MSCI World is one index. The South African products that use the name are not one fund. On the sheets dated this month, the Satrix feeder ETF costs 0.25% over the last year. The Sygnia ETF costs 0.71% if you buy it through an ordinary broker. Same index, almost three times the fee.
The figures below are the ones I could open on 29 October 2026. Satrix minimum disclosure documents are at 30 September 2026. The Sygnia total expense ratio is marked September 2026. The 1nvest unit trust sheet was updated at 31 March 2026, and its cost ratios are at 31 December 2025. Offshore fees are from justETF on 29 October 2026. If a provider reprints a sheet next week, the sheet wins.
Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. Always do your own research and consider seeking advice from a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.
What the index actually is
The MSCI World Index is large and mid-sized companies in 23 developed markets. It covers about 85% of the free-float market in each of those countries. South Africa is not in it. China, India, Brazil and the rest of the emerging markets are not in it either. Those sit in MSCI Emerging Markets, or in MSCI All Country World if you want both in one index.
It is a developed-market fund that behaves like a US fund with a side order of everyone else. On the Satrix MSCI World Index Fund sheet at 30 September 2026, the United States was 74.37% of the fund. Japan was 5.77%. The United Kingdom was 3.26%. Canada was 3.21%. Switzerland, France, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands were each under 2.1%.
The sector mix on the Satrix feeder ETF, same date, was information technology 31.78%, financials 15.74%, industrials 10.81%, health care 9.20%, and consumer discretionary 8.36%. The ten largest holdings were Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, the two Alphabet share classes, Meta, Broadcom, Micron and Tesla. Together those ten were about 28% of the ETF. You do not own 1,300 equal companies. You own a cap-weighted pile, and the pile is US mega-cap technology plus a long tail.
The returns in every local factsheet on this page are in rand. A flat rand year looks like the dollar return. A weak rand adds to it. In the September 2026 quarterly note on the Satrix unit trust, the rand was almost unchanged against the dollar over the quarter and closed at R16.40. That is a description of one quarter, not a view on the next one.
The rand products that track the plain index
Four products track the plain MSCI World Index and publish a cost I can date. A fifth, the 1nvest ETF, is listed, but the only comprehensive sheet I could open for it is from 2023, so it stays out of the cost column.
| Fund | How you buy it | How it holds the index | Cost on the latest sheet | Cash dividend to you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Satrix MSCI World Feeder ETF | JSE: STXWDM | Feeder into Amundi Core MSCI World UCITS ETF Acc | TER 0.25% over 1 year, 0.32% over 3 years, to 30 Sep 2026. TIC is the same. | No |
| Satrix MSCI World Index Fund, A1 | Unit trust, code SAWEF | Holds shares itself, sampled | TER 0.68%. Manager fee 0.58% including VAT. MDD 30 Sep 2026. | Yes, June and December |
| Sygnia Itrix MSCI World Index ETF | JSE: SYGWD | Holds the shares itself | TER 0.71% through a broker, 0.59% on Sygnia Alchemy. Marked Sep 2026. | Yes |
| 1nvest MSCI World Index Feeder Fund, B1 | Unit trust | Feeder into iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF | TER 0.49% at 31 Dec 2025. Class A was 0.60%. Sheet updated 31 Mar 2026. | No. The underlying fund does not distribute. |
TER is the total expense ratio. TIC is the total investment charge, which adds transaction costs. On these equity funds the transaction cost was zero, or close to it, so TER and TIC match. None of these numbers include your broker, a platform admin fee, or an advice fee. An advice fee of 0.5% would wipe out the entire gap between Satrix and Sygnia.
Satrix sells two different funds under one name
The feeder ETF, JSE code STXWDM, listed in July 2017. At 30 September 2026 it held R25.4 billion and the NAV was R118.21. It does not distribute. It tracks the index by owning one other fund: the Amundi Core MSCI World UCITS ETF Acc. The Satrix product page still shows a total expense ratio of 0.35%. The minimum disclosure document, issued 22 October 2026, does not. Use the document.
Do not add Amundi’s 0.12% on top of Satrix’s 0.25%. The MDD says the portfolio’s TER includes fees paid to underlying portfolios. The 0.25% is already the stack. Amundi’s own TER, on justETF, is 0.12%. The gap between 0.12% and 0.25% is the local wrapper, the trustee, and the cost of listing it on the JSE.
An older write-up of this ETF said the underlying fund was iShares. That was true at the time of that piece. The 30 September 2026 MDD says Amundi. The factsheet is the record.
The other Satrix product is the MSCI World Index Fund, A1 class, code SAWEF, launched in October 2013. At 30 September 2026 it held R33.4 billion. It does not own a single offshore ETF. It samples the shares itself. The manager fee is 0.58% a year including VAT, and the TER is 0.68%. Transaction costs were 0.03%. It paid 22.36 cents per unit on 30 June 2026 and 11.13 cents on 31 December 2025. Its own MDD says it qualifies as a tax-free investment under section 12T.
The performance gap between the two Satrix products is the fee, showing up in the return. To 30 September 2026:
| Period, annualised | STXWDM | Index | A1 unit trust |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 9.43% | 9.52% | 8.84% |
| 3 years | 15.76% | 15.91% | 15.11% |
| 5 years | 13.72% | 13.83% | 12.88% |
| Since the ETF launched, annualised | 14.91% | 14.98% |
The ETF lagged the index by 0.09 percentage points over the year. The A1 unit trust lagged it by 0.68 points, which is the same figure as its TER. Past tracking is not a promise. It is the cleanest comparison these two sheets offer, because both are dated the same day and both quote the MSCI World Index in rand.
The A1 class is the expensive class. A platform may offer a cheaper Satrix class of the same unit trust. If it does, read that class’s MDD. Do not assume the A1 fee applies to a class you were not shown.
Sygnia holds the shares, and charges more
The Sygnia Itrix MSCI World Index ETF, JSE code SYGWD, ISIN ZAE000249553, launched on 1 April 2008. It is not a feeder. It holds a basket of the underlying shares. The sheet that carries the September 2026 TER shows a fund size of R20.108 billion and a United States weight of 73.0%.
The management fee, excluding VAT, steps down with size. It is not your size. It is the fund’s.
| Broker or other platform, excl. VAT | Sygnia Alchemy, excl. VAT | |
|---|---|---|
| First R100 million | 0.60% a year | 0.50% a year |
| Above R100 million | 0.40% a year | 0.30% a year |
| TER, September 2026 | 0.71% | 0.59% |
| Transaction costs | 0.00% | 0.00% |
Most people buying SYGWD on a stockbroker are in the 0.71% column. Alchemy is Sygnia’s own platform. The TER already includes VAT and the costs that were actually charged. Do not add the management fee on top of the TER.
The sheet also says excess management fees above a threshold are paid back to investors on a distribution date. The table above uses R100 million. A sentence under it uses R10 million. I am not going to reconcile those two lines. The TER is the number that was charged.
SYGWD pays a distribution. The MDD issued on 13 January 2026 described it as semi-annual, with payments in July 2025 and January 2025. I could not open a September 2026 distribution history, so I am not going to type a dividend figure from memory. The point is the structure. Satrix’s feeder ETF rolls income into the price. Sygnia pays cash out, and that cash has a tax line. The tax page has the rates.
Sygnia’s sheet marks the fund Regulation 28 non-compliant. It is an equity fund. It is not a retirement-fund product by itself.
1nvest is another feeder, into iShares
The 1nvest MSCI World Index Feeder Fund is a unit trust. The update at 31 March 2026, issued 21 April 2026, puts the fund at R10.57 billion. It owns the iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF. Class A has an annual fee of 0.345% including VAT and a TER of 0.60% at 31 December 2025. Class B1 has an annual fee of 0.236% and a TER of 0.49%. The one-year TER on that sheet was 0.61% for A and 0.49% for B1. Those cost ratios are ten months older than the Satrix MDD. Treat them as the last published figure, not as a number I rechecked this week.
B1 is the cheaper class on the sheet. A platform can choose to offer only A. Ask which class you are being sold. The adviser’s maximum annual fee on that sheet is 1.15%, taken by selling your units. It is not in the TER. If someone is taking it, add it.
1nvest’s benchmark line says MSCI World Index (net). Satrix’s says MSCI World Index. Net means the index already assumes dividend withholding tax. Do not line the two return columns up and call a small gap skill.
There is also a listed ETF, JSE code ETFWLD, ISIN ZAE000255170, a feeder into the same iShares fund. The comprehensive sheet I could open for it is dated December 2023, with a TER from June 2023. I am not putting a 2023 fee next to a September 2026 fee. If you want ETFWLD, download this month’s MDD and read the TER before you compare it with STXWDM.
The same index, listed offshore
If you already have dollars or euros in an offshore account, you can buy the UCITS funds directly. These three are Ireland-domiciled, accumulating, and physical. Fees are the justETF total expense ratio on 29 October 2026.
| Fund | ISIN | Ticker you will see | TER | Fund size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amundi Core MSCI World UCITS ETF Acc | IE000BI8OT95 | MWRD. This is the fund inside STXWDM. | 0.12% | EUR 15.8 billion |
| SPDR MSCI World UCITS ETF USD Acc | IE00BFY0GT14 | SWRD on the London Stock Exchange. SPPW on other exchanges. | 0.12% | EUR 18.8 billion |
| iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF USD Acc | IE00B4L5Y983 | IWDA. This is the fund inside the 1nvest feeder. | 0.20% | EUR 133.2 billion |
The TER is lower. The all-in cost is not automatically lower. You pay a rand-dollar spread, and you may pay a second brokerage charge offshore. On a R2,000 debit order the spread can cost more than a decade of the fee gap. On a large lump sum that will sit for 20 years, 0.12% against 0.25% is real, and it compounds.
Buying STXWDM, SYGWD or a local unit trust does not use your single discretionary allowance. You are buying a South African security. The fund, not you, holds the foreign shares. Buying IWDA or SWRD in your own name does use the allowance.
SARB Exchange Control Circular No. 6/2026, dated 8 April 2026, raised the single discretionary allowance from R1 million to R2 million per calendar year for a resident individual of 18 or older. No tax-clearance pin is required for that allowance. There is a separate foreign investment allowance on top of it, which does need a SARS tax compliance status pin. The SARB FAQ still quotes that second allowance at R10 million a year. Circular 6/2026 did not change it. The FAQ is stale on the R2 million change, so confirm the second allowance with your authorised dealer before you rely on R10 million.
Buy the Irish fund, not a US-listed MSCI World ETF. US-domiciled ETFs are US estate-tax assets for a South African investor, above a low threshold. An Ireland-domiciled UCITS is the ordinary way around that. IWDA, SWRD and the Amundi fund above are the Irish ones.
Same words, different index
A fund with “world” in the name can be a different benchmark. These three are Satrix ETFs. Costs are from the 30 September 2026 MDDs. They are not substitutes for STXWDM.
| ETF | JSE code | Index | TER | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Satrix MSCI ACWI Feeder ETF | STXACW | MSCI All Country World. 23 developed markets and 24 emerging markets. Feeder into the iShares MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF. | 0.35% | Does not distribute |
| Satrix MSCI World ESG Enhanced | STXESG | MSCI World ESG Enhanced Focus CTB. Not the plain MSCI World. | 0.35% over 1 year, 0.34% over 3 years | Does not distribute |
| Satrix MSCI World Islamic Feeder ETF | STXWIS | MSCI World Islamic. Feeder into the iShares MSCI World Islamic UCITS ETF. | 0.55% over 1 year. TIC 0.55%. | Quarterly. Several quarters were nil. |
STXACW is the one to look at if the missing emerging markets bother you. It is younger, listed in February 2024, and it held R2.4 billion at 30 September 2026. It costs more than STXWDM. Emerging markets are the reason, not a free add-on.
STXESG launched in September 2020. The index aims at a similar risk and return to MSCI World, then tilts towards higher ESG scores and a climate transition screen. Similar is not the same. Do not compare its past return with STXWDM and call the gap a fee.
STXWIS launched in October 2024. It is a Shariah screen of developed markets, small at R248.9 million, and it distributes quarterly. On the September 2026 MDD the June 2026 distribution was 26.90 cents and the March 2026 distribution was nil. Buy it because you want the screen. Do not buy it because the name says World.
Two other labels that are not this index: FTSE All-World, and the S&P 500. FTSE All-World includes emerging markets, in the same family of idea as MSCI ACWI, with different constituents. The S&P 500 is the US large-cap slice. It is most of MSCI World by weight right now. It is not the index, and it will not match it in a year when the US is the part that falls.
Which account
A tax-free savings account removes dividends tax, income tax and capital gains tax on what is inside it. From 1 March 2026 the annual limit is R46,000, up from R36,000. The lifetime limit is still R500,000. Both limits apply across every TFSA you hold. The rates and the penalty for going over are on the tax page, and the account itself is in the TFSA guide.
The Satrix MSCI World Index Fund’s MDD says that unit trust qualifies under section 12T. A JSE-listed ETF can sit in a TFSA only if your provider’s tax-free list includes that code. Check the list. A TFSA cannot hold IWDA, SWRD or the Amundi UCITS directly. Those are foreign securities. The local feeder is how the same index gets into the tax-free account.
A normal brokerage or unit trust account has no contribution cap and no Regulation 28 cap. You pay capital gains tax when you sell, and you pay tax on distributions if the fund pays them. For STXWDM there is no distribution, so the South African tax event is the sale. The foreign dividend withholding inside Amundi or iShares still happens. Accumulating does not mean the dividends were untaxed in the country they came from. It means you did not receive them, and you cannot claim that withholding back on your own return.
A retirement annuity is the wrong place to park 100% of this. Sygnia marks SYGWD Regulation 28 non-compliant. 1nvest says Regulation 28 does not apply to its feeder fund. The RA guide covers the offshore limit. Use the RA for the regulated slice. Use the TFSA or a normal account for a pure MSCI World holding.
What the fee gap is in rand
On R100,000, 0.25% is R250 a year and 0.71% is R710. The gap is R460. On R1 million it is R4,600 a year, every year, on a balance that is supposed to grow. That is the whole argument. It is not an argument for moving account every time a provider cuts a fee by 0.02%.
Brokerage sits on top of all of this, on every ETF purchase and sale. A unit trust debit order does not have a brokerage ticket. A R500 monthly buy of STXWDM can cost more in trading fees than the TER saves, until the balance is large. I am not going to quote a broker’s current ticket fee from memory. The how to buy ETFs page is the process. The fee schedule is the broker’s, this month.
What to read before you buy
Open the MDD and check four lines. The index name, not the marketing name. The TER date. Whether the number includes the underlying fund, if it is a feeder. Whether it distributes.
On the sheets I could verify, the low published cost for a plain MSCI World holding in rand is STXWDM, at 0.25% over the year to 30 September 2026. Sygnia is the old physical ETF, and it costs more. The Satrix A1 unit trust costs more and, over the same year, returned less. 1nvest B1 was in between, on an older cost ratio. The offshore UCITS funds are cheaper still, once the forex spread has somewhere to hide.
None of that tells you how much of your money belongs in developed-market equities. It tells you which wrapper charges least to own the index, if that is the index you meant.