25 Best Avantis ETFs for Factor Investing (Review)

Avantis is a relatively new asset management firm created by former Dimensional Fund Advisors employees. Here we'll review 25 Avantis ETFs for targeted factor investing.

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Avantis ETFs Video

My previous video below only covered 9 Avantis ETFs a few years ago in 2022. Keep reading below to see the updated list.

Introduction – Avantis ETFs

Avantis Investors are the new kid on the block, but don't think that means they lack experience or that they are in any way a suboptimal fund provider. Avantis was started by a few people who left Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), considered the gold standard for factor tilt funds. As such, Avantis shares Dimensional DNA, which is a good thing.

Like DFA, Avantis provide relatively affordable but extremely reliable and appreciable factor exposure, specifically for Size, Value, and Profitability. So far, Dimensional's new ETFs only provide all-cap, broad market exposure, specifically for the U.S., ex-US Developed Markets, and Emerging Markets. Avantis has those plus a couple more specifically for small cap value.

Just like Dimensional, Avantis draws on the most robust academic research in finance combined with expert implementation to overweight drivers of returns that we would expect to both beat the market and conveniently mitigate portfolio risk over the long term. As a result, investors get the benefits of low-cost, diversified index investing and purposefully targeted factor investing in one vehicle.

Avantis is arguably the first firm to bring these sorts of sophisticated methodologies to retail investors with an affordable price tag. Chief Investment Officer Eduardo Repetto, who spent nearly two decades at DFA and was their co-CEO, said:

Our experience has shown us that investors are looking for reliable, diversified strategies that can add value over indexes and are cost-effective. That's what we plan to build.

Avantis is also backed by the well-known asset manager American Century Investments.

Circling back here in 2026 to add a few updates, Avantis recently crossed $100 billion in assets in late 2025, now runs over 30 US-listed ETFs, and has become the go-to systematic factor toolkit for seasoned DIY investors. Technically the “new kid on the block” framing I used years ago now no longer applies.

The pitch is still the same as it was on day one, but it's inarguably more credible now. In a nutshell, Avantis provides reliably targeted exposure to the factors that academic research identifies as drivers of long-run returns, typically at lower fees than the institutional manager that invented the approach (DFA), packaged in ETF wrappers that any retail investor can buy commission-free at any major brokerage.

Unlike traditional active management, nobody at Avantis is picking individual stocks based on gut feel or industry contacts. The process is systematic and rules-based – score holdings on measurable valuation and profitability metrics and weight accordingly.

The result is something in between a strict index fund and a traditional active manager – lower turnover than most active funds, stronger factor loadings than most passive funds, and expense ratios that start around 0.15%.

Now we'll review the most popular Avantis ETFs for factor investors.

AVUS – Avantis U.S. Equity ETF

As the name suggests, the Avantis U.S. Equity ETF (AVUS) aims to provide broad U.S. market exposure, with an active, light factor tilt toward stocks with strong profitability metrics (Profitability) and a lower relative price (Value). It also has a very small positive loading on Size, so its average market cap is lower than that of the market.

Think basically a U.S. stock market index fund that we would expect to beat the market (and have lower volatility and risk) over the long term based on the best academic research. I delved into AVUS in more detail in a separate post here.

In its extremely short lifespan thus far since January 2020, AVUS has outperformed the S&P 500 index. Hopefully the Value premium is making a resurgence.

Morningstar even named this fund their “favorite new launch of the year” in 2019.

AVUS has nearly $11 billion in assets, over 2,000 holdings, and an expense ratio of 0.15%.

AVDE – Avantis International Equity ETF

AVDE takes the same approach described for AVUS above, but this time for Developed Markets outside the United States.

Initially I said the the factor loadings on this one didn't look terribly different from plain ol' VEA from Vanguard so AVDE may not be worth its higher fee (VEA is only 5 basis points), but since then AVDE has pulled away from VEA – about 11.9% annualized for AVDE versus 11.1% annualized for VEA. It's hard to disentangle exactly why such outperformance has occurred – current effects, factor premia, country tilts, etc. – but it has occurred.

Bogleheads may want to stick with Vanguard funds for simplicity, but I plan to keep an eye on these.

AVDE has nearly $15 billion in assets and an expense ratio of 0.23%.

AVEM – Avantis Emerging Markets Equity ETF

AVEM applies Avantis's approach to Emerging Markets. I'm a fan of overweighting Emerging Markets relative to Developed Markets in a US-heavy portfolio, as Developed Markets are highly correlated to the U.S. and thus don't offer as much of a diversification benefit as Emerging Markets.

Here too, though, this fund's factor exposure doesn't look materially different from that of Vanguard's VWO, which costs 8 basis points. This may change as time goes on. That said, these first 3 are arguably good for the novice investor who wants to dip their toes into factor investing.

Also, AVEM includes South Korea while VWO does not, so your particular flavor of Emerging Markets fund choice may matter a bit more here in this context, as South Korea has been a nice driver of returns over some periods.

One could also argue that Emerging Markets are where you don't want an indiscriminate fund and may want some financials screens that something like AVEM would use.

AVEM has crushed VWO in its lifespan of about 7 years with a CAGR of 11.9% versus 8.7% for VWO.

I might even prefer WisdomTree's XSOE here, which seems to capture smaller, more profitable companies with more conservative investment policies (i.e. comparatively more exposure to Size, Profitability, and Investment).

AVXC (EM ex-China) is also live now for investors who've concluded, for geopolitical or risk-management reasons, that they want to exclude China entirely.

AVEM has nearly $8 billion in AUM and has the highest expense ratio of the three at 0.33%.

AVUV – Avantis U.S. Small Cap Value ETF

Previously, the S&P SmallCap 600 Value Index (via IJS, VIOV, or SLYV) was the go-to index to capture U.S. small-cap value.

In 2022, I said AVUV was a very new product, but that in its short lifetime, it had achieved slightly better exposure to the Value premium, and comparatively much more exposure to the Profitability factor. I delved into the details of these U.S. small value ETFs here, out of which AVUV seems like the clear winner. AVUV replaced VIOV in my own portfolio. I also covered AVUV specifically in its own separate post here.

In a nutshell, AVUV has been doing a great job so far of capturing small, undervalued stocks with strong financials. In 2022, I said I think this one is where Avantis shines.

Circling back here in 2026, AVUV has indeed shone through handsomely, even more than I expected. It is now the largest U.S. small cap value ETF in existence, with roughly $23 billion in assets. AVUV's growth from zero to $22 billion in 6 years is among the fastest AUM accumulations in ETF history.

And I'd say that AUM is warranted. AVUV has done exactly what it promised: aggressive, reliable exposure to the intersection of small caps and value stocks with a profitability screen that filters out the deeply distressed companies a pure value screen would drag in. It holds nearly 800 names – far more concentrated than a passive index – with an average market cap around $2.3 billion and an expense ratio of 0.25%.

To reiterate what I've said elsewhere regarding what you're paying for, AVUV's factor loadings are materially stronger than any traditional small cap value competitor, and especially against the uber-popular VBR from Vanguard, for example. In point of fact, AVUV has absolutely smoked VBR over its lifetime – 15.9% CAGR vs. VBR's 11.5%. So AVUV's greater fee of 0.25% feels well-earned.

All this has not gone unnoticed, as AVUV is Avantis's most popular fund by far.

AVDV – Avantis International Small Cap Value ETF

AVDV is the international version of AVUV above, targeting small cap value stocks in ex-US Developed Markets.

AVDV has garnered a lot of discussion recently after returning an impressive +49% in 2025, beating every other corner of the global stock market.

AVDV has over $8 billion in assets and a fee of 0.36%.

AVES – Avantis Emerging Markets Value ETF

AVES is a newer Emerging Markets ETF from Avantis for more aggressive factor targeting than the previous AVEM. It has outperformed AVEM in its short lifespan since its launch in late 2021, but costs slightly more at 0.36%.

While I questioned whether AVEM is worthwhile over a cheaper, plain, indiscriminate index fund for Emerging Markets like VWO, AVES deviates much more and may indeed compensate investors for its greater fee via its vastly superior loadings.

Whether you want that greater factor aggression comes down to personal preference. AVES is more of a bet on smaller stocks, while AVEM more broadly captures the EM segment.

AVGE – Avantis All Equity Markets ETF

AVGE is another newer fund from Avantis that launched in late 2022. This is a fund of funds – the first from Avantis – to essentially capture the entire global stock market with the addition of light factor tilts. That said, the fund does have home country bias for the U.S. with international exposure of only about 30%.

Also note that we'd consider this fund to be more truly actively managed than others on this list in terms of managers' freedom to allocate among different assets within the fund.

Because it is a fund of funds, American AVGE investors should get the benefit of pass-through foreign tax credits on some of its holdings, whereas a plain indexed global equities fund like VT from Vanguard is not eligible for one.

I covered AVGE in more detail in a dedicated post here.

AVGE has an expense ratio of 0.23%.

AVRE – Avantis Real Estate ETF

It's worth noting that broad Avantis funds like AVUS exclude REITs, so investors, particularly those focused on income, may want a dedicated REITs fund in their portfolio. AVRE is Avantis's offering for global REITs exposure.

The fund has an expense ratio of 0.17%.

AVIG – Avantis Core Fixed Income ETF

Avantis also have a few offerings for fixed income assets, one of which is AVIG, which gets you covered globally with a variety of investment-grade debt obligations from multiple types of issuers.

AVIG has an effective intermediate duration of about 7 years and a fee of 0.15%.

New Avantis ETFs Between 2022 and 2026

Since the original version of this post, Avantis has launched more than a dozen additional ETFs. I won't do a deep-dive on every one of them, but here are the additions that may meaningfully change how you think about building a factor-tilted portfolio.

AVLV – Avantis U.S. Large Cap Value ETF

AVLV is arguably the most consequential ETF Avantis has launched since AVUV. Think of it like the large cap version of AVUV. It targets large-cap U.S. stocks cheap on price-to-book and with strong profitability metrics, holding roughly 260 names at remarkably low 7% turnover. The expense ratio is 0.15%, the same as AVUS and only 11 basis points above Vanguard's VTV at 0.04%.

For factor investors, AVLV arguably solves the issue of previously having no clean, dedicated, retail-accessible large cap Value ETF with a profitability screen (VTV doesn't have one). RPV from Invesco uses a retrospective value composite. AVLV combines value and profitability jointly, consistent with Avantis's methodology across the rest of the lineup.

Paul Merriman replaced RPV with AVLV in his 2025 best-in-class ETF recommendations. Morningstar called it a strong option for investors who want to combine value and profitability factor exposure at a reasonable fee.

AVLV has roughly $11 billion in assets as of 2026, which makes it one of the larger factor ETFs in existence despite being less than 5 years old.

AVLC – Avantis U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF

AVLC launched in September 2023 and is the large cap blend companion to AVLV. Where AVLV targets large-cap stocks specifically for being cheap and profitable, AVLC takes the broader approach: full large-cap market coverage with a light tilt toward value and profitability, rather than deep factor concentration. Think of it as AVUS with the small-cap exposure removed.

If you're building a portfolio where you want explicit control over how much small-cap exposure you're taking on, AVLC and AVUV make a cleaner pairing than AVUS alone. AVLC handles the large-cap end with a quality lean; AVUV handles the small-cap end with its aggressive value-and-profitability tilt. You get roughly similar total factor exposure to AVUS but with the knobs separated so you can turn the size dial yourself.

For most investors, the distinction is largely academic and probably immaterial – AVUS is simpler and does a fine job in an all-cap role. AVLC becomes more interesting in factor-tilted portfolios where someone is deliberately sizing their large and small exposures independently, wants to isolate the large-cap contribution for tax-loss harvesting purposes, or simply prefers the cleaner factor decomposition of holding AVLC + AVUV rather than an all-in-one like AVUS.

AVLC costs 0.15%.

AVGV – Avantis All Equity Markets Value ETF

AVGV is to AVGE what AVES is to AVEM – the more aggressive, explicitly value-focused sibling. It launched in June 2023 as a fund of 6 Avantis value ETFs: roughly 36% AVLV, 19% AVIV, 17% AVUV, 11% AVES, 10% AVDV, and 7% AVMV. Expense ratio comes in at 0.26%.

AVGV won the 2024 etf.com Best New Smart Beta or Factor ETF award, which is a reasonable signal that the ETF community took notice. Since inception, it has annualized roughly +19.7% versus the MSCI ACWI IMI Value benchmark's ~16.3%.

The popular Bogleheads construction of 80% VT + 20% AVGV has gained real traction as a simple way to add a meaningful global value tilt at a blended expense ratio of about 0.10%. You get the broad market diversification of VT and the factor punch of Avantis's value lineup without building a 5-6 ETF portfolio yourself.

For investors using AVGE for global equities, many are evaluating AVGV as an alternative or complement.

I delved into AVGV in detail in a separate post here.

AVMV and AVMC – U.S. Mid Cap Value and Mid Cap Equity

Launched in November 2023, these fill the only remaining gap in Avantis's domestic equity coverage. AVMV targets mid-cap value and profitability, and AVMC is the mid-cap blend equivalent. Both are relatively small funds still building track records. They cost 0.20% and 0.18% respectively.

AVSC and AVDS – U.S. and International Small Cap Equity

AVSC and AVDS are the small-cap blend complements to AVUV and AVDV. No deep value targeting, just broad small-cap exposure with Avantis's usual profitability quality screen. These may be useful for investors who want small-cap exposure without making a concentrated value bet, either because they prefer a blend strategy or because they're separately managing their value tilt with another ETF.

AVSC has grown to around $2 billion, suggesting pretty wide adoption among the “quality tilt without deep value” crowd. AVDS still sits at “only” about $300 million.

AVSC and AVDS cost 0.25% and 0.30% respectively.

AVEE – Avantis Emerging Markets Small Cap Equity ETF

AVEE launched in November 2023 and completes what is now the most comprehensive geographic small-cap factor suite available to retail investors.

The expense ratio, at roughly 0.42%, is the highest in the Avantis equity lineup, but trading small-cap stocks in emerging markets is genuinely expensive: spreads are wider, liquidity is thinner, settlement periods are longer, and transaction costs that Avantis absorbs in the fund are not insignificant. So the fee is not greed.

AVEE's track record is short enough that any performance discussion is just noise.

AVEM vs. AVES vs. AVEE

AVEE's launch makes the Avantis lineup for Emerging Markets more confusing, because now you've got AVEM, AVES, and AVEE, getting smaller in that order.

I've gotten a lot of questions about these 3 and I'll admit right off the bat that I don't have good answers, at least not yet, as AVEE is roughly only 2 years old at this point. We need more data before we can comment meaningfully on performance and factor loadings.

AVEM is the broad-market baseline. Think diversified EM exposure with a light tilt toward value and profitability, at a 0.33% expense ratio. The fund doesn't deviate dramatically from the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. AVEM is best suited for investors who want some factor lean in EM without committing to the volatility that comes with deeper tilts. Weighted average market cap is $250 billion.

AVES is the Value specialist. At 0.36%, it targets EM stocks cheap on price-to-book with strong profitability – the same value-and-profitability methodology as AVUV and AVLV, applied to Emerging Markets. Factor loadings are meaningfully stronger than AVEM across the board, thus the deviation from the broad EM index is more substantial. Weighted average market cap is $12 billion.

The case for AVES over AVEM is essentially the same as the case for AVUV over a plain small-cap fund: more factor purity if you believe the premia are real and persistent. The trade-off is meaningful tracking error versus a broad EM index and more concentrated country and sector bets driven by wherever value is cheapest in EM at any given time.

AVEE is the Size specialist. Rather than going deeper on Value within EM, it goes smaller, targeting the emerging markets small-cap universe with Avantis's usual quality filter. The factor story here leans heavily on the Size premium in a part of the world where the size premium has historically been strongest. Interestingly, AVEE doesn't overlap much with AVEM or AVES, which both have more large and mid-cap EM stocks. AVEE's average market cap is dramatically lower, its country and sector composition looks different, and its volatility is higher. Weighted average market cap is $1.5 billion.

At first glance after its launch, I just assumed AVEE was a more concentrated version of AVES. That is not the case. Again, AVES focuses on Value while AVEE focuses on Size. I'll show you what I mean. Here are factor loadings for these 3 as of April 2026, but grab a handful of salt, because remember this is using only roughly 25 or so observations since AVEE launched a little over 2 years ago:

Bold = statistically significant.

Notice SmB getting larger on the progression of AVEM > AVES > AVEE. AVES has the only statistically significant HmL loading of the three, confirming it's doing the Value work.

It may not be unreasonable to utilize both.

AVUQ – Avantis U.S. Quality ETF

AVUQ launched in June 2024 and isolates the Profitability factor without a meaningful Value tilt. Think of it as the anti-AVUV: same quality screen, but applied to the full market cap spectrum and without screening for cheap stocks.

The use case is probably narrow: investors with a growth-heavy existing portfolio who want to add a quality/profitability overlay without adding a value tilt. AVUQ may also be useful for investors who believe the profitability premium is more persistent than the value premium and want to express that view explicitly.

AVUQ has an expense ratio of 0.15%.

AVGB – Avantis Credit ETF (0.18%)

Launched in April 2025, AVGB extends Avantis's systematic active approach to investment-grade credit, targeting bonds with the most attractive expected returns within the IG universe. It completes Avantis's fixed income lineup alongside AVIG for broad IG, AVSF for short-term IG, and AVMU for munis.

The Fund-of-Funds Suite: AVGE, AVGV, AVNM, AVNV, AVMA

Avantis has essentially built its model portfolio system through 5 fund-of-funds wrappers:

If you want a single-ticker global factor portfolio, some combination of of these 5 is probably what you want.

1. AVGE, discussed above, is global equity with moderate factor tilts.
2. AVGV is global Value.
3. AVNM is the international equivalent of AVUS – broadly international equity.
4. AVNV is international value only.
5. AVMA is global equities plus a bond allocation, making it technically a complete portfolio in a single ETF. I discussed it in detail here.

Avantis ETFs Comparison Table

That was a lot. Let's recap with a snapshot comparison table:

Data as of late April 2026.

Where To Buy These Avantis ETFs

Thankfully, all the above Avantis ETFs should now be available at any major broker. My choice is M1 Finance. The broker has zero trade commissions and zero account fees, and offers fractional shares, dynamic rebalancing, intuitive pie visualization, and a sleek, user-friendly interface and mobile app. I wrote a comprehensive review of M1 Finance here.

Do you own any of these Avantis ETFs? Let me know in the comments.

Disclosures: I am long AVUV and AVDV in my own portfolio.

Interested in more Lazy Portfolios? See the full list here.

Disclaimer:  While I love diving into investing-related data and playing around with backtests, this is not financial advice, investing advice, or tax advice. The information on this website is for informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Investment products discussed (ETFs, mutual funds, etc.) are for illustrative purposes only. It is not a research report. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or otherwise transact in any of the products mentioned. I always attempt to ensure the accuracy of information presented but that accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Do your own due diligence. I mention M1 Finance a lot around here. M1 does not provide investment advice, and this is not an offer or solicitation of an offer, or advice to buy or sell any security, and you are encouraged to consult your personal investment, legal, and tax advisors. Hypothetical examples used, such as historical backtests, do not reflect any specific investments, are for illustrative purposes only, and should not be considered an offer to buy or sell any products. All investing involves risk, including the risk of losing the money you invest. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of other parties mentioned. Read my lengthier disclaimer here.