% place this fund 132th of 225 comparable funds, whose median is 0.19%. On £10,000 that costs about 22 a year and 220 over ten years at a constant amount, deducted daily and never visible on a statement: it shows up in the gap between the fund's return and its index's. At this level, neither low enough to be an argument nor high enough to be an obstacle, the decision rests elsewhere: on the index tracked, on the distribution policy, and on what your broker charges to buy.

Replication is physical: the fund actually holds the constituents of FTSE Emerging Markets, which makes its contents verifiable line by line in the issuer's report. Two points deserve attention. Securities lending first, practised by most physical funds to reduce costs: it earns a few hundredths of a point and creates an exposure to the borrower, covered by collateral, with the annual report stating the proportion lent. Rebalancing second: every change in the index's composition forces the fund to buy and sell, and those internal costs are not in the 0.22% headline. That is why two funds at the same price do not track their index with the same fidelity.

The domicile, Ireland, is not an administrative detail: it determines the withholding tax the fund suffers on the dividends it receives, and that loss appears in no fee table. On US equities, the Ireland-US treaty cuts withholding from thirty to fifteen per cent, which on a world index is mechanically worth several tenths of a point a year and explains Irish dominance of this segment. For the holder, the UCITS framework also brings the key information document in their own language, diversification rules, and separation of the fund's assets from the issuer's.

Income is distributed: the fund pays out the dividends it receives, usually one to four times a year. For a holder living off the portfolio that is what is wanted, since the income arrives without selling. For someone still accumulating it is a tax disadvantage in a taxable account: each payment is taxed in the year received, so the amount reinvested is reduced before it starts working again. Reinvesting by hand also costs a dealing commission each time and often leaves cash idle for want of the price of a whole unit. An accumulating class on the same index, where one exists, settles the question.

With 6.0 billion in assets and 14 years of history, this fund has the size and the record that make closure unlikely and the spread narrow. Three checks remain, once a year, none of which depends on the market. The ongoing charge, which an issuer revises without notice and whose gap to a competitor can invert. The tracking difference, the only figure that says whether replication stays faithful. And the methodology of FTSE Emerging Markets, which can change its selection or weighting rules without the fund's name moving, in which case what you hold has changed with nothing to announce it.

FTSE Emerging Markets covers emerging markets, and the real exposure is more concentrated than the name suggests: a few countries and a few very large companies make up most of the index, so the fund is less diversified than a world index despite a high number of holdings. Three layers are added that a developed index does not have. Currency first, which historically weighed as much as the prices themselves. Political and regulatory risk next, including the possibility that a market becomes inaccessible. And withholding tax on dividends, heavier and less recoverable, which shows in the tracking difference rather than in the fees.

Over one year the fund shows 5.9% and over five years 3.5% annualised, two figures close together, which is the most ordinary and least informative configuration: it does not say the fund is steady, only that the chosen start and end points resemble each other. Comparing these figures with another fund means something only if the index is the same; otherwise it is an index comparison dressed as a fund comparison.

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