Foreign Equities in 2026? Combine Active, Passive

Active and passive investing strategies are pit against each other all the time despite appearing together in countless portfolios. Each offers key advantages that help investors meet their goals therein — so why not lean into their strengths? Avantis Investors offers ETFs that look to package the best of active and passive investing in equities and fixed income ETFs via the shop’s “Systematic Active” approach. One such active foreign equities ETF could help take advantage of the underlying positives in the space in the new year. 

See more: Avantis Investors Hits $100 Billion in AUM as AVUV Hits $20 Billion

Created in 2019 as a branch of American Century Investments, Avantis Investors has since surpassed $100 billion in total fund AUM. Its investment approach looks to be cost conscious while also leaning on active’s ability to offer customized asset allocations. 

Foreign Equities via Active and Passive — Together

The firm’s best performing ETF this year, AVDV, captured that idea en route to a robust YTD return. AVDV, the Avantis International Small Cap Value ETF, charges a 36-basis-point (bps) fee. According to the fund’s profile, AVDV aims for the benefits of indexing like transparency and diversification as well as value from active, price-driven decisionmaking. The active foreign equities ETF looks for small cap companies meeting its value view as part of its investment process. 

That helped the foreign equities ETF return 49.2% on a YTD basis according to ETF Database data. That return helped the ETF outperform its ETF Database Category average for that time period. The foreign equities ETF also outperformed that average over all other time periods in ETF Database data, from the last month to the last five years.

With many investors looking to add exposure to foreign equities categories, the question is: which ETF can best serve that role? Rather than try to pair passive and active funds together in a suite, an ETF like AVDV can get the best out of both. This year, its focus on mining and metals firms has helped it reach that strong performance, with no sector weighted more than 17% per ETF Database data as of December 23rd. Looking ahead, AVDV could prove a strong longtime hold for investor portfolios.

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