ACLC vs DFAU

ACLCBAmerican Century Large Cap Equity ETF

DFAUADimensional US Core Equity Market ETF

In short

ACLC An active large-cap fund that blends growth and value names and folds material sustainability factors into the stock picking, at a fee well below what the typical active US equity fund charges.

DFAU Active management priced like an index fund. Dimensional spreads across roughly 2,400 US stocks, then tilts the weights toward value, profitability and momentum instead of simply mirroring the Russell 3000.

Stated mandate

ACLC The fund seeks long-term financial returns through an actively managed U.S. large-cap portfolio combining growth and value companies while incorporating material sustainability factors into the investment process.

DFAU Seeks long-term capital appreciation. It uses an integrated research, portfolio-design, management, and trading process to build a broadly diversified portfolio of U.S. companies while balancing long-term return drivers, risk, shorter-term considerations, and trading costs.

Why people hold it

• ACLC Costs 0.39% a year against a 0.65% median for active US equity funds. Active management here doesn't start in a fee hole.
• One mandate, two jobs: a growth-and-value blend of US large caps, with material sustainability factors written into the research process rather than bolted on as a screen.americancentury.com
• Roughly 100 stocks. Small enough that the managers' picks actually show up in results, not an index wearing an active label.
• Running since 2020 and pays quarterly. Sits in the top quartile of a crowded active US equity field on our review.

• DFAU Charges 0.12% a year, well under the 0.65% median for active US equity funds and the cheapest of the top-graded names in its group (AVLC, DFAC, FELC).
• Holds roughly 2,400 US companies, so no single name steers the fund. Whole-market coverage, not a concentrated bet.
• Active without the stock-picking drama: it leans weights toward value, profitability and momentum, using the Russell 3000 as its reference point rather than a rigid rulebook.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, and one of the strongest overall implementations in its active US equity peer group.

Worth knowing

• ACLC Thinly traded for an ETF, so the bid-ask spread can be a bigger part of your cost than the expense ratio, especially on larger orders.
• Cheap it is, cheapest it isn't. Broad systematic rivals like DFAU (0.12%) and AVLC (0.15%) run at roughly a third of the fee.
• A concentrated book plus sustainability inputs means the portfolio can look meaningfully different from the broad large-cap market in either direction.

• DFAU Those tilts cut both ways: results can drift from a plain Russell 3000 fund for long stretches, in either direction.
• No published index behind it. The trade-off for flexibility is that you're buying Dimensional's process, not a public set of rules you can check line by line.
• Distributions land quarterly, not monthly, and the mandate is long-term capital appreciation rather than income.

Full ACLC profile⁠

Full DFAU profile⁠