FLEU vs SPEU

FLEUAFranklin FTSE Eurozone ETF

SPEUAState Street SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF

In short

FLEU The euro bloc, straight up: no UK, no Swiss francs, no hedging overlay. Franklin charges 0.09% a year to track the FTSE Developed Eurozone Index, a fraction of the median fee among index funds in its peer group.

SPEU Europe in one line item, priced like a core holding. A 0.07% fee buys the whole STOXX Europe Total Market Index, large caps down to small, in a fund that has been running since 2002.

Stated mandate

FLEU The Fund uses a passive indexing approach and seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the FTSE Developed Eurozone Index.

SPEU The fund seeks to deliver returns generally corresponding to the total return of the STOXX Europe Total Market Index.

Why people hold it

• FLEU 0.09% a year against a 0.45% median for index funds in its peer group. Cheap beta is the entire pitch, and Franklin delivers it.
• Roughly 300 stocks across developed eurozone markets, so the exposure reaches past the handful of household-name blue chips that dominate the region.
• A plain mandate with nowhere to hide: passively track the FTSE Developed Eurozone Index before fees. No factor tilts, no active overlay, no discretion.sec.gov
• Sits in the upper half of its index-wrapper peer group on the strength of that fee and a mandate it follows tightly.

• SPEU Charges 0.07% a year, versus a 0.28% median for its peer group. That is core-index pricing on a single-region fund.
• Total-market index, not a blue-chip list: over a thousand western European stocks spanning large, mid and small caps.
• Launched in 2002, so it has run through multiple European market cycles under State Street.
• Mandate is plain and literal: match the total return of one published European index, with no sector or country tilts bolted on.

Worth knowing

• FLEU Thinly traded. On smaller orders the bid-ask spread can cost more than a year of the 0.09% fee.
• It launched in 2017 as the Franklin FTSE Europe Hedged ETF and was renamed to the Eurozone strategy in 2023, so the early record reflects a different, hedged mandate.sec.gov
• Euro-currency countries only. The UK, Switzerland and the non-euro Nordics are out, and the euro's move against the dollar rides along unhedged.

• SPEU Trading is light next to the giant international funds. Limit orders matter more here, and spreads can widen when volume is thin.
• Europe only. Broad international peers like VEU and IXUS cover Asia and emerging markets too, at 0.04% and 0.07%.
• Holdings trade in euros, pounds and francs, so currency swings against the dollar move your return alongside the stocks.

Full FLEU profile⁠

Full SPEU profile⁠