ASCI vs VSS

ASCIFabrdn International Small Cap Active ETF

VSSAVanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Small-Cap ETF

In short

ASCI A 1996-vintage stock picker that stepped into an ETF wrapper in 2025: active international small-cap, chosen on quality, growth and momentum, at 0.70% net of a waiver through February 28, 2028 in an aisle built on cheap index trackers.

VSS One ticker for the small companies the rest of the world runs on: roughly 4,800 stocks across developed and emerging markets outside the US, at 0.06% a year. Vanguard has run it since 2009.

Stated mandate

ASCI The Fund seeks long-term growth of capital and invests primarily in equity securities of small non-U.S. companies.

VSS Seeks to track the FTSE Global Small Cap ex US Index, providing broad exposure to developed and emerging non-U.S. small-cap equity markets worldwide through passive index sampling.

Why people hold it

• ASCI Real stock picking, not index sampling: the team screens non-U.S. small companies on quality, growth and momentum, with at least 80% of net assets committed to that hunting ground.sec.govaberdeeninvestments.com
• Room to roam: up to 35% of net assets can sit in emerging-market securities, and the fund typically carries full currency exposure to the markets it holds.sec.gov
• The history predates the ticker. ASCI took over the assets of the abrdn International Small Cap Fund, a mutual fund dating to 1996, in October 2025, strategy and team intact.aberdeeninvestments.comaberdeeninvestments.com 2

• VSS 0.06% a year, against a roughly 0.40% median for international small-cap funds. Only Schwab's SCHC matches the price.
• Developed and emerging markets in the same basket, roughly 4,800 names deep, so no single country or company carries much of the load.
• Tracks its FTSE Global Small Cap ex US benchmark closely and trades tightly for a fund built on thousands of overseas small caps.
• Running since 2009, now a multi-billion-dollar fund that pays out quarterly. Long track record, deep plumbing.vanguard.com

Worth knowing

• ASCI Active comes at a price: 0.70% net of a waiver through February 28, 2028 (1.11% gross), above the category median, against 0.06% at index peers SCHC and VSS.
• No index to lean on. Results ride on the team's picks, and the prospectus allows significant concentration in a single country or region plus heavy industrials exposure.sec.gov
• Smaller and more thinly traded than the category's index heavyweights, a trade-off that typically shows up as wider bid-ask spreads.

• VSS Small caps abroad move harder than blue chips, and everything is priced back into dollars, so currency swings ride along.vanguard.com
• Vanguard samples the index rather than buying every line item, so the portfolio approximates the benchmark instead of replicating it.vanguard.com
• Coverage stops at the US border by design. American small caps sit entirely outside the mandate.

Full ASCI profile⁠

Full VSS profile⁠