Which returned more over the last year, DFAE or IEMG?

In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, DFAE returned +26.0% and IEMG +25.3%.

Which is cheaper, DFAE or IEMG?

IEMG is cheaper, by 0.20 percentage points a year. That is about $20 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

How much do DFAE and IEMG overlap with the S&P 500?

By their latest filed holdings, 0% of DFAE and 0% of IEMG by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

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DFAE vs IEMG: Differences, Returns & Fees

DFAE and IEMG hold 62% of their weight in the same names, and DFAE returned +26.0% over the year. Net assets: $9.5bn on Jul 31, 2026 for Dimensional Emerging Core Equity Market ETF, and $160.2bn on Oct 9, 2026 for iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF.

IEMG costs 0.20 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 0.7 points; IEMG is 16.1 times larger.

	DFAE	IEMG
Expense ratio	0.29%	0.09%
Net assets, as of Jul 31, 2026	$9.5bn	$152.2bn
Total return, 1 year	+26.0%	+25.3%
What it tracks	No index, actively managed	MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index (IMI)
Holdings in common	62%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund	30.5%	34.2%
Below its high	5.0%, high on Jun 22, 2026	5.3%, high on Jun 22, 2026

Holdings in common uses holdings dated Jul 31, 2026 and Oct 8, 2026.

+26.0%

DFAE total return, 1 year

+25.3%

IEMG total return, 1 year

0.29%

DFAE expense ratio

0.09%

IEMG expense ratio

What they hold in common

By the books each fund has filed, DFAE and IEMG hold 62% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Above 50%, holding both is close to holding one of them twice. Holdings dated Jul 31, 2026 and Oct 8, 2026.

50%

half

62% in common

Positions both hold, largest shared weight first

Holding DFAE IEMG

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited 13.19% 14.10%

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 5.17% 6.56%

SK hynix Inc. 4.54% 4.97%

Tencent Holdings Limited 2.57% 2.31%

Alibaba Group Holding Limited 1.20% 1.59%

MediaTek Inc. 0.97% 1.52%

HON HAI PRECISION INDUSTRY CO., LTD. 0.79% 0.68%

DELTA ELECTRONICS, INC. 0.62% 0.86%

ICICI BANK LIMITED 0.45% 0.52%

RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LIMITED 0.40% 0.50%

BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED 0.44% 0.37%

XIAOMI CORPORATION 0.41% 0.37%

Only in DFAE

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 0.67%

INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF CHINA LIMITED 0.46%

Alibaba Group Holding Limited 0.39%

AL RAJHI BANKING AND INVESTMENT CORPORATION SJSC 0.31%

HDFC BANK LIMITED 0.31%

VALE S.A. 0.29%

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. 0.24%

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) 0.23%

Only in IEMG

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS NON VOTING PRE 0.83%

CHINA CONSTRUCTION BANK CORP H 0.74%

SK SQUARE 0.52%

INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF 0.45%

ITAU UNIBANCO HOLDING PREF SA 0.38%

BANK OF CHINA LTD H 0.37%

UNITED MICRO ELECTRONICS CORP 0.37%

PETROLEO BRASILEIRO PREF SA 0.36%

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On the same fields

DFAE

Dimensional Emerging Core Equity Market ETF

IEMG

iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF

Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF

Issuer Dimensional iShares

What it is Actively managed Tracks the MSCI Emerging Markets

Total return, 1 year +26.0% +25.3%

S&P 500 over the same days +17.3% +17.3%

Gap to the S&P 500 +8.8 pts +8.1 pts

Expense ratio 0.29% 0.09%

Already in the S&P 500 0.0% 0.0%

Holdings 6272 2871

Net assets, DFAE as of Jul 31, 2026 and IEMG as of Oct 9, 2026 $9.5bn $160.2bn

DFAE and IEMG on the fields both publish, as of Oct 9, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.

DFAE in plain words

DFAE is actively managed and tracks no index. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +26.0% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.29% a year. By its holdings filed for Jul 31, 2026, 0% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 6,272 positions, with the top ten at 30.5%. It sat 5.0% below its high of Jun 22, 2026 on Oct 9, 2026.

IEMG in plain words

IEMG tracks the MSCI Emerging Markets. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +25.3% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.09% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 8, 2026, 0% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 2,871 positions, with the top ten at 34.2%. It sat 5.3% below its high of Jun 22, 2026 on Oct 9, 2026.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, DFAE or IEMG?: In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, DFAE returned +26.0% and IEMG +25.3%.
Which is cheaper, DFAE or IEMG?: IEMG is cheaper, by 0.20 percentage points a year. That is about $20 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
How much do DFAE and IEMG overlap with the S&P 500?: By their latest filed holdings, 0% of DFAE and 0% of IEMG by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Other comparisons

DFAE vs VWO DFAE vs EEM DFAE vs EEMV DFAE vs XSOE FNDE vs IEMG DFEM vs IEMG IEMG vs SCHE IEMG vs SPEM

DFAE on its own →IEMG on its own →Hold both: look the portfolio through →Rankings →Standards and sources →

Where these figures came from

DFAE filings on SEC EDGAR ↗DFAE prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗Dimensional website ↗IEMG filings on SEC EDGAR ↗IEMG prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗iShares page for IEMG ↗

ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure; a link is not an endorsement. A comparison is not a recommendation.

How this is computed

Overlap adds up the smaller of the two weights for each security both funds hold.

Cite this pageCitation, APA and Markdown

ETFIQ, DFAE against IEMG, data as of Oct 9, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/dfae-vs-iemg

Open data

Free to use with attribution for figures ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms.