We began our exploration for the best growth ETFs with a pool of 3,302 exchange-traded funds. The group of international and U.S. equity ETFs narrowed the pool to 1,368. Our next screen eliminated all funds with management expense ratios above 0.70% and Morningstar Star ratings of two or lower. This weaned the list to 586 funds.
Finally, we excluded all but the growth stock ETFs, from the large-, mid- and small-cap categories, which resulted in a manageable 113 ETFs. These funds were sorted from high to low five-year annualized average returns, and low to high fees.
Our final review includes passively, factor-based and actively-managed funds from the large-, mid- and small-cap growth categories. We included several ESG ETFs, and one equal, versus market-capitalization weighted offer. The 10 best growth ETFs are the best-performing, lowest fee, U.S. and international growth ETFs representing a variety of investment styles, strategies and market capitalizations.
These growth ETFs are appropriate to add to an already diversified investment portfolio and not as a stand-alone complete portfolio.