FDLS vs VYM

FDLSDInspire Fidelis Multi Factor ETF

VYMAVanguard High Dividend Yield ETF

In short

FDLS A multi-cap, multi-factor index fund from a boutique shop, priced at 0.66% a year. Launched in 2022, it fishes across the whole size ladder rather than parking in mega-caps like most factor funds do.

VYM The no-frills dividend workhorse. VYM buys the higher-yielding end of the US market, roughly 600 names, for four basis points: no quality screen, no dividend-growth-streak test, just yield, at scale since 2006.

Stated mandate

FDLS The Fund seeks its investment objective through a policy requiring, under normal market conditions, that at least 80% of net assets be invested directly or indirectly in specified investments.

VYM The Fund seeks to track a benchmark index measuring the investment return of common stocks from companies characterized by high dividend yields.

Why people hold it

• FDLS Charges 0.66% a year, meaningfully below the median for the funds it's graded against. Modest pricing for a rules-based factor blend from a small issuer.
• Rules first. It tracks the WI Fidelis Multi-Cap, Multi-Factor Index, so what lands in the portfolio comes from a published rulebook rather than a manager's hunch.
• Multi-cap by design: small and mid caps sit beside large caps, a wider net than the large-cap-only factor funds that dominate the shelf.
• Despite the small nameplate, it grades out in the upper tier of its peer group, with the portfolio itself among the sturdier pieces of the picture.

• VYM Four basis points a year, against a peer-group median near 0.32%. Cheaper than cohort neighbors VONV (0.06%) and FNDX (0.25%).
• Running since 2006 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so ordinary orders tend to fill at tight spreads.
• Simple mandate: track the FTSE High Dividend Yield Index of US common stocks screened on yield. No manager discretion, no options overlay, plain 1940-Act fund.vanguard.com
• Pays quarterly, and among 100-plus value and multifactor rivals it stands as one of the strongest overall packages in the group.

Worth knowing

• FDLS Thinly traded. Spreads can widen, and the price on a market order can sit further from the fund's underlying value than it would on a heavily traded ETF.
• Assets are in the small-fund range. Smaller funds run with less cushion and carry more closure or merger risk than the giants.
• It gets graded next to options-income strategies, but the mandate here is plain equity factor exposure: no options premium, no capped upside. Payouts come quarterly.

• VYM The screen is yield, not payout growth or dividend quality, so a company can qualify simply because its share price fell.
• This is a value slice by design, tilted to established payers, so it behaves differently from a total US market fund.
• Roughly 600 holdings, but weight leans toward the largest payers, so the top of the roster does more of the work than the count suggests.

Full FDLS profile⁠

Full VYM profile⁠