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Does anybody know the equivalent to Vanguard but for Europe (not UK)? Or, can I buy Vanguard from Europe?

tonfa 9y ago
You can. Some mutual funds are available depending on countries. But in any case you can just buy the ETFs, either in the US stock exchanges (same as you would buy your FB or AAPL shares), or they also have some UCITS version trading in european stock markets. The UCITS version may have some advantages depending on your country of residence (since they are EU based, and follow EU mutual fund regulations). There are also some downsides (e.g. you might be losing a bit of US tax that might be recovered otherwise depending on dual taxation treaty). Also US stock would be subjected to potential estate tax in case of death (detail will also depend on dual taxation treaty). Overall the largest difference between the various options is going to be tax, and since it can be significant, it is worth spending some time. As to the original question, there are also a lot of other similar ETF to the Vanguard ones (e.g. from BlackRock/iShares/UBS/etc.). The fees will be different, but as mentioned before, the tax implication might make a bigger difference. (you can research the ETFs on sites like justetf.com) Edit: and depending on your country, some special retirement account might have much much better tax treatment, compared to simple ETFs, also worth researching.
- skdotdan 9y ago
  Thank you very much for your answer. I'm more inclined to index funds than to ETFs, though. What you have said about ETFs also apply to their index funds?
  - tonfa 9y ago
    In case there is a misunderstanding: There are a lot of ETFs that are exactly the same as another mutual fund, especially among index funds. The only difference is that one is traded in an exchange, while for the other you buy shares from the fund provider, other than that they behave the same. (I would assume that in Europe, there is a lot less access to mutual index funds, than to index ETFs)

You can. Some mutual funds are available depending on countries. But in any case you can just buy the ETFs, either in the US stock exchanges (same as you would buy your FB or AAPL shares), or they also have some UCITS version trading in european stock markets. The UCITS version may have some advantages depending on your country of residence (since they are EU based, and follow EU mutual fund regulations). There are also some downsides (e.g. you might be losing a bit of US tax that might be recovered otherwise depending on dual taxation treaty). Also US stock would be subjected to potential estate tax in case of death (detail will also depend on dual taxation treaty). Overall the largest difference between the various options is going to be tax, and since it can be significant, it is worth spending some time. As to the original question, there are also a lot of other similar ETF to the Vanguard ones (e.g. from BlackRock/iShares/UBS/etc.). The fees will be different, but as mentioned before, the tax implication might make a bigger difference. (you can research the ETFs on sites like justetf.com) Edit: and depending on your country, some special retirement account might have much much better tax treatment, compared to simple ETFs, also worth researching.

skdotdan 9y ago
Thank you very much for your answer. I'm more inclined to index funds than to ETFs, though. What you have said about ETFs also apply to their index funds?
- tonfa 9y ago
  In case there is a misunderstanding: There are a lot of ETFs that are exactly the same as another mutual fund, especially among index funds. The only difference is that one is traded in an exchange, while for the other you buy shares from the fund provider, other than that they behave the same. (I would assume that in Europe, there is a lot less access to mutual index funds, than to index ETFs)