Here’s what goes into the MERs of ETFs

Article Excerpt

A key advantage of ETFs is their relatively low management fees when compared to mutual funds. In the U.S., for example, the average expense ratio for ETFs is 0.23% compared to 0.57% for mutual funds. Apart from the fees paid directly to a broker when buying or selling an ETF on the stock market, investors will also indirectly pay for expenses necessary to manage and operate the fund. These fees include management fees, administrative costs, interest expenses (if the fund is leveraged), taxes, legal and audit fees, marketing costs and any extraordinary expenses. Lumped together as a portion of an ETF’s assets, those fees are called the management expense ratio, or MER. Apart from these costs, the ETF also incurs expenses to buy and sell the securities it holds. The costs to manage an ETF are deducted by the ETF management company, and adjustments are made to the net asset value of the fund on a daily basis. These fees…