What I learned while researching my ETF guides

A few observations from producing the 2026 series of ETF one-pagers

Every year, I put together a short list of exchange-traded funds to help investors research the best choices for their portfolios.

You’ll find links below for the 2026 series of ETF one-pagers, covering Canadian bonds, Canadian, U.S. and international equity funds, and asset allocation funds. The process for assembling these guides immerses me in ETF websites and disclosure documents. A few observations that can help you in your ETF research:

Compliments to:

-Global X wins the best fee disclosure prize for showing trading expense ratios in addition to management expense ratios; most ETF companies only show TERs in their ETF facts documents, and their management reports on fund performance. You have to locate those documents on ETF company websites and then download them.

Global X is also impressively straightforward about the swap fees that apply to its total-return series of funds. These funds use derivatives to deliver gains that are taxed as capital gains, with no dividends or bond interest paid to unitholders.

-BMO, iShares, Vanguard and any others that allow investors to look at returns not just for the most recent month end, but for month-end periods going back years. For example, you could look at one-, three- and five year returns to Dec. 31, 2025, and the most recent numbers for the periods ending June 30.

-Securities regulators for requiring a comprehensive, plain-language ETF Facts document to be available for each fund. Well worth reading for any ETF you’re thinking of buying.

-The iShares family for providing a simple three-point rationale for considering each of its funds. Too few ETF companies offer a plain-language explanation of what their funds offer investors.

Complaints:

-Any ETF company that shows management fees on its website. The management fee is major factor in the calculation of the management expense ratio, which is a definitive gauge of how much it costs to own an ETF or mutual fund. For individual investors, the management fee is irrelevant and a distraction.

-ETF companies that are slow to update their performance numbers after the turn of the month. It should take a day or two, max.

Misc.:

-If you want to know how the S&P/TSX composite, S&P 500, MSCI EAFE and other widely-followed stock and bond indexes have performed, try the iShares website. Fund returns across the iShares lineup are shown alongside results for benchmark indexes on an average annual, cumulative and annual basis.

-For data on ETF trading volumes, try the TMX Money website. Get a quote for an ETF and then click on the “See all key data” button.

-Check your investing app or online broker’s research tools to see if Morningstar ETF research and screening is offered. Morningstar is an independent analysis company that does good work on ETFs (and on research about individual stocks).