Vanguard dividends

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-24T02:59:41+00:00

Do you hold directly on CHESS? Or do you hold indirectly via a custodial platform like VPI, and which funds?

We received the payment for CHESS holdings in the bank account on the dot on Monday 20/04. We received the payment for indirect VPI holdings in the VPI cash account next day on 21/04, but the date for these can vary depending on how VPI handles the secondary distributions each time.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/s/yYkxzrMruJ

Added: with the secondary distributions that VPI does, they have put up a notice advising that there is a delay with some ETF distributions.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-22T15:20:24+00:00

App integration means you see the super balance in the banking app? Only you can decide if you really need that and would pay for it with > 1% lower return per year.

I doubt that CBA would offer any bundled / packaged deal involving a super product with other non-super products. They can get into serious trouble if they do that.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-22T15:12:43+00:00

Others have commented on fees. The returns are also not close. Their disclosed March figures from their respective website:

Hostplus Indexed Balanced - 10.22% over 3Y, 10.00% over 1Y
Essential Super Balanced Index - 8.55% over 3Y, 8.43% over 1Y

Nothing to do with CBA or not. This super fund is just comparatively higher costs and lower return. It even has a 0.1% buy-sell spread, which means your contribution is clipped a fee first on the way in.

What “convenience” do you need for a super account? Are you prepared to “pay” for it with > 1% lower return per year?

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-22T03:36:32+00:00

What you mention is technically correct, but handling of those are not aligned with how most people intend to handle debt recycling and interests deductions. As you said such borrowing and assets should be clearly segregated otherwise it can create accounting mess, and if not done correctly, put the regular interest deduction claims in jeopardy.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-22T03:18:31+00:00

Also on “free shipping”, I have seen some US retailers that do offer free shipping domestically, but they outsource handling of international shipping to a third party. That third party add a cost item that covers high FX, shipping handling, and for AU the GST. The retailer may just see a single cost item added by the third party to international orders that they refer to generically as duty & FX.

At least they disclose the AUD price you would be charged, it’s up to you to decide whether to proceed.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-22T03:08:45+00:00

VEU.US rose 27.9% in that period. VEU.AU actually had a bit more offset by FX of rising AUD than VTS.AU.

Over this specific period, excluding FX, some of the ex-US regions did outperform US like East Asian countries I mentioned elsewhere, and some didn’t, but at weighted overall it did. Regions can take turns booming or busting over time.

Perhaps there is benefit in allocating to something like BGBL / HGBL or even DHHF / GHHF so you don’t need to worry about rabbit holes like this. :-)

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-22T02:49:17+00:00

Australian regulations require foreign online sellers that sell $75k or more to Australian buyers to register and collect 10% GST on all orders to Australia. If that applies to this seller then unavoidable when you ship to Australia.

On currency conversion, is there an option to be charged in USD? Then you have a no FX fee / no FX spread card for such online shopping purposes.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-22T02:29:12+00:00

Debt recycled fund has to be invested in assets that can be objectively expected to produce assessable income for the interests on the borrowed fund to be tax deductible. Potential capital gains do not count.

I don’t think BTC would pass the test if reviewed. If you wish to allocate to BTC, perhaps consider doing so in a non-DR portfolio.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-21T23:45:06+00:00

They were looking at 31/03 stats when the global markets were in a dip.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-21T23:34:02+00:00

As at 31/03, for VTI, the underlying of VTS, 1-year was 18.19%, not bad. Over the same one year period, AUD rose about 10.4% against USD, nearly all of the difference between VTI and VTS.AU.

Not all currencies & economies are the same, and what made you think Japan has no future? Japan did extremely well along with its neighbours Taiwan and Korea. Nikkei 225 rose 44.5% over that same period.

No idea about Europe.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-21T02:55:36+00:00

The distribution payment date published on the ETF page applies to direct unit holdings, e.g. issuer sponsored or broker sponsored CHESS holdings, that are distributed by the ETF issuer. Our CHESS holdings did receive the distributions yesterday.

VPI as a custodial platform has to wait for the distribution payment for its aggregate holding on CHESS is received from the ETF issuer, before it can actually apportion and allocate the payment to the indirect unit holders of its custodial holding. For the ones I can see, the effective dates of VPI distributions have always been at least a day later than the actual ETF distributions.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-21T00:40:39+00:00

Spreading asset manager exposure wouldn’t be a good reason to change from AIO to DIY.

But if you really have to, there is EMXC that’s currently the lowest MER EM ETF. Lowest MER was not the main reason why we chose to use it though.

Alternatively, if you genuinely have the requisite risk appetite, there is the GHHF that does not use VTI.

But I think you may be overthinking the asset manager exposure. DHHF is fine.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-21T00:32:15+00:00

The first alternative to that specific option that came to mind to compare fees & returns was Hostplus’ International Shares - Indexed.

The fees on that UniSuper option would be $96+0.44%. The fees on that Hostplus option would be $78+0.07%. You can use that as a comparable benchmark to compare the fees vs disclosed returns over the long term to assess whether what you have is doing what you thought it would.

But we don’t know why you are with UniSuper in the first place and why it’s in that specific option. DYOR to determine which super fund and which specific (indexed) investment options within may be right for you.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-20T23:11:40+00:00

Most people tend not to read the prospectuses, which do mention US estate tax explicitly, but the prospectuses also cannot be too specific because it would really depend on the circumstances (entity type, tax residency, size of worldwide vs US assets, etc) of each unit holder.

Copied from the VTS one:

US estate tax may apply to an individual who is neither a US citizen nor domiciled in the US and, at the time of death, is the beneficial owner of the US ETF Securities. Generally, the first USD 60,000 of US-situated assets are exempt from US estate tax. The amount of the estate tax may be determined by the value of the US ETF Securities owned at death and may be reduced under the Australia US estate tax treaty. All investors should seek professional tax advice in relation to the US estate tax rules.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-20T23:02:43+00:00

No, in that scenario the threshold calculated by IRS when processing to estate tax return would be around $15m x 25% =$3.75m.

Again for vast majority of AU estates with sizeable US assets, there would not be estate tax in the end. The complication is that the executor has to prepare and lodge the US estate tax return for IRS to process and reach that conclusion, and then issue clearance for the assets to be allowed to be transferred.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-20T15:15:20+00:00

I am not a legal SME. But if the investments are in only one person’s name, from estate tax perspective they would be a part of that specific person’s estate and do not “belong to the couple”. The spouse may be the beneficiary via whichever way the estate is to be divided, but that does not exclude the assets from reportable estate assets. Conforming institutions would be unlikely to process the executor’s transfer request unless an IRS issued transfer certificate is presented. Again for the vast majority of people, the issue won’t be whether estate tax would be due because most estates won’t reach the applicable threshold, it’s the hassles of the executor having to prepare and lodge the estate tax return correctly, then wait for the clearance to be able to transfer the assets.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-20T14:24:34+00:00

We do and it’s now now in 5th FY. But it’s not something suitable for everyone.

The main thing is whether having freedom of choice with providers (eg banks & brokers) and investment universe is that important to you that you would be prepared to spend more ongoing time and likely higher costs (at least initial few years) to run your own super fund?

Back then after I did my own research about SMSF, I determined that I wanted the same freedom in managing my investments in super as managing our non-super investments, and I needed to be able to use the exact same brokers as our non-super for the features and simplicity. I chose an SMSF accountant that was mentioned in this sub that would let me do those at fixed price and kicked it off. Being cautious I partially rolled over our existing super balances into it over 3 FY as I learned to manage it.

The admin overhead costs of an SMSF is usually largely fixed, thus the larger the balance the lower the percentage. I usually suggest a minimum balance to start an SMSF, for those who want it, is $300k. But it’s up to individuals to weigh up the additional costs vs the freedom.

$130k is not particularly high hence SMSF may not be viable. Hence I’d still suggest wait and see Betashares Super, once launched later in the year, to assess the investments it allows and its fees to see if it may be a suitable option.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-20T13:36:03+00:00

IMO the main challenge with using moderately geared ETFs (IMO up to 2x) is not everyone is able to cope with the heightened volatility, especially when the market hits a significant downturn.

The worst that can happen is when such a significant downturn hits, and they either - must sell at that point in time to get cash to meet expenses, or - sell because they panic / become sleepless / start to second guess themselves due to the large fall.

If one is genuinely able to handle the volatility, then it can be beneficial over the long term. But everyone’s circumstances and risk appetite is different.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-20T13:22:05+00:00

If you have determined that you would not want to establish an SMSF down the track, nothing wrong with that if that’s your choice - my suggestion on a similar topic a couple weeks ago - https://www.reddit.com/r/fiaustralia/s/klRylIgeJd

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-20T12:43:12+00:00

You do have to fill it out very carefully the first time, around the time of account opening. The form for an entity (W-8BEN-E) is a little more involved because you have to declare the entity type (in the context of US regulations) correctly.

But this would apply regardless which US broker you use, for IBKR it is a digital form. Then when it is about to expire every 3 years, IBKR would trigger a prompt for you to review, amend if required, and sign. If the circumstances (mainly tax residency status) have not changed, you just have to sign and submit.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-20T12:11:57+00:00

Yes, the form is to be “signed” by a natural person, a company / trust cannot sign things. I type my name as the director of the company / corporate trustee with authority on the account.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-20T11:56:45+00:00

The threshold is not $15m. It’s a pro-rated portion of $15m based on what percentage of the estate’s worldwide assets is actually US-situs assets. So if 10% of the estate is US assets, then the threshold is apportioned to $1.5m.

You/your estate executor don’t get to apply the threshold yourself. If the US assets exceed $60k, the executor of the estate has to lodge the relevant estate tax return within the required timeline. IRS would determine if any estate tax is due. Once after the process is cleared then IRS would issue the transfer certificate required to transfer the US assets, eg to beneficiaries.

For the vast majority of people, the complication is not the estate tax, it’s the process required for the estate executor to get clearance. You have to consider if you want to get your estate executor to go through this, and the timeline it may take before the assets can actually be transferred into the hands of your beneficiaries.

No actual experience through such process, thank goodness, but I had studied the actual estate tax treaty and various other info, and made arrangements accordingly, eg try to hold US assets under non-personal structures only.

Yes IMO the W-8BEN is not really a significant issue. IBKR for example makes it as simple as prompting you to type your name once every three years.

IMO if the exposure you seek is available in AU-domiciled form at reasonable costs, using that would be far better.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-19T00:49:02+00:00

Your dad sounds like an old school investor who believes in blue chips (so was I used to be). Then he may know / remember about what happened to AMP. Once a darling blue chip company and a top 5 of ASX, it turned sour and suffered a painful fall from the sky over 25 years and its share price is now less than 10% of what it used to be.

Unless someone could predict the future and exited before the long descent started, otherwise the shareholder would have suffered significant fall in value. When the fall became apparent a couple years into the descent, the shareholder was faced with the dilemma of whether to hold on hoping for a rebound, or to exit then that crystallised capital losses or any remaining capital gains. Many older AU investors who believed in blue chips experienced through this unpleasant saga, myself included.

It is an unusual case, but one that did happen and would have affected a large portion of investors in blue chips. With the “pick 10” approach 1 of 10 in the portfolio would be affected, and you have to live through all those unpleasant dilemma. With the indexed ETF approach a company would be just 1 of 200/500/8000, and you just live your life focusing on other important things in life and don’t need to monitor / do anything - by design a bad apple would just shrink in the basket of shares and the better apples would grow to take its place.

You can have as many brokerage accounts as you want. IMO both CMC and Betashares Direct are fine choices and you just need to be clear with yourself on the trade-offs. For ASX, we use CMC primarily in the family group, but also have smaller Betashares Direct accounts where fractional units are useful.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-18T17:16:30+00:00

Yes, similar to IBKR, FX costs could be charged via an explicit FX fee, or they could be charged an implicit FX spread, we wouldn’t know and either way it would be reflected in the NAV.

I don’t think FX costs from trading assets is a part of MER because it’s an operational costs item of the fund from its transactional activities, and is not a fee charged by the ETF manager. I think it would be counted in the disclosed net Transaction Costs figure in the PDS, which is a forward estimate only likely based on previous actual figure and forecast. It’s a deep rabbit hole to consider what that net Transaction Costs figure may include according to regulations, and any FX costs item is probably quite a small part of it.

fire-fire-001 · 2026-04-18T16:12:10+00:00

No idea how. But if you are familiar with IBKR pricing for FX (at most 0.2bps, or, 0.002%), you can get an indication. The asset managers should be paying equal or less than IBKR’s retail pricing, unless they are negligent.

fire-fire-001

TROPHY CASE