DFLV vs EPSV

DFLVADimensional US Large Cap Value ETF

EPSVDHarbor SMID Cap Value ETF (EPSV)

In short

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.

EPSV A 2025-vintage Harbor fund that hunts value down the market-cap ladder: roughly 60 small- and mid-cap US names, actively picked, in a corner of the market dominated by cheap large-cap index screens.

Stated mandate

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.

EPSV The Fund seeks long-term total return by investing principally in common stocks and other equity securities of U.S. small- and mid-capitalization companies. Normally, at least 80% of net assets plus investment borrowings is invested in smid-cap securities regarded as value stocks.

Why people hold it

• 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.

• EPSV Concentrated by design: roughly 60 stocks, not the several hundred a broad value index sweeps up. Every holding actually moves the needle.
• Fishes below where most value ETFs cast. The prospectus commits at least 80% of net assets to small- and mid-cap stocks the manager reads as value.
• Truth in labeling: the portfolio it runs is the US smid value portfolio it advertises, not a large-cap book wearing a value badge.

Worth knowing

• 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.

• EPSV 0.88% a year is active-manager pricing. Index-built value peers like AVMV charge 0.20%, so the stock picking carries a real cost hurdle.
• Launched in 2025, small, and thinly traded. Short record to judge on, and light volume can mean wider spreads getting in and out.
• Payouts land once or twice a year. This is built for total return, not a steady income stream.

Full DFLV profile⁠

Full EPSV profile⁠