ESGE vs FRDM

ESGEAiShares ESG Aware MSCI EM ETF

FRDMCFreedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF

In short

ESGE The ESG emerging-markets fund built to not feel different: it screens MSCI's EM universe for environmental, social and governance traits while keeping risk and return close to the parent index, for 0.25% a year.

FRDM Most emerging-markets funds buy the whole market and move on. FRDM tracks the Life + Liberty Freedom 100 Emerging Markets Index instead: a passive, rules-based screen that lands on roughly 100 stocks.

Stated mandate

ESGE The fund seeks to track large- and mid-capitalization emerging-market equities with positive environmental, social, and governance characteristics, while maintaining risk and return characteristics similar to its parent index.

FRDM The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of the Life + Liberty Freedom 100 Emerging Markets Index using a passive indexing approach.

Why people hold it

• ESGE 0.25% a year, below the typical fee among ESG emerging-market ETFs.
• "Aware" is the whole design: the index tilts toward better ESG-rated companies while targeting risk and return characteristics similar to the standard MSCI EM parent.ishares.com
• Trading since 2016 and now a multi-billion-dollar, actively traded fund, which is a rare combination in a corner full of small, thinly used products.
• Does exactly what its name says: full-time exposure to large- and mid-cap emerging-market stocks via the MSCI Emerging Markets Extended ESG Focus Index, one of the cleanest mandate fits in its peer group.ishares.com

• FRDM Not the cap-weighted default. A passive index build that ends at about 100 emerging-markets stocks, so the screen actually shapes what you own.
• Trading since 2019 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, so this is an idea with an operating history behind it, not a launch-week pitch.
• Stays in its lane: a 1940 Act fund holding emerging-markets equity, closely matching the index it names in its prospectus. Distributions come quarterly.

Worth knowing

• ESGE It is a tilt, not a purge. Because the index chases parent-like risk and return, the lineup stays close to mainstream EM rather than a deep-green portfolio.ishares.com
• Screening narrows the field to roughly 300 stocks, so holdings and country weights drift from a plain emerging-markets index fund.
• Not the cheapest badge in the aisle: sibling LDEM runs 0.16%, though it takes a stricter ESG-leaders approach.

• FRDM The screen has a price tag: 0.49% a year versus a 0.19% median across its emerging-markets peer group, with VWO and SCHE sitting at 0.06%.
• About 100 names, not thousands. Country and single-stock swings land harder here than in a whole-market emerging-markets basket.
• Moderately traded rather than one of the category's volume giants, so spreads deserve a look before you place an order.

Full ESGE profile⁠

Full FRDM profile⁠