AVGV ETF Review – Avantis All Equity Markets Value ETF

AVGV is a new ETF from Avantis that is a single fund solution for the global stock market investor who wants to go all in on Value stocks. I review it here.

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Intro – Avantis, Value, and AVGV Launch

If you've arrived here, I'd guess you already know Avantis is one of the best names in the biz for factor funds, that Value has the most robust statistical evidence of all equity risk factor premia, and that global diversification in stocks is probably a prudent idea. In March 2023, Avantis filed for a new fund for global value stocks, for which the ticker is AVGV. AVGV launched in June 2023.

Previously, the global investor who wanted to only buy Value stocks had to use multiple ETFs. Simplicity in portfolios can be extremely valuable, both for advisors and retail investors themselves. Avantis now offers a single packaged solution to go “all in” on Value globally.

AVGV is the second “fund of funds” from Avantis after AVGE. While AVGE is global stocks with light factor tilts, think of AVGV as basically half of AVGE, holding only Value stocks – no blend or growth here. As such, this is probably only suitable for the “die-hard” factor investor. Still not quite as die-hard as Swedroe though, who goes all in on small cap value; we've still got large cap value here. AVGV introduces much more potential for tracking error regret compared to AVGE.

AVGV ETF Review Video

Prefer video? Watch it here. If not, continue scrolling to read below.

AVGV Quick Stats

Here are the quick stats for AVGV at a glance:

The fee waiver is contractually in place at least through late 2026, per Avantis disclosures. There's no guarantee it gets renewed indefinitely, but it has been extended multiple times since launch, so 0.26% is the number to work with for planning purposes.

Avantis fans can also rest easy now that AVGV is past that $100M safety threshold in 2026.

AVGV Allocations

AVGV has an explicitly stated home country bias for the U.S., but it's less than AVGE's 70%. Target weights for AVGV for U.S., ex-US Developed Markets, and Emerging Markets are 60%, 30%, and 10% respectively. These also have acceptable ranges of basically 10% on either side of the target. Specifically, here's what the breakdown of the constituent funds looks like:

• U.S. Value Stocks – 60% target; acceptable range of 50-70%
  • AVLV – Avantis U.S. Large Cap Value ETF
  • AVMV – Avantis U.S. Mid Cap Value ETF
  • AVUV – Avantis U.S. Small Cap Value ETF
• Ex-US Developed Markets Value Stocks – 30% target; acceptable range of 20-40%
  • AVIV – Avantis International Large Cap Value ETF
  • AVDV – Avantis International Small Cap Value ETF
• Emerging Markets Value Stocks – 10% target; acceptable range of 5-20%.
  • AVES – Avantis Emerging Markets Value ETF

As with AVGE, managers appear to have some freedom to allocate within target ranges. The prospectus states:

The portfolio managers regularly review the fund’s allocations to determine whether rebalancing is appropriate. To better balance risks in changing market environments and control costs and tax realizations, the portfolio managers may allocate within the target range in light of prevailing market conditions and relative performance. We reserve the right to modify the target ranges and underlying funds from time to time should circumstances warrant a change.

AVGV Holdings

Here's the current allocation breakdown of the specific ETFs inside AVGV:

The portfolio managers have discretion to allocate within those target ranges, so these actual weights will drift over time as they rebalance in response to market conditions and relative valuations, not necessarily in response to market cap weights.

The 6 funds collectively own nearly 4,900 individual stocks across 47+ countries, covering all cap sizes and all major value markets globally. AVGV's benchmark, the MSCI ACWI IMI Value Index, holds about 5,100 stocks, so AVGV's active management results in a slightly more concentrated portfolio, though the difference is arguably negligible since the absolute number of stocks is so high.

AVGV Sector Breakdown

If you want to understand what being a market-wide “value” investor looks like, AVGV's sector breakdown illustrates it:

*Data as of January 1, 2026.

You might immediately recognize that the contrast with a cap weighted total market fund like VT (or the S&P 500) is pretty stark. Technology is north of 25% in most broad market index funds. In AVGV, it gets a little less than 9%.

Meanwhile, Financials clock in at 22%, nearly triple their weight in a typical broad market fund. Energy at 11% is roughly double its market cap weight.

This sector divergence is the root cause of AVGV's tracking error versus benchmarks, and it cuts both ways. During 2023-2024, the Magnificent 7's dominance made AVGV look bad. As of 2025-2026, when that trade reversed, AVGV looks like a genius.

AVGV ETF Performance vs. VT

Now that AVGV has been live for a few years since June 2023, we can look at some performance.

Annualized return from inception in mid-2023 through March 2026 is about 19.7%.

For context, the fund's benchmark – the MSCI ACWI IMI Value Index – returned approximately 16.3% annualized over the same period. That's roughly +3 percentage points of annual outperformance from Avantis's active management and factor screens. Whether or not that will continue remains to be seen.

It shouldn't really mean much, but you're probably most interested in its calendar year returns compared to a plain total market fund like VT. VT is not the actual benchmark, obviously, but it's the comparison everyone wants to make colloquially.

A few things worth noting here:

1. In 2024, when U.S. large-cap growth stocks were soaring, AVGV lagged VT by about 5 percentage points. That's the tracking error you sign up for with a pure value fund (seasoned factor investors know this), and you should expect it to recur.
2. In 2025 and 2026 YTD, the script flipped, and AVGV's outperformance was meaningful. This type of swing is what I'm referring to when I say your returns with a fund like this will not resemble the market, for better or worse.
3. The 2026 YTD number through mid-April is particularly notable: AVGV up ~12%, VT up ~5%, VOO roughly flat. Value and international stocks leading an uncertain U.S. market is consistent with AVGV's diversification thesis, though a mere 3 months is obviously no basis for any meaningful conclusions.

Here's that performance visualized graphically:

Notice how AVGV has been slightly more volatile and had a larger max drawdown over that period. That's those extra small caps in action. Remember no one is claiming AVGV is safer or more stable than a cap weighted counterpart.

However, AVGV's greater return here more than made up for that little bit of extra volatility, illustrated by the greater Sharpe ratio.

But we don't need to view AVGV and VT as competitors. They can be thought of as complements, as they can – and maybe should – be held together. I'll explain this idea more later below.

AVGV vs. AVGE

This is the question I get asked most often about these two funds. AVGV and AVGE may look similar on the surface, and their tickers only differ by one letter, but they are inarguably designed for different investor profiles.

In short, AVGE is market cap global + modest factor tilts, while AVGV is pure global value. AVGE buys some Growth and Blend exposure alongside Value; AVGV basically has no interest in Growth stocks.

Factor nerds will be curious to see the actual loadings, so here are those, though keep in mind this is only about 3 years of data:

AVGE is better if:

• You want a single-fund global equity solution with modest factor tilts and minimal tracking error versus VT.
• You want REIT exposure included in your equity allocation.
• You're primarily trying to maximize simplicity, not factor loadings.

AVGV is better if:

• You have genuine conviction in the Value premium and want appreciable exposure to it.
• You already hold VT as a core position and want to tilt global value without replacing your entire equity allocation.
• You're comfortable enduring extended periods of nontrivial underperformance versus cap-weighted benchmarks.

Many investors in the Bogleheads community have landed on something like 80% VT + 20% AVGV rather than 100% AVGE, with the logic being that you get the cap-weighted Vanguard core with simplicity and low costs on the VT portion, you control exactly how much factor tilt you want, and your blended ER comes out to around 0.10% versus AVGE's 0.23%. You also get less U.S. home country bias than AVGE's 70% U.S. target (which, in the interest of full disclosure, I said seemed heavy but made sense from a marketing perspective).

AVGV Tax Efficiency and Placement

Because it's just a fund of funds, American AVGV investors will get pass-through foreign tax credits on its 3 underlying international funds, so that's good. (Ironically, VT does not currently get the foreign tax credit.)

But AVGV is not exactly ideal for a taxable environment due to more trading and higher dividend yield compared to a simple cap weighted index fund. Value stocks inherently produce more income than Growth stocks, and remember AVGV is Value-only.

Moreover, not all of AVGV's dividends are taxed equally.

The U.S. constituent funds (AVLV, AVMV, AVUV) generate 100% qualified dividends, which are taxed at the favorable long-term capital gains rate. The international funds are less clean: AVIV is approximately 87% qualified, AVDV approximately 79% qualified, and AVES roughly 55% qualified (Emerging Markets dividends are the worst offenders).

Blended, you're looking at about 85% qualified dividends – not terrible, but not the clean 100% you'd get from a pure U.S. equity fund.

The ETF in-kind redemption mechanism provides the usual structural protection so AVGV has been able to avoid capital gains distributions thus far.

In summary, if you have a tax-advantaged account available like a Roth IRA, AVGV is likely best held there.

AVGV ETF Review

Previously, at the time of its initial filing, I said the main thing that jumped out to me with AVGV was the fact that it was not stated anywhere what the allocation ratio was for large caps to small caps. In my opinion, AVGV's desirability hinged heavily on where that ratio rested, as dedicated factor investors are often understandably seeking a heavy tilt toward small cap value, much more so than market cap weights would provide.

Now that the fund is out, we can see AVGV's ratio of large cap value to small cap value is almost exactly 2:1. For reference, market cap weights would be about 10:1, and I personally use 1:1 in my portfolio. This means AVGV does indeed have a pretty appreciable tilt toward smaller stocks. To state the obvious, this makes sense, as AVGV was built by and for dedicated factor investors.

I made the point about AVGE that it overweights large caps – presumably to be close to market cap weights – but that I'd rather see more weight to small cap value. Here with AVGV, if they want a more aggressive tilt, small cap value fans would still need to hold on to their AVUV and AVDV positions separately to purposely overweight them. But then if you do that, you're still using 3 funds while AVGV only holds 6 funds, so have you really accomplished anything?

As I hinted at, AVGV may be the perfect solution for the global market cap investor (think Vanguard's VT) who wants to dial in a global Value tilt with the addition of one single fund, which was previously impossible to achieve without several funds.

For example, one could use 80% VT for the straightforward cap-weighted global stock market and 20% AVGV to tilt toward Value stocks globally across all cap sizes like this.

I want to explicitly explain at this point that the case for adding AVGV alongside VT is not about its outperformance since 2023; it's about whether or not you have conviction in the Value premium. Fama and French established pretty good evidence for it, and it has been more consistent outside U.S. borders (which is relevant since 40% of AVGV is international). As of early 2026, international value is trading at a historically wide discount to growth, suggesting the setup may prove favorable. Only time will tell.

On that note, the die-hard factor investor could obviously just use AVGV for their entire portfolio, and some do. I can certainly get behind that simplicity, but again, it requires conviction that few possess (hence “die-hard”). And that's not hyperbole; just look at U.S. Growth vs. U.S. Value broadly over the past 20 years or so.

AVGV should be available at any major broker, including M1 Finance, which is the one I'm usually suggesting around here.

What do you think of AVGV? Do you prefer it over AVGE? Are you combining it with VT? (Rhyming much?!) Let me know in the comments.

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

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.