DFNL vs TRUF

DFNLBDavis Select Financial ETF

TRUFCVanEck Financials TruSector ETF

In short

DFNL Most financials ETFs hand you the whole sector by market cap. DFNL hands you roughly 30 banks and insurers, picked one at a time by Davis, a firm that has been investing since 1969.

TRUF Most active funds exist to beat a benchmark. TRUF is active so it can hug one: it holds US financials at true market weight, sidestepping the diversification caps that force many sector funds to shrink their largest names.

Stated mandate

DFNL The Fund seeks long-term growth of capital.

TRUF The Fund is an actively managed ETF seeking long-term capital appreciation through securities of financials-related companies or instruments providing exposure to such companies.

Why people hold it

• DFNL Genuinely active, not index-plus. The prospectus sets a 15 to 35 stock range and puts at least 80% in financial services, so security selection shapes the book, not index weights.sec.gov
• Patient by design. Reported portfolio turnover has run low since launch, and the prospectus is blunt that turnover drives trading costs and taxable gains.sec.govsec.gov 2
• The 0.61% fee sits near the going rate among the 35 active sector-equity ETFs we track, and it is the full sticker: no waiver dressing it up, nothing to expire.
• One of the stronger implementations in its active sector-equity peer group, built on the same Davis Investment Discipline the firm applies across its funds.sec.gov

• TRUF A 0.10% expense ratio, against a 0.65% median for actively managed US equity funds in its peer group.
• The hybrid build (individual stocks plus targeted ETFs) keeps a sector's biggest contributors at uncapped weight while staying inside fund diversification rules.businesswire.comvaneck.com
• Roughly 80 names, measured against the MarketVector Top US Financials Companies Index. The mandate is the sector itself, not a stock picker's shortlist.

Worth knowing

• DFNL Non-diversified on purpose. About 30 names in one sector means a stumble at a big holding lands hard, with no other sectors to soften it.sec.gov
• Thinly traded compared with the giant index financials funds, and mid-size in assets, so spreads can widen and order placement matters more.
• Income is a byproduct here. Distributions land once or twice a year, not monthly, and the stated objective is long-term growth of capital.

• TRUF VanEck says financials has not suffered the weighting distortions that hit tech and consumer discretionary, so the problem this structure solves is smaller here.vaneck.com
• Launched in 2026 and still a small fund, so spreads can run wider than in the sector's household-name ETFs. Limit orders are the usual tool for that.
• Owning other ETFs brings acquired fund fees, one of the items VanEck's expense arrangement does not cover, so total cost sits above the headline fee.vaneck.com

Full DFNL profile⁠

Full TRUF profile⁠