DFAC vs PRAY

DFACADimensional US Core Equity 2 ETF

PRAYCFIS Christian Stock Fund

In short

DFAC Dimensional's whole-market workhorse: roughly 2,600 US stocks in one ticker, run by managers who weigh federal tax consequences before they trade, at a fee closer to index funds than to active ones.

PRAY Faith screening with receipts: PRAY runs a growth-at-a-reasonable-price screen on U.S. large caps, then filters the survivors through a third-party Christian values tool, eValueator. Active management, 0.68% a year, no fee waiver.

Stated mandate

DFAC The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation while considering federal income-tax implications in its investment decisions.

PRAY The fund seeks income and long-term capital growth. It actively invests primarily in diversified U.S. large-cap equities selected through a proprietary approach intended to participate in companies’ profit and valuation-expansion cycles while aligning with Christian values.

Why people hold it

• DFAC 0.17% a year for an actively run fund, well under the median fee among active US equity ETFs.
• About 2,600 US stocks under one ticker, so it holds the market broadly rather than a narrow slice of it.
• Federal income-tax implications sit inside the stated objective, not in a footnote, so they factor into what managers buy and sell.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund with a track record running back to 2007 and one of the strongest implementations in its peer group.

• PRAY The rules are in writing: the prospectus commits at least 80% of net assets to stocks passing its Christian values filter, and names the excluded businesses (abortion drugs, pornography, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, indiscriminate armaments).sec.govfaithinvestorservices.com
• The screen is not just the manager's gut. A third-party tool, eValueator, applies a consistent methodology alongside the adviser's own research, and the adviser can drop a holding if a company's conduct stops fitting.sec.gov
• Holdings line up closely with the actively managed U.S. large-cap, values-screened mandate it advertises, which puts it in the upper half of its peer group.
• At 0.68% a year with no fee waiver in play, the cost sits near the median for actively managed U.S. equity ETFs, despite the extra screening layer riding on top.

Worth knowing

• DFAC Actively managed, so there's no published index to check it against. Holdings and tilts shift at the managers' discretion.
• Dimensional's own DFAU runs a US core equity mandate for 0.12%, a slightly lighter fee for a similar shelf.
• All stocks, all US: the mandate is capital appreciation from equities, so it takes the market's full swings, and cash arrives quarterly.

• PRAY Thinly traded next to the category's heavyweights, and a small fund by ETF standards, so bid-ask spreads and order size are worth watching on the way in and out.
• Costs more than broad U.S. core index-style peers such as DFAU (0.12%) and AVLC (0.15%), neither of which uses a waiver. That gap is the price of an active manager plus a values overlay.
• Screening out whole industries narrows the universe, so the portfolio can look very different from a broad U.S. index in any given stretch, in both directions.sec.gov

Full DFAC profile⁠

Full PRAY profile⁠