AVSE vs DFEM

AVSEAAvantis Responsible Emerging Markets Equity ETF

DFEMADimensional Emerging Markets Core Equity 2 ETF

In short

AVSE Avantis's emerging markets workhorse with a values filter bolted on: the same profitability tilt and thousands-of-stocks build as its flagship EM fund, at the same 0.33% fee, minus the issuers its team flags on ESG grounds.

DFEM Dimensional casts one giant net over roughly 6,600 emerging-market stocks, then tilts the weights toward cheaper, more profitable, higher-momentum names. Index-like breadth, active hands, at a fee well under the typical active EM fund.

Stated mandate

AVSE The fund is an actively managed emerging-markets equity strategy that seeks to identify securities with higher expected returns while excluding issuers that raise concerns under the portfolio team's environmental, social, and governance evaluation.

DFEM The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.

Why people hold it

• AVSE Charges 0.33% a year, roughly half the typical fee among actively managed emerging markets funds. The cost drag stays out of the way of the strategy.
• The screen trims rather than concentrates: the portfolio still spans thousands of emerging markets stocks, not a short list of approved names.avantisinvestors.com
• Active in the Avantis sense: a systematic tilt toward more profitable companies, not a manager's hunches about which stocks pop next.
• Priced level with Avantis's mainstream EM funds (AVEM, AVXC) and JPMorgan's JEMA at 0.33%, and one of the stronger builds in the active EM group.

• DFEM 0.39% a year, against a 0.65% median for its active emerging-markets peer group. Cheap for a fund making its own calls.
• Roughly 6,600 holdings. No single stock, sector or country gets to dominate the outcome; breadth is the main risk control.
• Systematically active: it targets value, profitability and momentum across the opportunity set rather than copying the MSCI Emerging Markets IMI Index name for name.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, and one of the stronger implementations in the active EM group.

Worth knowing

• AVSE Thinly traded next to the index-fund giants of emerging markets, so bid-ask spreads can widen and larger orders need care.
• The ESG exclusions are the portfolio team's own judgment calls, so the holdings and the results will drift from a plain broad EM benchmark.
• Emerging markets equity brings currency swings and country-level political risk, and this fund holds that exposure directly. Pays quarterly.

• DFEM Active means no index to hide behind. Returns come from Dimensional's tilts, which can drift away from a standard EM benchmark in either direction.
• Not the cheapest seat in the room: AVEM, JEMA and AVXC run 0.33%, a touch under DFEM's 0.39%.
• Income arrives quarterly, not monthly, and the mandate is long-term capital appreciation rather than yield.

Full AVSE profile⁠

Full DFEM profile⁠