AVIV vs DTAN

AVIVAAvantis International Large Cap Value ETF

DTANCSparkline International Intangible Value ETF

In short

AVIV Avantis takes the academic value playbook overseas: about 600 developed-market large caps screened for cheap prices and strong profitability, at 0.25% a year. Active management without the active-manager price tag.

DTAN Old-school value screens run on book value, which shrugs at brands, patents and know-how. DTAN takes Sparkline's intangible-adjusted value model overseas, actively picking non-US stocks on an intrinsic value that tries to count the invisible assets.

Stated mandate

AVIV The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation through a broadly diversified portfolio of large-capitalization companies in non-U.S. developed countries.

DTAN The Fund seeks capital appreciation. It invests at least 80% of assets plus investment borrowings in publicly listed non-U.S. equities selected against the Sub-Adviser’s proprietary intangible-augmented intrinsic-value measure.

Why people hold it

• AVIV 0.25% a year, against a roughly 0.65% median across active international value funds. Cheap enough that the fee stops being the deciding factor.
• Two screens, not one: cheap valuations plus higher profitability. Both factors are written into the mandate rather than left to a manager's mood.
• About 600 large caps spread across non-US developed markets, so no single name or country steers the fund. Breadth is the design, not a byproduct.
• Among the active international value ETFs we cover, one of the strongest implementations in the group, and it has been running since 2021.

• DTAN The screen is the whole product: at least 80% of assets in non-US listed equities chosen against an intangible-augmented intrinsic-value measure, not book value alone.
• 0.55% for active, boutique-quant international value sits under the typical fee in its peer group and matches JPMorgan's JIVE.
• Not a one-off experiment: Sparkline runs the same intangibles model across US, US small-cap, international and emerging-market funds.sec.gov
• Lands in the upper half of the active international value ETFs we cover, and it distributes quarterly.

Worth knowing

• AVIV Value tilts can lag the broad market for long stretches. This one holds the tilt through those stretches rather than trying to time it.
• Active, with no published index behind it. You are buying the Avantis process, not a rulebook you can audit line by line.
• Large caps only. The same approach for smaller overseas companies lives in a sibling fund, AVDV, which charges 0.36%.

• DTAN A small fund that trades lightly, so spreads and market-order fills can be less friendly than at the category's heavyweights.
• No index to hold it to. Outcomes ride on the sub-adviser's proprietary model, and a 2024 launch leaves a short record to study.
• Cheaper neighbors exist in the same aisle: Avantis' AVIV at 0.25% and AVDV at 0.36% take a rules-based route to international value.

Full AVIV profile⁠

Full DTAN profile⁠