{"id":17710,"date":"2023-06-21T00:00:56","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T22:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gerd-kommer.de\/blog\/the-etf-by-gerd-kommer\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T18:42:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:42:13","slug":"the-etf-by-gerd-kommer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gerd-kommer.de\/en\/blog\/the-etf-by-gerd-kommer\/","title":{"rendered":"The ETF by Gerd Kommer"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Kanzler<\/a> and Alexander Weis<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

If you are interested in ETFs in German-speaking countries, then all routes basically lead to one person: Dr. Gerd Kommer. He has been writing guidebooks on capital investment with index funds and ETFs for 23 years and has worked in the financial sector for 30 years. Gerd Kommer has popularized forecast-free and rule-based investing based on established scientific findings in the private investor market in the German-speaking countries and coined the term “world portfolio” for it. This investment approach, which can be implemented with ETFs, has become increasingly well-known among private investors in German-speaking countries in recent years due to its convincing concept, its attractive long-term expected return and its ease of implementation \u2013 occasionally under similar names such as “Weltdepot” or “Welt-AG” and in slightly modified forms of implementation.<\/p>\n

The world portfolio is not a fixed composition of specific ETFs or security indices, but a coherent overall concept that can be flexibly adapted by each investor to their specific circumstances and goals, almost like the iconic red Swiss army knives from Victorinox. However, from an investor’s perspective, this flexibility can also be perceived as complexity or increased workload.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We have had a solution for DIY investors since June 2023: The L&G Gerd Kommer Multifactor Equity UCITS ETF<\/i>, which we call the “Gerd-Kommer-ETF” in this blog post for the sake of brevity. Below we summarize the most important features of the Gerd-Kommer-ETF.<\/p>\n

This publication is for marketing purposes. Please read the fund prospectus and the key investor information before making a final investment decision.<\/p>\n

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1 Basic features<\/b><\/h2>\n

The Gerd-Kommer-ETF is a pure equity ETF that tracks the risky portfolio part of the world portfolio concept in a single fund, i.e. a “1-ETF solution”. “Risky portfolio component” here means “global stock market”. If you want to invest in the form of a strongly return-oriented “100\/0 level 1 asset allocation” (100% risky\/0% low-risk), we do not believe you need any other ETF besides the Gerd-Kommer-ETF. If you want to be more conservative (safety-oriented) \u2013 i.e. with a level 1 asset allocation of “90\/10”, “80\/20”, “70\/30” etc. up to “10\/90” \u2013 you can either combine the Gerd-Kommer-ETF with a bond ETF or cover the low-risk part of the portfolio with interest-bearing overnight money at a bank. The bond ETF used should exclusively cover short residual maturities of debtors with high credit ratings in the investor’s home currency. For risk reasons, the balance of the call deposit account should not exceed 100,000 euros, the upper limit of the state deposit guarantee in Germany.<\/p>\n

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2 Asset management company (KVG)<\/b><\/h2>\n

The Gerd-Kommer-ETF is managed by the ETF provider Legal & General Investment<\/i> Management (“L&G”)<\/i>. L&G<\/a>\u00a0is part of the British Legal & General Group (“L&G”), one of the largest insurance companies in Europe. L&G is one of the world’s leading asset managers. The assets managed by L&G as at December 2022 are worth around EUR 1,300 billion. As of mid-2023, L&G offers almost 50 different ETFs on the German market.<\/p>\n

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3 Underlying stock index<\/b><\/h2>\n

The index on which the Gerd-Kommer-ETF is based was developed by Dr. Gerd Kommer and his team in cooperation with Solactive AG<\/i> and L&G<\/i> in 2022 and 2023. Solactive<\/a> is a German index provider based in Frankfurt. The parent index on which the index is based is called Solactive GBS Global Markets Investable Universe USD Index NTR<\/i> (ISIN: DE000SL0EM79) and the index on which the Gerd-Kommer-ETF is based is called Solactive Gerd Kommer Multifactor Equity Index NTR <\/i>(ISIN: DE000SL0G219). [1]<\/b> The index tracks the global stock market, the “World ACWI”, so in principle it is roughly comparable to an equity ETF based on the well-known MSCI ACWI Index. However, the Gerd-Kommer-ETF deliberately and significantly deviates from an MSCI World ETF in some important respects described below. [2]<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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4 “All Cap All Market Principle”<\/b><\/h2>\n

Unlike an MSCI World ETF, the Gerd-Kommer-ETF also includes emerging market stocks in the regional<\/i> dimension and small caps (second-line stocks) in the size dimension<\/i>. The ETF can therefore be described as an “All Cap All Market ETF”, which tracks the entire world stock market. The MSCI World, on the other hand, does not include emerging market equities and small caps.<\/p>\n

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5 Country weighting<\/b><\/h2>\n

The Gerd-Kommer-ETF comprises almost 50 countries (compared to 23 for an MSCI World ETF [as at June 2023]). The weighting of an individual country in the index is determined 50% by its market capitalization and 50% by the country’s share of global gross domestic product (global economic performance). For example, the US cluster risk that we see in the MSCI World Index (over 67% US weighting as at June 2023) is significantly mitigated. In turn, emerging markets and the majority of non-US developed countries are weighted higher.<\/p>\n

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6 Form of index replication<\/b><\/h2>\n

The Gerd-Kommer-ETF is a physically replicating ETF, i.e. not a swap ETF (synthetic ETF). This ensures that the underlying index is replicated as faithfully as possible and that there is no counterparty risk in the form of a bank. Physical replication is carried out by means of optimized sampling in order to keep the costs in the fund as low as possible.<\/p>\n

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7 Appropriation of dividends<\/b><\/h2>\n

The ETF is available in an accumulating (WKN: WELT0A; ISIN: IE0001UQQ933) and a distributing (WKN: WELT0B; ISIN: IE000FPWSL69) share class to meet different investor needs.<\/p>\n

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8 Factor investing<\/b><\/h2>\n

The Gerd-Kommer-ETF is a multi-factor ETF<\/i> that overweights so-called “factor premiums” compared to a market-neutral (“plain vanilla”) passive stock index. [3]<\/b> Factor investing is also known as smart beta investing<\/i>. Factor premiums are characteristics of stocks identified by academics that have a systematic, statistical relationship with return and risk and whose overweighting in a stock portfolio is intended to generate an excess return over a market-neutral portfolio in the long term. The factor premiums reflected in the Gerd-Kommer-ETF are:<\/p>\n