EIRL vs FLGB

EIRLCiShares MSCI Ireland ETF

FLGBAFranklin FTSE United Kingdom ETF

In short

EIRL Ireland in one ticker. Since 2010, EIRL has tracked a capped index of Irish equities, roughly two dozen names, making it one of the few ways US investors get a dedicated slice of a single small European market.

FLGB Britain in one ticker for nine basis points. Franklin's UK tracker follows a capped FTSE index of roughly 110 British companies and charges a small fraction of what the typical index fund in its peer group costs.

Stated mandate

EIRL The Fund seeks to track a broad-based index of Irish equities.

FLGB The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the FTSE UK RIC Capped Index.

Why people hold it

• EIRL Pure-play Ireland exposure in a single trade. It tracks the MSCI All Ireland Capped Index, and the capped design limits how heavy any one name can get at rebalance.ishares.com
• Launched in 2010 and run by iShares, so it comes with a long continuous history and BlackRock's index-fund plumbing behind it.
• The 0.50% expense ratio sits right at the median for developed single-country funds. No novelty premium for the narrow mandate.

• FLGB 0.09% a year, a fraction of the median fee across the index trackers we grade. Cheap is the whole pitch for single-country beta, and this one delivers it.
• One trade, roughly 110 UK companies. A passive, rules-based mandate tied to the FTSE UK RIC Capped Index, running since its 2017 launch.
• Stands in the top quartile of its plain-index-wrapper peer group, and the mandate data behind that read is high confidence.

Worth knowing

• EIRL Roughly two dozen holdings. A few large names and one or two sectors steer the fund far more than they would in a broad international index.
• Thinly traded. Spreads tend to run wider than on the cohort's household names, so limit orders do real work here.
• Cheaper shelf-mates exist in the single-country aisle: Franklin's FLAU and FLKR charge 0.09%. None of them cover Ireland, but the fee gap is real.

• FLGB Single-country by design: UK listings only, so there is no cushion from other markets inside the fund. Broad global trackers like VT spread that bet differently.
• Moderately traded rather than a volume monster, so limit orders are the sane way in and out.
• Distributions arrive once or twice a year, not monthly. Income lands in lumps.

Full EIRL profile⁠

Full FLGB profile⁠