Indexzertifikat oder ETF? Eine entscheidungstheoretische Analyse

Private investors increasingly use passive investment strategies, i.e. investment methods that try to replicate a stock market index as accurate as possible. In this paper we compare retail index certificates and exchange traded funds. Both investment products promise a performance that corresponds to the performance of an underlying index. In our analysis, we simultaneously consider return, tax as well as risk aspects. It is shown that retail index certificates used to be the first choice before the (partial) introduction of the flat rate withholding tax in Germany. This has changed recently: Investors that may want to restructure their portfolio before January 1st 2009 – when the flat rate withholding tax applies to all investment products – should opt for exchange traded funds now. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2008