BASV vs DFLV

BASVDBrown Advisory Sustainable Value ETF

DFLVADimensional US Large Cap Value ETF

In short

BASV Active, sustainability-minded US value from Brown Advisory, with a strategy record going back to 2004. The stock-picker's route in a corner of the market where cheap rules-based funds now set the price.

DFLV Dimensional's value playbook in an ETF wrapper: large-cap value that also screens for profitability, spread across roughly 300 names, run by research rather than an index. Active by design, index-fund cheap in practice.

Stated mandate

BASV The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.

DFLV The ETF seeks long-term capital appreciation. Its investment approach combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading, emphasizing long-term expected-return drivers and broad diversification.

Why people hold it

• BASV Real stock picking, not index tracking: a manager-chosen portfolio of US stocks under one plain mandate, long-term capital appreciation.
• The strategy dates to 2004, so its record spans multiple market cycles rather than one favorable stretch.
• Plain plumbing: a long-only US equity portfolio with no structural quirks attached, so the holdings list is the whole story.

• DFLV Costs 0.21% a year, well under half the 0.55% median for US value funds in its peer group. Active management without the active price tag.
• Cheap alone doesn't get you in. The portfolio screens on value and profitability together, a filter aimed at cut-rate stocks that actually earn money.
• No index to shadow. Dimensional can trade on its own schedule and spreads the money across about 300 large-cap names instead of a handful of bets.
• Sits in the top tier of the US value funds we grade, and it is a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so getting in and out is rarely the hard part.

Worth knowing

• BASV 0.71% a year sits above the typical active US value fund and is several times what systematic rivals like AVLV (0.15%) and WTV (0.12%) charge.
• Small asset base and thin trading, so spreads can run wider than at the category's giants and larger orders take patience.
• The sustainability angle is in the name, but public evidence of how the screen shapes the portfolio is limited. The prospectus is the place to check.

• DFLV Not the cheapest seat in the room: AVLV and SEIV run 0.15%, WTV 0.12%. You're paying a bit more for Dimensional's process.
• Being benchmark-free cuts both ways. With no index to measure against, there is no tracking-error scoreboard, and outcomes ride on the manager's judgment.
• Launched in December 2022, so the ETF's own record is short, and a value tilt behaves differently from the broad market. It pays quarterly.

Full BASV profile⁠

Full DFLV profile⁠