The Inspire International ETF (WWJD – Free Report) made its debut on 09/30/2019, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund that provides broad exposure to the World ETFs category of the market.
What are smart Beta ETFs?
The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.
Market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, and are a good option for investors who believe in market efficiency.
If you’re the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.
Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance.
Methodologies like equal-weighting, one of the simplest options out there, fundamental weighting, and volatility/momentum based weighting are all choices offered to investors in this space, but not all of them can deliver superior returns.
Fund sponsor and index
The fund is managed by Inspire, and has been able to amass over $394.49 million, which makes it one of the larger ETFs in the World ETFs. WWJD, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the INSPIRE INTERNATIONAL INDEX .
The Inspire International Index selects foreign equity securities from a global universe of publicly traded equity securities of large capitalization foreign and emerging market companies which have an Inspire Impact Score of zero or higher.
Cost and other expenses
For ETF investors, expense ratios are an important factor when considering a fund’s return; in the long-term, cheaper funds actually have the ability to outperform their more expensive cousins if all other things remain the same.
With on par with most peer products in the space, this ETF has annual operating expenses of 0.66%.
It’s 12-month trailing dividend yield comes in at 2.41%.
Sector exposure and top holdings
It is important to delve into an ETF’s holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
When you look at individual holdings, Delta Elec-nvdr (DELTA-R) accounts for about 0.75% of the fund’s total assets, followed by Genmab A/s (GMAB) and Siam Cement-nvdr (SCC-R).
Its top 10 holdings account for approximately 6.31% of WWJD’s total assets under management.
Performance and risk
Year-to-date, the Inspire International ETF has gained about 24.92% so far, and is up roughly 15.28% over the last 12 months (as of 10/09/2025). WWJD has traded between $27.43 $35.79 in this past 52-week period.
The fund has a beta of 0.90 and standard deviation of 15.32% for the trailing three-year period. With about 222 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk .
Alternatives
Inspire International ETF is not a suitable option for investors seeking to outperform the World ETFs segment of the market. Instead, there are other ETFs in the space which investors should consider.
Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF (ESGV) tracks FTSE US ALL CAP CHOICE INDEX and the iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF (ESGU) tracks MSCI USA ESG Focus Index. Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF has $11.66 billion in assets, iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF has $15.08 billion. ESGV has an expense ratio of 0.09% and ESGU changes 0.15%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the World ETFs
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Lawanda Haslett