Fund Evaluator:

Avantis® Core Fixed Income Institutional Overview

Avantis® Core Fixed Income Institutional (AVIGX) is an actively managed Taxable Bond Intermediate Core Bond fund. Avantis Investors launched the fund in 2021.

The investment seeks to maximize total return. The fund invests primarily in investment grade quality debt obligations from a diverse group of U.S. and non-U.S. issuers. Under normal market conditions, it will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in fixed income securities. Fixed income securities in which the fund may invest include corporate bonds and notes issued by U.S. and foreign corporations, securities issued by governments and their agencies, instrumentalities, or sponsored corporations-including supranational organizations.

About Avantis® Core Fixed Income Institutional (AVIGX)

There are 4 members of the management team with an average tenure of 5.43 years: Daniel Ong (2021), Mitchell Handa (2021), Hozef Arif (2021), Eduardo Repetto (2021). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 1 primary benchmark: Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Avantis® Core Fixed Income Institutional has 553 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 15.5% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Avantis® Core Fixed Income Institutional is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond fund group. Avantis® Core Fixed Income Institutional has 11.4% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 0.0%. There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 106.0% (94.6% domestic bond, 11.4% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Avantis® Core Fixed Income Institutional has -6.0% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $11 million in total assets, which is below the $3 billion average for the Intermediate Core Bond category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

AVIGX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The Avantis® Core Fixed Income Institutional expense ratio is low compared to funds in the Intermediate Core Bond category. Avantis® Core Fixed Income Institutional has an expense ratio of 0.15%, which is 74% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a A. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. Avantis® Core Fixed Income Institutional has a portfolio turnover rate of 319%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 151% for the Intermediate Core Bond category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Avantis® Core Fixed Income Institutional returned -1.3%, which earned it a grade of B, as the Intermediate Core Bond category had an average return of -1.3%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

Avantis® Core Fixed Income Institutional has a trailing yield of 4.50%, which is above the 4.04% category average. The fund normally distributes its income monthly and its capital gains annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

Avantis® Core Fixed Income Institutional Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned -0.8%, 0.1 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 2.7% over the past year (grade of B), 4.1% over the past three years (grade of A) and -0.4% per year over the past five years (grade of C).

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