PRF vs USCA

PRFBInvesco RAFI US 1000 ETF

USCAAXtrackers MSCI USA Climate Action Equity ETF

In short

PRF PRF throws out market cap. Since 2005 it has weighted about 1,000 big US companies by book value, cash flow, sales and dividends, so a holding's size reflects its business footprint rather than its share price.

USCA The largest US ETF debut on record when it launched in 2023, seeded by a Finnish pension fund. It owns roughly 400 US large- and mid-caps, keeping only the top half of each sector on MSCI's climate-transition scoring, for 0.07% a year.

Stated mandate

PRF The Fund seeks to track the RAFI Fundamental Select US 1000 Index, which selects large US equities using fundamental measures such as book value, cash flow, sales and dividends.

USCA The fund seeks to track the MSCI USA Climate Action Index before fees and expenses through a passive indexing strategy. The index selects U.S. large- and mid-capitalization companies assessed as leading sector peers in climate-transition positioning and actions.

Why people hold it

• PRF Position sizes come from sales, cash flow, book value and dividends, so the fund leans away from names as their prices climb and back toward them as prices fall.
• Trading since 2005 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund: a long-running strategy with a record across full market cycles, not a recent launch.
• About 1,000 US companies deep, so the fundamental tilt is spread across many small weight differences instead of a handful of concentrated bets.
• Lands in the upper half of its US factor peer group, with its risk profile one of the sturdier parts of the package.

• USCA Costs 0.07% a year against a typical screened US equity peer near 0.28%, and undercuts bigger ESG names like SUSA at 0.25%.
• No blanket sector bans: the index keeps the top 50% of companies in each GICS sector, so energy and industrials stay in, represented by their climate-transition leaders.dws.commsci.com
• Rules do the picking. MSCI's climate metrics, ESG ratings and controversy screens set the roster; no manager discretion, no stock-by-stock calls.dws.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund with an institutional anchor investor from day one, and it pays quarterly.businesswire.com

Worth knowing

• PRF At 0.34% a year it prices above the typical US factor ETF, and well above cheap cap-weighted value peers such as MGV at 0.05%.
• Fundamental weighting holds richly priced mega caps at smaller weights than a cap-weighted index does, so this fund's path can look very different for years at a stretch.
• Income arrives quarterly, and trading activity is moderate rather than heavy, which can matter on larger orders.

• USCA Half of each sector is screened out, so results can drift from a plain MSCI USA index fund in either direction.dws.com
• Market-cap weighted and filed as non-diversified, so America's largest companies carry heavy weight at the top.dws.com
• Moderately traded next to the giants of US equity, so spreads can be a bigger part of the cost of getting in and out.

Full PRF profile⁠

Full USCA profile⁠