BCHP vs DFAU

BCHPCPrincipal Focused Blue Chip ETF

DFAUADimensional US Core Equity Market ETF

In short

BCHP Principal's stock-picker take on the blue chips: a focused, actively run basket of big US companies the manager thinks can keep compounding, priced below what the average active US equity ETF charges.

DFAU Active management priced like an index fund. Dimensional spreads across roughly 2,400 US stocks, then tilts the weights toward value, profitability and momentum instead of simply mirroring the Russell 3000.

Stated mandate

BCHP The Fund seeks long-term growth of capital. It normally invests at least 80% of assets in large-capitalization equity securities that the adviser considers blue-chip companies, with an emphasis on capital-growth potential.

DFAU Seeks long-term capital appreciation. It uses an integrated research, portfolio-design, management, and trading process to build a broadly diversified portfolio of U.S. companies while balancing long-term return drivers, risk, shorter-term considerations, and trading costs.

Why people hold it

• BCHP Charges 0.58% a year, under the median for actively managed US equity ETFs. Active stock picking without the premium price tag that usually comes with it.
• The mandate is specific, not mush: normally at least 80% of assets in large-cap names the adviser considers blue chip, with the emphasis on capital-growth potential rather than income.
• Lands in the upper half of a peer group of a couple hundred active US equity ETFs, and the data behind that read is complete rather than patchy.
• Backed by Principal, a long-established fund manager, with the fund itself trading since 2023.

• DFAU Charges 0.12% a year, well under the 0.65% median for active US equity funds and the cheapest of the top-graded names in its group (AVLC, DFAC, FELC).
• Holds roughly 2,400 US companies, so no single name steers the fund. Whole-market coverage, not a concentrated bet.
• Active without the stock-picking drama: it leans weights toward value, profitability and momentum, using the Russell 3000 as its reference point rather than a rigid rulebook.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, and one of the strongest overall implementations in its active US equity peer group.

Worth knowing

• BCHP Trading is light compared with the giants of the category, so bid-ask spreads can be wider and bigger orders can nudge the price.
• A focused book of large-cap growth names concentrates both the wins and the drawdowns. Expect a bumpier path than a whole-market index fund.
• You are paying up for the manager's judgment: broad-market rivals like DFAU (0.12%) and AVLC (0.15%) run at a fraction of the cost.

• DFAU Those tilts cut both ways: results can drift from a plain Russell 3000 fund for long stretches, in either direction.
• No published index behind it. The trade-off for flexibility is that you're buying Dimensional's process, not a public set of rules you can check line by line.
• Distributions land quarterly, not monthly, and the mandate is long-term capital appreciation rather than income.

Full BCHP profile⁠

Full DFAU profile⁠