US Small/Mid-Cap Index Medalist Funds

Funds and ETFs on this list can serve as a compliment to a US large-cap holding. The portfolios can be growth-, value-, or blend-oriented and typically focus on the bottom 30% of the capitalization of the US equity market. Index funds generally don’t try to beat the market by opportunistically buying or selling securities. Rather, they simply invest the fund or ETFs assets to mirror the construction of an index (such as the S&P 500), providing investors a way to gain exposure to a specific part of the markets. Index funds generally have lower relative costs compared with actively managed offerings. We further narrow the list to those that also received a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Morningstar Medalist Rating by our analysts. The Medalist Rating is a forward-looking assessment of an investment strategy. The rating is on a five-tier scale running from Gold to Negative. For passive strategies, funds and ETFs with top ratings are expected to deliver alpha that exceeds the lesser of the category median net alpha, or zero, over the long term.