iShares Growth Core Portfolio Builder Fund - XGR

ETF Overview

The fund seeks to provide long-term capital growth by investing primarily in iShares ETFs, managed by BlackRock Canada or an affiliate, that provide exposure to equity securities and to one or more alternative asset classes, with the balance invested in those that provide exposure to fixed income securities.

The fund will ordinarily invest in iShares ETFs, but may also use individual securities and/or derivatives to gain exposure to these asset classes.

BlackRock will seek to create an asset allocation for the fund through a proprietary multi-factor selection process that seeks to identify and optimally diversify certain fundamental sources of return.

The fund may also employ currency hedging.

Key ETF Data

Fundamentals
Category (main)	Global multi-asset classes - Growth
Category (other)	Fund of funds
Underlying Index	No Index
ETF Structure	ETF of ETFs (ie fund of funds)
Asset Class	Multi-asset classes - Growth
Region	Global
Issuer	iShares Canada by Blackrock
ETF Home Page	Available here

Fund Facts
Inception Date	13 Nov 2008
Total Holdings	8,949
Distribution Frequency	Semi-Annual
Leverage	None
Significant Currency Exposure	Yes
Currency Hedging	Maybe *2

*1 Holds various iShares ETFs

*2 Prospectus states fund MAY employ currency hedging

Fees
Management Fee	0.60%
Management Expense Ratio (MER)	0.63%

Trading Information
Ticker	XGR
Exchange	TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange)
Currency	CAD

Eligibility
Eligibility *	RRSP, RRIF, RESP, TFSA, DPSP, RDSP
DRIP available **	Yes
PACC Plan available **	No
SWP available **	No

* Always check eligibility with your plan operator as plans and accounts can differ

** Not all brokers can facilitate these plans. Check with your broker.

Current Price, Fund Performance, Yield, NAV, Charts etc

To view the TSX or Morningstar fund page for this ETF click on the Fund Data menu tab or below:

ETF Analysis

Guidance for potential investors and Blackrock regarding this ETF:

the fund's Fact Sheet (but not its blackrock.com overview page) states that the fund MAY employ currency hedging at the discretion of the Blackrock fund manager
discretionary hedging is not good enough - the potential investor does not know whether it will be employed or not, so they do not know to the extent to which they are exposed to currency risk
the Canadian dollar has gained or lost up to 20% in a given year against the US dollar so currency risk is a significant risk no investor should ignore or take lightly

Given this is a fund-of-funds, we also encourage Blackrock to look at ways of reducing the fund's MER ().