CAGE ETF: what CAGE.TO is, what it holds, and how it works

Short answer: CAGE.TO is an all-equity, globally diversified ETF that listed on the TSX in March 2026. CIBC manages the Canadian wrapper and Avantis Investors runs the strategy. It uses a rules-based active approach that tilts toward value, smaller, and profitable companies. The management fee is 0.28%. The full MER hasn’t been published yet because of the first-year reporting rule.

For a few years now, the Canadian DIY crowd has been hearing about Avantis on Rational Reminder and realizing the most direct way to access the strategy was U.S.-listed funds in a USD account. That changed on March 18, 2026, when CIBC and Avantis listed CAGE.TO on the TSX. One ticker, all-equity, global, with the Avantis methodology baked in.

This guide is a plain-English walkthrough of what CAGE actually is, who runs it, what it holds, and how the strategy works. If you’re trying to decide whether to swap out of XEQT or VEQT, the dedicated comparison articles are linked at the end.

This is not financial advice. I’m sharing what I’ve learned from my own research, and your situation might be different from mine. Fund details change over time, so always check the latest disclosures before making a decision.

What CAGE actually is

CAGE.TO is an ETF listed on the TSX, trading in Canadian dollars. CIBC is the manager and handles the Canadian wrapper, distribution, and disclosure. Avantis Investors, a unit of American Century in the U.S., is the sub-advisor that designs and runs the strategy.

It’s structured as a fund-of-funds, which means CAGE itself doesn’t hold individual stocks directly. It holds a basket of underlying Avantis equity ETFs that cover U.S. stocks, international developed markets, emerging markets, and Canadian stocks. Roll those up and you get a single, globally diversified, 100% equity portfolio in one ticker.

CAGE fund facts at a glance:

CAGE fund facts

Attribute	Value
Ticker	CAGE (TSX)
Inception	March 18, 2026
Asset mix	100% equities, globally diversified
Management fee	0.28%
MER	Not yet published (first-year rule)
Currency	CAD, unhedged
Distributions	Quarterly
Risk rating	Medium (per CIBC)
Net assets	~$267M (early May 2026)
Manager	CIBC, sub-advised by Avantis Investors
Eligible accounts	TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, RDSP, RRIF, LIRA, non-registered

What CAGE holds

Because CAGE is a fund-of-funds, its direct holdings are a small set of underlying Avantis equity ETFs. The look-through holdings, meaning the actual companies inside those underlying funds, span hundreds of names across the U.S., international developed markets, emerging markets, and Canada.

The composition leans deliberately toward value, smaller, and profitable companies rather than pure cap-weighting. So while a fund like XEQT puts the most weight on the biggest companies in the world (Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, and so on), CAGE pulls in more weight from companies further down the size curve, especially ones that look cheap on fundamentals and consistently make money.

CIBC hasn’t published a full geographic and top-holdings breakdown yet. That’s normal for a fund this new, and the disclosures will fill in as CAGE matures. Once they do, expect a wider basket of holdings than XEQT or VEQT, with more representation from mid and small-cap names.

The fee, and the first-year MER rule

CAGE’s management fee is 0.28%. That’s the figure CIBC charges for running the fund.

The full MER, which adds operating expenses on top of the management fee, hasn’t been published. Canadian regulators don’t require a fund to publish its full MER in its first year of inception, so the number won’t appear on disclosure documents until CAGE has a complete reporting cycle. When it lands, expect it to come in a few basis points above 0.28%.

For context, XEQT’s MER is roughly 0.20% after BlackRock’s December 2025 fee cut, and VEQT’s MER is around 0.24%. So CAGE costs a bit more, mostly because the strategy is more involved than tracking a cap-weighted index.

How the factor strategy works

This is the part that actually distinguishes CAGE from the cap-weighted alternatives. Without it, the comparison doesn’t make sense.

A cap-weighted index fund like XEQT owns the global stock market roughly in proportion to size. The biggest companies get the biggest weights. CAGE owns a similar global universe but applies three deliberate tilts on top of cap weighting:

• Value. Companies that look cheap relative to their fundamentals (book value, earnings, cash flow) get more weight than they would in a cap-weighted index. The thesis is that paying less for a dollar of fundamentals tends to pay off over long stretches.
• Size. Smaller companies get more weight than their market cap alone would give them. Not “small-cap only,” just less concentration in the megacaps that dominate the index.
• Profitability. Reliably profitable companies get included or overweighted. Chronically unprofitable ones get filtered out or reduced.

The academic foundation goes back to Eugene Fama and Kenneth French in the early 1990s, with Robert Novy-Marx adding the profitability piece in 2013. Decades of data suggest these factors have rewarded patient investors over very long horizons.

The honest caveat is that “very long” can mean a long time. Factor-tilted portfolios can underperform broad cap-weighted indices for ten years or more. That’s not a bug. It’s part of how factor investing works. Anyone holding CAGE has to be willing to sit through stretches of trailing XEQT without flinching. That’s a real ask, and it’s worth being honest with yourself about whether you can do it before you start.

Who built it: CIBC plus Avantis

CIBC runs the Canadian side. The wrapper, the listing, the disclosures, the day-to-day administration. Avantis Investors designs and operates the underlying strategy.

Avantis was founded in 2019 inside American Century by a team that came over from Dimensional Fund Advisors. AVUV (small-cap value) and AVGE (all-equity) became staples in the Bogleheads-adjacent corner of the internet, and the Rational Reminder podcast has been talking about Avantis for years. Eduardo Repetto, the chief investment officer, has been on the show more than once.

What was missing was a Canadian-listed wrapper. You could buy AVGE in a USD account, but that meant currency conversion and the friction of running a USD account for what most people want to be a one-ticker, one-account setup. CAGE closes that gap.

CAGE is one of eight funds in the broader Avantis CIBC lineup that launched in March 2026. The others split the strategy across U.S., international, emerging, and small-cap value sleeves for people who want to build their own factor portfolio rather than buy the all-in-one.

Distributions and tax basics

CAGE is an equity ETF, so it distributes dividends from the underlying companies and any realized capital gains from the underlying funds. CIBC has confirmed CAGE will distribute quarterly, in line with XEQT and VEQT.

In a TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, RDSP, RRIF, or LIRA, the tax behaviour is straightforward: distributions and capital gains are sheltered, so you don’t have to think much about how the fund-of-funds layer flows through.

In a non-registered account, the tax picture takes longer to clarify. How CAGE distributes capital gains, how foreign withholding tax flows through the underlying U.S.-listed Avantis ETFs, and how the fund-of-funds wrapper interacts with Canadian tax treatment are all things you’ll only really see after a full tax year. If you’re putting CAGE in a taxable account, it’s worth waiting for that data.

How CAGE compares to XEQT, VEQT, and CASV

Quick orientation. Each of these has a dedicated comparison article that goes deeper.

• CAGE vs XEQT. Factor-tilted active versus broad cap-weighted indexing. Same global all-equity reach, different philosophy. CAGE costs about 8 basis points more after XEQT’s fee cut.
• CAGE vs VEQT. Same factor versus cap-weighted decision. VEQT runs a slightly more Canada-heavy split than XEQT. The cost gap to CAGE is closer here, since VEQT’s MER is about 0.24%.
• CAGE vs CASV. Both are Avantis-Canada products. CASV is the small-cap value sleeve, CAGE is the all-equity composite. Different jobs in a portfolio. For the standalone breakdown of the sleeve, see the CASV ETF guide.

For a side-by-side of the three established cap-weighted all-in-ones, see the XEQT vs VEQT vs XGRO comparison.

Frequently asked questions

What is CAGE.TO?

CAGE.TO is an all-equity, globally diversified ETF managed by CIBC, with Avantis Investors as the sub-advisor. It listed on the TSX on March 18, 2026, trades in Canadian dollars, and uses a rules-based active strategy that tilts toward value, smaller, and profitable companies. It is structured as a fund-of-funds, holding a basket of underlying Avantis equity ETFs across U.S., international developed, emerging, and Canadian stocks.

What is CAGE’s MER?

CAGE’s management fee is 0.28%. The full MER, which adds operating expenses on top of the management fee, has not been published yet because Canadian regulators don’t require a fund to publish a full MER in its first year. Once disclosed, expect it to land a few basis points above 0.28%. For comparison, XEQT’s MER is roughly 0.20% after BlackRock’s December 2025 fee cut, and VEQT’s MER is around 0.24%.

What does CAGE hold?

CAGE is structured as a fund-of-funds. Its direct holdings are a small set of underlying Avantis equity ETFs covering U.S., international developed, emerging, and Canadian stocks. The look-through holdings, meaning the actual companies inside those underlying funds, span hundreds of names with deliberate tilts toward value, smaller, and profitable companies. CIBC hasn’t published a full top-holdings breakdown yet, but expect it as the fund matures.

Is CAGE actively managed?

Yes, in a specific sense. CAGE is rules-based active, which means the rules are public and applied consistently rather than a portfolio manager making discretionary calls week to week. The rules tilt the portfolio toward value, smaller, and profitable companies. It is not tracking a published index the way XEQT or VEQT is. The not-all-ETFs-are-passive guide walks through the distinction in more detail.

Can I hold CAGE in a TFSA, RRSP, or FHSA?

Yes. CAGE trades on the TSX in Canadian dollars, so it’s eligible in any standard Canadian registered account: TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, RDSP, RRIF, and LIRA, as well as non-registered accounts. In registered accounts, distributions and capital gains are sheltered, so you don’t need to think about the fund-of-funds tax flow. In a non-registered account, that picture will be clearer after a full tax year of distributions.

Who is Avantis?

Avantis Investors is a unit of American Century, founded in 2019 by a team that came from Dimensional Fund Advisors. They run a family of factor-tilted ETFs in the U.S. (AVUV, AVGE, AVUS, AVDV, and others) that have built a strong reputation among long-horizon DIY investors. CAGE is the first time the Avantis methodology has been packaged in a Canadian-listed all-equity ETF.

What is the difference between CAGE and AVGE?

AVGE is the U.S.-listed Avantis all-equity ETF and the closest U.S. cousin to CAGE. Same Avantis methodology, different wrapper. AVGE trades on a U.S. exchange in USD, with U.S. tax treatment on distributions and the FX friction Canadians know well. CAGE is the Canadian-listed equivalent: same factor approach, CAD-denominated, no currency conversion, simpler tax behaviour for Canadian accounts. If you’ve been holding AVGE in a USD account, CAGE is the more straightforward home for the strategy. The full CAGE vs AVGE comparison covers the tax treatment and FX trade-offs in depth.

How big is CAGE?

CAGE crossed roughly $267 million in net assets by early May 2026, about seven weeks after listing. That’s a strong opening for a brand-new Canadian ETF, though still well below XEQT’s or VEQT’s multi-billion base. Size on day one isn’t a reason to avoid the fund, but the wrapper hasn’t yet been through full distribution cycles or material market drawdowns.

Bottom line

CAGE is a real product from credible managers, available in a Canadian-listed wrapper that didn’t exist before March 2026. What it offers is the Avantis factor strategy in one ticker, in CAD, without the FX and tax friction of holding U.S.-listed alternatives. Whether that’s worth the extra cost over XEQT or VEQT depends entirely on whether you believe in the factor thesis and can hold through years where it doesn’t work.

If you don’t have a strong view on factor investing, you probably don’t need CAGE. If you do, it’s a reasonable way to express it without leaving the Canadian-listed universe.