DFLV vs SMRI

DFLVADimensional US Large Cap Value ETF

SMRICBushido Capital US Equity 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.

SMRI Boutique value, old school: 30 to 50 US stocks, equal weighted, screened on cash flow and read through earnings calls. Most of this category buys hundreds of names for pennies. SMRI charges 0.71% to own a few dozen with conviction.

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.

SMRI The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.

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.

• SMRI Concentration on purpose: 30 to 50 stocks held at equal weight, so a mid-cap idea carries the same freight as a mega-cap. The issuer calls the high active share deliberate.etfarchitect.cometfarchitect.com 2
• The homework is fundamental: free cash flow against capital employed, returns on capital across cycles, shareholder-friendly capital allocation, a cheap price on those cash flows.etfarchitect.com
• One line item: the 0.71% management fee is the whole bill, with no 12b-1 fee and other expenses listed at 0.00% in the fee table. Distributions are paid quarterly.etfarchitect.com
• Live since 2023 and now a few hundred million dollars in size, which is real traction for a single-strategy boutique shop.

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.

• SMRI Cost is the trade-off: 0.71% sits above the typical US value fund and well above the quant crowd, where AVLV and SEIV charge 0.15% and WTV charges 0.12%.
• Thinly traded next to the category's giants, so spreads can widen. Limit orders and unhurried timing matter more here.
• With a few dozen equal-weighted names, one company's stumble shows up in results, and the portfolio can look nothing like a value index for stretches.etfarchitect.cometfarchitect.com 2

Full DFLV profile⁠

Full SMRI profile⁠