DCOR vs LSAF

DCORAU.S. Core Equity 1 Portfolio ETF Class Shares

LSAFCLeaderSharesTM AlphaFactor US Core Equity ETF

In short

DCOR Index-fund breadth with an active steering wheel: roughly 2,300 US stocks weighted toward smaller, cheaper, more profitable companies, for 0.14% a year. Dimensional's long-running core equity playbook, in an ETF since 2023.

LSAF A boutique multifactor take on US core equity: LSAF ranks American stocks with a published rulebook and has run live since 2018. The trade-off is price, at 0.75% in a corner of the market where the index giants charge pennies.

Stated mandate

DCOR The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation through a broadly diversified portfolio of U.S. equities. Its approach combines portfolio design, research, management, and trading while emphasizing long-term expected-return drivers.

LSAF The fund seeks to track the AlphaFactor US Core Equity Index before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• DCOR 0.14% a year, well under half the typical fee among US multifactor peers.
• Roughly 2,300 holdings makes this a whole-market core position, not a factor slice, with the smaller-cap, value and profitability tilts built into the weights.
• What the prospectus advertises is what the portfolio holds: broad US equity, tilted to cheaper and more profitable names. One of the tightest mandate fits in its peer group.

• LSAF Rules-based, not discretionary: a published multifactor ranking process selects the US stocks, inside a plain 1940 Act ETF wrapper.
• Live since 2018, so the record covers real drawdowns and recoveries rather than a backtest.
• Simple mandate to keep tabs on: US only, equity only, one index, one ticker.
• Risk behavior is the stronger side of its profile relative to the multifactor group, even where cost lags.

Worth knowing

• DCOR Actively managed with no index to replicate, so the holdings rest on Dimensional's judgment and turnover can run higher than an index fund's.sec.gov
• The 0.14% is net of a contractual fee waiver; the gross fee in the prospectus is higher, and the waiver runs on a renewable term.sec.gov
• Moderately traded rather than a volume monster, so spreads can be wider than at the biggest names in the category.

• LSAF At 0.75% a year, it costs multiples of the category's heavyweights (VYM at 0.04%, FNDX at 0.25%), a gap you pay whatever the market does.
• Thinly traded, so the spread on a single order can matter more to your cost than the headline fee.
• Distributions arrive annually or semiannually, not monthly or quarterly.

Full DCOR profile⁠

Full LSAF profile⁠