iShares Diversified Monthly Income ETF - XTR

ETF Overview

The fund seeks to provide a consistent monthly cash distribution, with the potential for modest long-term capital growth, by investing primarily in Canadian iShares Funds that provide exposure to a diversified portfolio of income-bearing investments.

Exposure to these types of income-bearing investments may also be obtained by investing directly in them and/or through the use of derivatives.

The investment strategy of XTR is to invest primarily in income-bearing Canadian iShares Funds. XTR will invest in a portfolio that is a diversified representation of income-bearing asset classes, including, but not limited to, common equities, fixed income securities and real estate investment trusts.

BlackRock Canada will develop and maintain a strategic asset allocation policy for XTR. The fund will generally rebalance to this allocation policy on a quarterly basis, but may also do so more frequently if market conditions warrant.

The majority of the XTR's investment exposure will be to Canadian securities, but foreign asset classes may also be included as a result of their income properties or diversification benefits.

BlackRock Canada will review, and may adjust, XTR's strategic asset allocation from time to time, as market conditions change, and as the investible universe evolves.

Key ETF Data

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

Fund Facts
Inception Date	19 Dec 2005
Total Holdings	10 (2,191) *1
Distribution Frequency	Monthly
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	0.55%
Management Expense Ratio (MER)	0.56%

Trading Information
Ticker	XTR
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

Blackrock need to improve their website and fund Fact Sheets.

Neither make these important aspects clear for this fund:

whether currency hedging is employed to mitigate or eliminate currency risk - we had to search through a 60+ page prospectus to determine 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 ().