AVDS vs NISM

AVDSAAvantis International Small Cap Equity ETF

NISMDNYLI International Small-Mid Cap Equity ETF

In short

AVDS Avantis casts a wide net: roughly 3,000 non-US developed small caps, weighted with an eye on price, profitability and how much cash companies plow back in. Active management that looks a lot like an index fund with its thumb on the scale.

NISM Active stock-picking in a corner Wall Street barely covers: New York Life hands the keys to Ausbil's Global SmallCap team in Sydney, which builds a 50 to 100 name portfolio of non-US companies sized from roughly $500 million to $35 billion.

Stated mandate

AVDS The ETF seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in a broad group of non-U.S. small-cap companies and considering valuation, profitability, and investment levels when selecting and weighting securities.

NISM The Fund seeks long-term capital growth.

Why people hold it

• AVDS Charges 0.30% a year, about half the typical fee in its active international peer group. Cheap is a durable edge in a corner of the market where fees usually run high.
• Roughly 3,000 holdings, so no single stock or country steers the outcome. This is small-cap breadth, not a concentrated stock-picking bet.
• The tilts are the whole design: valuation, profitability and investment levels shape both what it owns and how much of each, measured against MSCI World ex USA Small Cap.avantisinvestors.com
• Sits among the strongest builds in a crowded field of active international equity funds. Broad, systematic, low-fee: the boxes that tend to stay ticked.

• NISM Sub-advised by Ausbil, an Australian active-equity specialist in New York Life's boutique network, running a global small-cap strategy that predates this ETF wrapper.nylim.combusinesswire.com
• Concentrated by design: the mandate targets 50 to 100 non-US names, so each pick carries real weight instead of being diluted across a thousand-stock index.businesswire.com
• Spans small and mid caps (roughly $500 million to $35 billion), covering the size band pure small-cap funds stop short of and large-cap international funds skip.businesswire.com
• Fully active, with no index to hug: a macro read, then regional and sector tilts, then company-level research, then risk-aware portfolio construction.businesswire.com

Worth knowing

• AVDS Thinly traded compared with the big international names. Limit orders and a look at the spread earn their keep here.
• Launched in 2023, so the live record is short even though the approach behind it is not new.
• Costs more than Avantis' broad international fund AVDE (0.23%). Small caps abroad are pricier to research and trade, and they swing harder.

• NISM At 0.70% a year, it costs more than the typical fund in its active international peer group (median 0.59%) and well more than systematic peers like AVDE at 0.23% or AVDS at 0.30%.
• Launched in 2026 with a small asset base and light trading, so spreads can run wider than the category's giants and there is little live record to study.
• Distributions come once or twice a year at most. The stated goal is long-term capital growth, not an income stream.

Full AVDS profile⁠

Full NISM profile⁠