Canadian investors often do not spend enough time analyzing the value of geographic diversification for their portfolio; the mantra has traditionally been for many Canadian investors to make substantial investments in the U.S. market and claim they have "gone global" - while the U.S. market can provide additional diversification, adding U.S. and Canadian stocks together will still result in less than 60% exposure to global markets. Grabbing that additional 40% can be the hard part.
Putting all of one's money into a truly diversified global Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is one way to overcome this hurdle, albeit with a different set of risk/reward fundamentals. One ETF which ticks many of the boxes an international ETF should is the BMO MSCI All Country World Quality Equity ETF (TSX:ZCQ).
This ETF is a relatively small fund, with assets of less than $90 million, and carries an MER of 0.5%, making this an ETF option which is neither exciting nor terrible, but a very decent option for long-term investors looking for exposure to this space.
This fund carries with it a dividend distribution of 1.1%, meaning the MER an investor is expected to pay is more than covered by distributions each quarter. The fund is weighted heavily on the U.S. market (approximately 65%), increasing this international ETF's exposure to technology stocks relative to other options currently.
That being said, the fund does have a decent amount of exposure to Europe and Asia, providing well-rounded global diversification.
Invest wisely, my friends.
