Before comparing individual ETFs, you need to settle one question: do you want emerging markets included or not? It determines which index family you are buying, and that matters more than the TER difference between individual funds.

MSCI World (IWDA) covers only developed countries — the US, Japan, Europe, Canada, Australia, and a handful of others. No China, no India, no Taiwan, no South Korea (in MSCI’s classification). It is the longest-established benchmark for global equity investing and holds roughly €121 billion in its accumulating share class alone.

FTSE All-World and MSCI ACWI add emerging markets, bringing the holding count up to roughly 4,000 stocks (FTSE) or 1,700–2,400 stocks (MSCI ACWI, which uses optimised sampling). The EM allocation sits at roughly 10–11% of the portfolio — primarily China, India, Taiwan, Brazil, and South Korea.

IWDA also trades as SWDA on the LSE. IUSQ trades as SSAC on the LSE. SPYY trades as ACWI (LSE GBP), ACWD (LSE USD), and ACWE (Euronext Paris). All five are Ireland-domiciled, physical replication, accumulating income treatment.

Quick verdict by investor type

TER — the starting point, not the whole story

The Total Expense Ratio is the annual management fee deducted daily from the fund’s NAV. Lower is better, all else equal. But the TER is not the same as your total cost — tracking difference (how closely the fund actually mirrors the index after all internal costs and securities lending income) can make a higher-TER fund cheaper in net terms over time. VWCE earns meaningful securities lending income that partially offsets its 0.22% TER. Tracking difference data over multiple market cycles is more reliable than TER alone — but only VWCE and IWDA have enough history to assess this confidently.

AUM — the liquidity and longevity proxy

Fund size matters for two reasons. First, larger funds trade with tighter bid-ask spreads on exchange — meaning the gap between buy and sell prices is smaller, reducing your transaction cost on every purchase. Second, funds below roughly €100–200 million AUM carry a real risk of closure or merger, which forces a taxable sale at an inconvenient time. All five funds in this guide clear that bar comfortably. IWDA (~€121bn) and VWCE (~$42bn) are in a different league from FWRA (~€3bn) on this metric, though FWRA is growing rapidly.

Emerging markets — a 10% allocation with outsized debate

The current EM weight in FTSE All-World and MSCI ACWI funds is roughly 10–11%. That allocation includes China (~3%), Taiwan (~2.9%), India (~2%), South Korea (~2.2%), and Brazil (~0.6%). Whether you want this exposure is a philosophical question. The historical return premium from EM is debated; the volatility is not. For a passive investor with a 20+ year horizon, including EM aligns with the broadest possible diversification. For an investor who believes EM political and governance risks are underpriced, IWDA offers a clean developed-world-only alternative.

Accumulating vs distributing — default to Acc for most investors

All five ETFs in this guide are accumulating. Dividends are reinvested inside the fund automatically. This avoids reinvestment friction (brokerage fees on each dividend, fractional-share complications) and in most EU jurisdictions simplifies your tax position — one taxable event when you sell, not annual dividend income to report. Belgian investors are the main exception: Belgium charges a higher TOB stamp duty on accumulating ETFs, making distributing variants more tax-efficient. Always check the rules for your specific country.

Physical replication — all five qualify

All five ETFs use physical replication (optimised sampling rather than full replication for large indices). This means the fund holds actual shares, not derivatives or swap contracts. There is no swap counterparty risk. This is the standard for UCITS world ETFs from the major providers; synthetic structures are rare in this category.

Illustrative only. Assumes 7% annual gross return, no additional contributions, and no change in TER over the period. Actual outcomes depend on tracking difference, dividend treatment, and tax rules in your country. Not investment advice.

On a €10,000 portfolio, the cost difference is negligible. On a €250,000 portfolio held for 20 years, the compounding saving exceeds €6,800. That is not nothing.

The counter-argument: VWCE’s larger fund size (~$42bn vs ~€3bn for FWRA) typically produces tighter bid-ask spreads — potentially 0.01–0.03% per trade on Xetra versus slightly wider spreads for FWRA. For investors making monthly contributions of €500, this difference is measured in cents. For investors making large lump-sum purchases, the spread gap is worth checking on the day of execution.

SPYY: the lowest TER option at 0.12%

SPYY (SPDR MSCI ACWI) sits at 0.12% — the cheapest all-world TER in this guide. On a €100,000 portfolio over 20 years, that is roughly €1,400 more in your pocket compared to FWRA and over €3,800 more compared to VWCE (same 7% return assumption). The fund has ~$16bn in AUM and is backed by State Street, one of the three dominant ETF providers globally.

The trade-off: SPYY tracks the MSCI ACWI rather than the FTSE All-World. The practical difference in returns between these two is minimal historically — both include developed + EM at roughly the same weights. But SPYY has lower day-to-day trading volume on Xetra than VWCE or IWDA, which means marginally wider spreads on large orders. For regular monthly savers, this is unlikely to matter in practice.

VWCE trades on Xetra (EUR), Borsa Italiana (EUR), Euronext Amsterdam (EUR), and the LSE in USD and GBP. The underlying portfolio holds the same stocks regardless of which exchange you choose — the difference is purely the currency of the transaction.

If you buy on the LSE in USD or GBP and your brokerage account is denominated in EUR, your broker converts your EUR to USD or GBP before the purchase — and charges you a currency conversion fee. Depending on the broker, that fee is:

FX fees are illustrative based on publicly disclosed broker terms as of Q1 2026. Verify current rates on each broker’s pricing page before trading.

For most European brokers, buying VWCE on Xetra (EUR) instead of VWRA on the LSE (USD) eliminates the FX fee entirely. That is a saving that recurs on every single purchase — and on monthly savings plans, it adds up faster than the TER difference between funds.