DFLV vs KAT

DFLVADimensional US Large Cap Value ETF

KATDScharf ETF

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.

KAT A concentrated take on value: roughly 40 quality names, US and international, bought at discounts to what Scharf's team thinks they're worth. This is the firm's long-running mutual fund strategy, now in an ETF wrapper.

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.

KAT The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation. It primarily invests in equity securities, principally those of mid- and large-capitalization companies, while retaining authority to invest in fixed-income securities and other assets.

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.

• KAT Genuinely concentrated and genuinely active: about 40 holdings, so each pick carries real weight, unlike index value funds spread across hundreds of names.
• The mandate travels. US and international equities, mid- and large-cap, with prospectus authority to hold fixed income and other assets when the manager wants dry powder.
• Not a blank-slate launch. The strategy converted over from Scharf's mutual fund with a record dating to 2016, and reached the ETF market at several hundred million in size.etftrends.com

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.

• KAT Active pricing: 0.75% a year, above the 0.55% median for its active value peers and several times the 0.15% at AVLV or 0.12% at WTV.
• Thinly traded for its category, so bid-ask spreads tend to run wider and fills less tidy than in the value aisle's giants.
• Concentration cuts both ways. With about 40 names and one team's judgment behind them, results can wander a long way from broad value benchmarks.

Full DFLV profile⁠

Full KAT profile⁠