These two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are among the best on the ASX, in my opinion. They’d make great buys for the long-term.
Investing in ETFs makes things easy because of the way we’re able to gain significant diversification through buying a whole bucket of different shares in one investment purchase.
But which ETFs to go for? I think many Australians would benefit from having (more) exposure to international shares. The following two ETFs appeal.
Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF (ASX: VGS)
I think this fund is an excellent one-size-fits-all approach. You don’t need to consider how much exposure to allocate to each geographical market (the US, Europe, the UK, and so on) because it invests in the entire global stock market.
As of June 2025, these were the country weightings of at least 0.8% in the portfolio:
- United States (73.1%)
- Japan (5.5%)
- United Kingdom (3.7%)
- Canada (3.3%)
- France (2.8%)
- Germany (2.6%)
- Switzerland (2.4%)
- Netherlands (1.2%)
- Sweden (0.9%)
- Spain (0.8%)
- Italy (0.8%)
As the businesses change in the global economy, the holdings of the fund will alter over time.
There are more than 1,200 businesses in the portfolio, which also suggests excellent diversification, in my opinion.
The VGS ETF gives investors exposure to some of the world’s leading businesses including Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon.com, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Broadcom, Tesla, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway.
All of this comes with an annual management fee of 0.18% per year, which is low compared to plenty of other options for investors which are more expensive.
In the last five years, the Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF has returned an average of 15.8% per year, though I’m not expecting the next five years to be as good.
Betashares Global Quality Leaders ETF (ASX: QLTY)
This is a fund focused on providing exposure to just the highest-quality businesses in the global share market. Wouldn’t it be handy just to own the great global businesses compared to just owning all of them?
This fund owns 150 of the highest-quality businesses from across the world.
There are four metrics that businesses need to rank well on to enter the portfolio: a high return on equity (ROE), profitability, low leverage and earnings stability.
Some of the holdings in the portfolio include Amphenol, Alphabet, Johnson & Johnson, Applied Materials and Microsoft.
One of the main reasons why I like this ETF is that many of its positions are fairly equal position sizes, rather than relying on a few large US tech businesses to generate returns. Less of this fund is invested in US shares than the QLTY ETF.
Over the last five years, it has returned an average of 13.5%.
