ESGE vs NUEM

ESGEAiShares ESG Aware MSCI EM ETF

NUEMBNuveen ESG Emerging Markets Equity 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.

NUEM Most ESG emerging-market funds license an MSCI screen. NUEM runs TIAA's own index instead, cutting to roughly 190 names rather than shaving a few off the broad benchmark.

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.

NUEM The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the TIAA ESG Emerging Markets Equity Index. That index consists of listed equity securities and related depositary receipts from emerging-market countries whose issuers meet specified ESG criteria.

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

• NUEM Tracks the TIAA ESG Emerging Markets Equity Index, an in-house rulebook, while the biggest names in the group (ESGE, LDEM, EEMX) all run MSCI screens.
• Roughly 190 stocks, so the ESG screen actually bites: a filtered slice of emerging markets, not the whole index with a light green tint.
• Running since 2017, and its holdings line up with the ESG emerging-markets mandate spelled out in its prospectus. No mission drift.

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.

• NUEM At 0.36% the fee sits at the middle of this group, above LDEM at 0.16% and ESGE at 0.25%.
• Thinly traded, so bid-ask spreads can widen and the fill on a market order can sit away from the fund's underlying value.
• Distributions arrive once or twice a year, not monthly.

Full ESGE profile⁠

Full NUEM profile⁠