SA ETF fees remain elevated relative to our global peers

There are clear trends abroad, especially in the US where firms like Blackrock and Vanguard have built up industry-leading pools of assets under management by being first movers in a range of passive investment products and exchange traded funds (ETFs), including actively managed ETFs. The local asset management industry looks very different with larger active managers still holding significant market share and passive incumbents seemingly struggling to gain any significant portion of that share. The result is that, while the trend is moving in the right direction, fees in South Africa remain elevated relative to our global peers. This was one of the key takeaways from recent Morningstar South Africa research in a review of retail share class fees across different unit trust categories according to the Association of Savings and Investment SA (Asisa). The good news is that South African investors saw fund management fees declining last year. The average asset-weighted total expense ratio (TER) for active funds was 1.17%, while the same fee on passive funds was 0.57%. That being said, the costs are still substantially higher than tracker options in other markets. But what does this mean for current and future investment prospects? Listen to our conversation with Sean Neethling (pictured above), head of investments at Morningstar South Africa, on some of the significant developments in the passive and active asset manager universe.