The best Australian shares ETF for 2026 revealed
Blackrock Investment Management has been named Money's Best Australian Shares Exchange Traded Fund as part of the 2026 Best of the Best awards.
- Find out how we chose the winners
- Order your copy of the bumper awards issue
- Check out more from Best of the Best 2026
With more than 1800 companies listed on the ASX, it can be challenging for investors to decide which shares to select.
Our winner, BlackRock Investment Management, solves the problem, giving investors access to 20 market-leading stocks in a single investment through its iShares S&P/ASX 20 ETF.
Tamara Stats, iShares and index investments specialist, BlackRock Australasia says, "The iShares S&P/ASX 20 ETF (ASX: ILC) gives investors exposure to Australia's top 20 companies, supported by the resources and expertise of a global investment manager.
"BlackRock's scale helps deliver tight index tracking, liquidity and competitive pricing. Our risk management and governance frameworks are designed to deliver consistent outcomes for investors."
BlackRock, a US-based fund manager, can be described as a giant of the industry. It is the largest ETF provider with 29% of the global market.
Yet BlackRock is no stranger to the ASX. Stats explains, "BlackRock launched its first iShares ETFs in Australia in 2007, making us one of the pioneers of the local ETF industry and providing Australian investors with
access to global equities."
How we found the best managed funds and ETFs
Rainmaker's managed funds and exchange traded funds awards consider a variety of factors to determine winners and finalists.
While overall medium term (five-year) performance is important, it is only one factor among many. Our quantitative process also considers investment risk, in the form of volatility (standard deviation) and downside volatility (the variability of negative returns generated by the fund). Accounting for a fund's risk is critically important, because it would be naive to simply award funds with the highest returns if they had also subjected investors to the highest risks.
To further improve our performance insights, we also examined performance persistence (or consistency) relative to the peer group using annual performance in each of the preceding five years.
In other words, performance persistence is more interested in rewarding investment providers that have a time series of annual returns that are competitive against the peer group, rather than just a higher average return for the period.
Finally, in some asset classes such as shares, an adjustment is made depending on whether a product has shown a persistent bias to style factors, such as value, growth and small-caps.
The best managers are chosen for having the most products shortlisted in most categories. The products are ranked in each category, and this ranking determines the number of points given to each product. The manager with the most points determines the winner.
Get stories like this in our newsletters.
