Compare any two Canadian all-in-one ETFs.
Every one of these funds now charges the same 0.17% management fee. That is the finding most comparisons have not caught up with, and it means the management fee tells you nothing. The MER still differs, and the MER is what you actually pay. Pick two funds and see the current numbers side by side, with the source and the time it was read printed underneath.
Every fund, side by side
| Fund | Target equity | Mgmt fee | MER | Net assets | Holdings | Inception |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FEQTFidelity Canada | 100% | 0.00% | 0.43% | $5.9B | not published | - |
| VEQTVanguard Canada | 100% | 0.17% | 0.22% | $17.0B | not published | 2019-01-29 |
| XEQTBlackRock (iShares) | 100% | 0.17% | 0.19% | $23.0B | 8,302 | 2019-08-07 |
| VGROVanguard Canada | 80% | 0.17% | 0.22% | $10.8B | not published | 2018-01-25 |
| XGROBlackRock (iShares) | 80% | 0.17% | 0.19% | $5.2B | 22,061 | 2007-06-21 |
| VBALVanguard Canada | 60% | 0.17% | 0.22% | $5.9B | not published | 2018-01-25 |
| XBALBlackRock (iShares) | 60% | 0.17% | 0.18% | $3.5B | 22,061 | 2007-06-21 |
Management fee and MER are not the same number
This is the reason the comparison needs doing again. Every fund in this set that publishes a management fee now charges 0.17%. On that measure they are indistinguishable.
The management fee is what the manager charges. The MER adds the fund's other operating expenses and applicable taxes, so it is always larger and it is the figure that comes out of your returns. Two funds can charge an identical management fee and still cost different amounts to hold, which is exactly what is happening here.
Both charge a 0.17% management fee. XEQT's MER is 0.19% and VEQT's is 0.22%. Compare the management fees and you conclude there is nothing between them; compare the MERs and there is a 0.03 point gap. Both numbers above came from the two issuers' own pages minutes apart.
One structure makes this starker. Fidelity publishes a 0.00% management fee on its all-in-one wrapper because the fees are charged inside the underlying funds. Rank on management fee and Fidelity looks free. Rank on MER, which is what you pay, and it is the most expensive fund here.
What actually decides it
Fees are the part you can know in advance, which is why they get the attention. They are not the whole decision.
- The equity split matters more than the fee. The difference between a 100% equity fund and a 60/40 fund will swamp a few basis points in any market that moves. Choose the allocation first, then the cheapest fund at that allocation.
- Home bias differs between issuers. The funds hold different weights in Canada, which changes both your risk and your tax treatment. See XEQT's actual look-through weights.
- Do not hold two of these at once. They own nearly the same world. Holding XEQT and VEQT together gives you no extra diversification and two sets of tracking differences.
- Switching in a non-registered account is a taxable disposition. A few basis points rarely justifies realising a gain. In a TFSA or RRSP you can switch freely.
For the XEQT and VEQT decision in depth, the full comparison covers holdings, home bias and payout frequency.
Sources, and when each was read
Every figure on this page comes from the issuer's own product page. Nothing is transcribed from a third party and nothing is typed into the template, which is the only way a fee table stays honest between updates.
| Fund | Issuer | Read at | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| FEQT | Fidelity Canada | 2026-09-28T20:15 | issuer page |
| VEQT | Vanguard Canada | 2026-09-28T20:15 | issuer page |
| XEQT | BlackRock (iShares) | 2026-09-28T20:15 | issuer page |
| VGRO | Vanguard Canada | 2026-09-28T20:15 | issuer page |
| XGRO | BlackRock (iShares) | 2026-09-28T20:15 | issuer page |
| VBAL | Vanguard Canada | 2026-09-28T20:15 | issuer page |
| XBAL | BlackRock (iShares) | 2026-09-28T20:15 | issuer page |
What is not covered, and why
Three funds people ask about are missing. Rather than fill them in from a secondary source, here is exactly why each is absent.
- ZEQT (BMO). bmogam.com times out from this host.
- ZGRO (BMO). bmogam.com times out from this host.
- TEQT (TD). figures are rendered by JavaScript, not in the HTML.
Each will appear here the moment it can be read directly from its issuer, on the same terms as every other row.
Questions
On the management fee they are level: both charge 0.17 percent as at 2026-09-28. The difference is in the MER, which is what you actually pay: XEQT is 0.19 percent against VEQT at 0.22 percent, a gap of 0.03 points. On $100,000 held for 25 years at 6.0 percent that gap is worth about $2,899. Both figures are read from the issuers' own product pages.
Of the funds tracked here, XBAL has the lowest MER at 0.18 percent and FEQT the highest at 0.43 percent, as at 2026-09-28. That is a spread of 0.25 points, which compounds into a large number over a long holding period. Fee is not the only consideration, but it is the only one you can know in advance.
The management fee is what the manager charges. The MER adds the fund's other operating costs and applicable taxes, so it is always the larger number and is the one that reflects what you actually pay. This matters here: several of these funds charge an identical management fee but have different MERs, so comparing management fees alone would tell you they are the same when they are not. Fidelity publishes a 0.00 percent management fee on its wrapper because the fees sit inside the underlying funds, which makes the MER the only honest basis for comparison.
Each fund's row is scraped from that issuer's own product page, and the source link and the time it was read are printed beside the table. They are not copied from a comparison article or typed into this page, because figures typed into a page go stale silently. If a figure here disagrees with something written elsewhere on this site, this page is the one to believe.