ESGE vs OAEM

ESGEAiShares ESG Aware MSCI EM ETF

OAEMFOneAscent 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.

OAEM Most emerging-markets ESG funds are index trackers with a screen bolted on. OAEM goes the other way: an actively managed, concentrated portfolio shaped by OneAscent's faith-based Elevate screen, at a 1.25% net expense ratio.

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.

OAEM The fund's stated objective is to seek long-term capital appreciation.

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

• OAEM Active, not an index with a filter. The team runs fundamental analysis down to a concentrated book of emerging-market companies rather than reweighting a standard EM benchmark.oneascent.com
• The values screen is the product, not a layer: OneAscent's Elevate process weighs business model, stakeholder policies and community impact, and only names that clear it get bought.oneascent.com
• A faith-based brief, narrower than the broad ESG and climate screens the category's index names run (EMXF 0.16%, ESGE 0.25%, EMCS 0.15%, none with a fee waiver in effect).oneascent.com
• Running since 2022 inside a standard 1940 Act ETF wrapper, one of five values-aligned ETFs from a single-focus Birmingham, Alabama shop.oneascent.com

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.

• OAEM Cost is the trade-off: 1.25% net (1.22% gross, no waiver in effect) sits above the median of the 12 funds in its category, where index rivals like EMCS charge 0.15%.
• Thinly traded with a modest asset base, so trading costs can run wider than at the category's index heavyweights.
• No index to hug. A concentrated active portfolio can diverge sharply from broad emerging-markets benchmarks, in either direction, and distributions land once or twice a year.oneascent.com

Full ESGE profile⁠

Full OAEM profile⁠