GSEE vs XSOE

GSEEBGoldman Sachs MarketBeta Emerging Markets Equity ETF

XSOEAWisdomTree Emerging Markets ex-State-Owned Enterprises Fund

In short

GSEE The emerging-markets leg of Goldman's plain-vanilla MarketBeta lineup: roughly 1,800 large and mid caps tracking a Solactive benchmark, China and all, at a fee below the category median.

XSOE One screen, applied hard: if a government owns more than 20% of a company, XSOE leaves it out. What is left is emerging markets minus the state champions, with country weights pushed back toward the standard EM mix.

Stated mandate

GSEE The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the Solactive GBS Emerging Markets Large & Mid Cap Index.

XSOE The fund seeks to track the investment results of emerging-market companies that are not state-owned enterprises, defined as companies with no more than 20% government ownership.

Why people hold it

• GSEE Costs 0.36% net of a waiver through December 29, 2026 (0.45% gross), below the median fee among the emerging-markets funds measured in its category.gsam.com
• Roughly 1,800 stocks. The index is built to capture about the largest 85% of emerging-market free float, so you hold the asset class rather than a curated slice of it.solactive.com
• Passive index tracking is the whole mandate: no factor tilts, no screens, no active overlay. Measured against what the prospectus promises, it has stayed tight to the brief.
• Keeps China in the mix, unlike ex-China rivals VEXC and XCEM that rank near the top of this category. One ticket for the full emerging-markets map.

• XSOE The 20% government-ownership cutoff is an index rule, not a manager's judgment call, and the fund has run on it since its 2014 launch.wisdomtree.com
• 0.32% a year, under the typical fund in its emerging-markets peer group, for a screen most broad EM funds never apply.
• After the state-owned names come out, the index pushes country weights back toward where they started, so it stays a filtered EM portfolio rather than a country bet.wisdomtree.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund spread across roughly 800 stocks, and it has tracked its index closely.

Worth knowing

• GSEE A small fund that trades thinly, so spreads and limit orders matter more here than with the category's household names.
• Cheaper rivals exist: BKEM charges 0.11% for broad emerging markets, VEXC 0.07% for an ex-China build, and neither leans on a waiver.
• That 0.36% rests on a waiver scheduled to lapse December 29, 2026; the gross expense ratio underneath it is 0.45%.

• XSOE Cheaper broad EM shelf-mates exist (BKEM at 0.11%, XCEM at 0.16%). The screen is what you are paying the difference for.
• Government stakes cluster in banks and energy in EM, so removing them shifts the sector mix toward private-sector names. Expect it to behave differently from a plain EM index.wisdomtree.com
• No country is excluded, so China stays in the mix, unlike ex-China peers VEXC and XCEM. It also sits among the more volatile funds in its peer group.

Full GSEE profile⁠

Full XSOE profile⁠