Which is cheaper, DFAL or USMV?

DFAL is cheaper, by 0.03 percentage points a year. That is about $3 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

How much do DFAL and USMV overlap with the S&P 500?

By their latest filed holdings, 54% of DFAL and 93% of USMV by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

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DFAL vs USMV: Differences, Returns & Fees

DFAL and USMV hold 22% of their weight in the same names. Net assets: $1.5bn on Jul 31, 2026 for Dimensional US Large Cap Core Equity Market ETF, and $23.8bn on Oct 9, 2026 for iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF.

DFAL costs 0.03 points a year less; USMV is 15.3 times larger.

	DFAL	USMV
Expense ratio	0.12%	0.15%
Net assets, as of Jul 31, 2026	$1.5bn	$23.6bn
Total return, 1 year	not published	+7.5%
What it tracks	not published	MSCI USA Minimum Volatility (USD) Index
Holdings in common	22%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund	56.6%	15.0%

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

+6.3%

DFAL total return, since launch, Jun 23, 2026

+7.5%

USMV total return, 1 year

0.12%

DFAL expense ratio

0.15%

USMV expense ratio

What they hold in common

By the books each fund has filed, DFAL and USMV hold 22% 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

22% in common

Positions both hold, largest shared weight first

Holding DFAL USMV

MICROSOFT CORPORATION 2.82% 1.63%

NVIDIA CORPORATION 3.93% 1.60%

APPLE INC. 3.83% 0.97%

BROADCOM INC. 1.57% 0.93%

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. 0.76% 1.45%

ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC. 0.58% 0.88%

VISA INC. 0.52% 1.01%

EXXONMOBIL HOLDINGS CORPORATION 0.51% 1.49%

JOHNSON & JOHNSON 0.51% 1.42%

MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC. 0.51% 0.80%

MASTERCARD INCORPORATED 0.43% 1.25%

WALMART INC. 0.41% 0.70%

Only in DFAL

iShares Russell Top 200 Growth Index ETF 13.12%

Ishares Russell Top 200 Value Index Fund 8.84%

DFA Dimensional US Marketwide Value ETF 7.98%

Dimensional U S Core Equity 2 ETF 6.89%

iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF 4.68%

ALPHABET INC. 1.27%

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. 0.87%

ELI LILLY AND COMPANY 0.85%

Only in USMV

WELLTOWER 1.43%

WASTE CONNECTIONS 1.14%

TJX 0.97%

MCDONALDS CORP 0.95%

ACCENTURE PLC CLASS A 0.83%

MARSH 0.83%

ELI LILLY 0.79%

TEXAS INSTRUMENT INC 0.76%

Check overlap with more funds →

On the same fields

DFAL

Dimensional US Large Cap Core Equity Market ETF

USMV

iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF

Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF

Issuer Dimensional iShares

What it is Equity fund Tracks the MSCI USA Min Vol Factor

Total return, 1 year +6.3% (since launch, Jun 23, 2026) +7.5%

S&P 500 over the same days +6.4% (since launch, Jun 23, 2026) +17.3%

Gap to the S&P 500 −0.1 pts (since launch, Jun 23, 2026) −9.7 pts

Expense ratio 0.12% 0.15%

Already in the S&P 500 53.9% 93.0%

Holdings 545 176

Net assets, DFAL as of Jul 31, 2026 and USMV as of Oct 9, 2026 $1.5bn $23.8bn

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

DFAL in plain words

The prospectus expense ratio is 0.12% a year. By its holdings filed for Jul 31, 2026, 54% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 545 positions, with the top ten at 56.6%.

USMV in plain words

USMV tracks the MSCI USA Min Vol Factor. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +7.5% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.15% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 8, 2026, 93% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 176 positions, with the top ten at 15.0%.

Questions people ask

Which is cheaper, DFAL or USMV?: DFAL is cheaper, by 0.03 percentage points a year. That is about $3 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
How much do DFAL and USMV overlap with the S&P 500?: By their latest filed holdings, 54% of DFAL and 93% of USMV by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Other comparisons

DFAL vs SPMO DFAL vs RDVY DFAL vs DFUS DFAL vs OEF SEIM vs USMV PDP vs USMV USMV vs USXF QQQE vs USMV

DFAL on its own →USMV on its own →Hold both: look the portfolio through →Rankings →Standards and sources →

Where these figures came from

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

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, DFAL against USMV, data as of Oct 9, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/dfal-vs-usmv

Open data

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