ILCV vs JHSC

ILCVAiShares Morningstar Value ETF

JHSCCJohn Hancock Multifactor Small Cap ETF

In short

ILCV Value done the thorough way: roughly 400 large- and mid-cap US stocks screened on five separate value measures, not just cheap book value. Running since 2004 at four basis points, it's one of the cheapest tickets into the value factor.

JHSC Dimensional Fund Advisors built the index; John Hancock put it in an ETF wrapper. JHSC holds roughly 500 US small caps, leaning toward the cheaper and more profitable ones, with a 4% cap on any single company.

Stated mandate

ILCV The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. large- and mid-cap stocks selected with value-oriented measures including forward earnings, book value, sales, cash flow, and dividend yield.

JHSC The fund seeks investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of the John Hancock Dimensional Small Cap Index.

Why people hold it

• ILCV Charges 0.04% a year against a 0.32% median for its factor peer group. Undercuts well-regarded rivals like VONV (0.06%) and FNDX (0.25%).
• Value gets defined five ways: forward earnings, book value, sales, cash flow and dividend yield. Wider lens than a single price-to-book screen.ishares.com
• Spreads the bet across about 400 large- and mid-cap names and distributes quarterly.
• Trading since 2004 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, it ranks among the strongest implementations in its factor cohort.

• JHSC The rulebook comes from Dimensional Fund Advisors, the firm that turned academic factor research into a business. Weights tilt toward smaller, cheaper, more profitable names; high-priced, low-profit stocks are generally screened out.jhinvestments.com
• Roughly 500 stocks with a 4% ceiling on any one company at reconstitution. Single-name blowups land softly in a basket this wide.jhinvestments.com
• Among the smallest companies, the index also drops names with relatively high asset growth. That is a third screen on top of the value and profitability tilts, not a marketing label.jhinvestments.com
• Mechanical and public: the index reconstitutes and rebalances semiannually, with no manager calling audibles, and the fund has run on these rules since its 2017 launch.jhinvestments.com

Worth knowing

• ILCV One of the quieter tickers in its category. Thin volume means spreads matter more here than on a mega-cap index fund, and limit orders are the usual tool.
• Value-only by design. It skips the market's priciest growth leaders, so it moves differently from a total-market fund in both directions.ishares.com
• Large and mid caps only. Small-cap value sits outside the mandate.

• JHSC The fee is 0.42% net of a waiver through July 31, 2027 (0.45% gross), above the category median and well above plain-vanilla factor peers such as VONV at 0.06% and LRGF at 0.08%.
• It trades thinly next to the category's heavyweights, so bid/ask spreads can run wider and large orders need more care.
• Those screens are the whole point, and they mean the portfolio can drift from a plain small-cap index in either direction for stretches at a time.jhinvestments.com

Full ILCV profile⁠

Full JHSC profile⁠