AVIV vs WCMI

AVIVAAvantis International Large Cap Value ETF

WCMIDFirst Trust WCM International Equity 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.

WCMI A boutique stock picker's concentrated international book in ETF form. WCM hunts companies whose competitive moats are widening and whose internal culture backs it up, holding roughly 40 non-US names rather than tracking an index.

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.

WCMI The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation through an actively managed portfolio focused primarily on equity securities of companies outside the United States.

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.

• WCMI Genuinely active, not an index in disguise: about 40 non-US names chosen bottom-up by WCM, a process built around moat trajectory and corporate culture.wcminvest.com
• The prospectus commits at least 80% of net assets to equity of companies outside the US, with latitude to roam into emerging and frontier markets.sec.gov
• The strategy reached the exchange through a 2024 mutual fund reorganization, so the record behind the ticker starts with the predecessor fund, not the listing.businesswire.comsec.gov
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that changes hands actively on-exchange, which tends to keep the cost of getting in and out modest for an active strategy.

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%.

• WCMI Costs 0.85% a year against a 0.65% median for its international value peers; AVIV runs 0.25% and JIVE 0.55%.
• Roughly 40 holdings means individual stocks and countries carry real weight, and results can diverge widely from a broad international benchmark.sec.gov
• Distributions land once or twice a year at most; the stated objective is long-term capital appreciation, not an income stream.

Full AVIV profile⁠

Full WCMI profile⁠