BAMD vs VUS

BAMDDBrookstone Dividend Stock ETF

VUSBVirtus U.S. Dividend ETF

In short

BAMD An advisor shop's hand-built dividend sleeve: Brookstone screens US payers, holds roughly 70 positions and can bolt on outside ETFs, charging 0.87% for the work. Live since 2023, it's one of eight Brookstone building-block funds.

VUS An AI-assisted dividend fund at a passive-fund price. A quant model reads sentiment and valuation, humans make the final call, and it charges 0.25%, less than half the typical active US dividend ETF.

Stated mandate

BAMD The Fund seeks to provide income together with capital appreciation.

VUS The Fund seeks current income and, secondarily, long-term capital appreciation.

Why people hold it

• BAMD Real stock picking, not an index rebuild: the adviser screens $1B-plus US companies on dividend history and ability to keep paying, using outside and in-house research.sec.gov
• The mandate allows unaffiliated ETFs alongside individual names, so the manager can top up income exposure without you buying a second fund.sec.gov
• Income arrives on a quarterly schedule, and the book stays focused at roughly 70 positions instead of spread thin across hundreds.
• One of eight Brookstone ETFs built as model-portfolio blocks, so the dividend piece is designed to sit beside the shop's growth, value and bond funds.brookstonecm.comsec.gov

• VUS 0.25% a year, under half the 0.55% median for active US dividend ETFs and cheaper than every top-graded name in the cohort (CGDV, HIDV, MBOX, BGIG, TDVG).
• The engine: a proprietary alpha model using AI-powered language processing for sentiment plus valuation factors. Virtus portfolio managers make the final trading calls.sec.gov
• About 90 US-listed dividend payers, with at least 80% of net assets in them. Focused enough for picks to register, wide enough to spread single-name risk.sec.gov

Worth knowing

• BAMD At 0.87% with no fee waiver, it costs more than the typical fund in its dividend-income category, and far more than peers like VUS (0.25%) or CGDV (0.33%).
• Thinly traded, so limit orders matter more here than with the category's household names.
• It lands in the lower tier of its dividend-income peer group, and being active means there is no index to check the portfolio against.

• VUS Launched December 2025 with a small asset base and light volume, so spreads can run wider than the cohort's household names and live history on the model is short.
• The prospectus lets the fund put more than 15% of assets in a single sector, so the portfolio can lean hard into a few corners of the market.sec.gov
• Income arrives annually or semiannually rather than monthly, so the cash shows up in lumps.

Full BAMD profile⁠

Full VUS profile⁠