Brown Capital Insights

Changing Our International Benchmarks

By Damien Davis, CFA, Chief Investment Officer

 


We are pleased to announce important changes to the benchmarks for our two international strategies. Effective August 1, 2025, the benchmark for the International Small Company strategy is now the MSCI World ex USA Small Cap Growth Index, and the benchmark for the International All Company strategy is the MSCI World ex USA Growth Index. The changes apply to both our mutual funds and our separately managed account composites.

 

As we explain below, we believe these benchmark changes better reflect and affirm Brown Capital’s bottom-up Exceptional Growth Company (EGC) investment philosophy, which we employ across all three of our investment strategies. We believe EGCs offer mission-critical products and services, saving their customers time, lives, money and headaches, or providing exceptional value to consumers. We think EGCs enjoy business models that other companies do not want to compete against, with financial strength and sustainable competitive advantages. Finally, we believe that EGCs possess investment attributes that allow us to hold them for years even decades, including durability of revenue growth, defensibility of market presence, deliverability of growth plan, and profitability to fuel earnings growth.

 

Our (Limited) Thinking on Benchmarks

 

To be blunt, as investors, we don’t think about benchmarks much. We make no portfolio decision based on anything to do with an index—its composition, its weightings, its sectors or its performance. We do not set sector, industry or position sizes with an eye on a benchmark. Instead, we are 100% bottom up, spending our time researching and investing in what we believe to be EGCs, not analyzing indexes.

 

Ideally, we would prefer to be evaluated against whether our clients succeed in meeting their goals, liabilities and obligations, but we know this is not realistic. Most clients define performance success in terms of excess returns vs. an index. So, we believe a reasonable alternative is benchmarks that measure the performance of companies that could be in our universes and that provide an indication of competitors’ returns.

 

What’s Changing

 

Specifically, we are making the following changes:

 

Strategy

Previous Benchmark

New Benchmark

International Small Company

MSCI ACWI ex USA Small Cap Index (Fund and Composite)

MSCI World ex USA Small Cap Growth Index

International All Company

MSCI EAFE Index (Fund) and MSCI ACWI Ex USA Index (Composite)

MSCI World ex USA Growth Index

 

Why We’re Changing Benchmarks Now

 

Better Alignment with Firmwide EGC Approach: Our firmwide EGC investment approach was developed in the early 1990s in our U.S. Small Company strategy. In 2013, we launched our International Small Company strategy as its non-U.S., EGC-based analog. However, our International All Company strategy employed more of a core philosophy from its inception in 1999 to the end of 2019, when the International Team repositioned the strategy to the EGC approach. Today, we are one firm, with one investment philosophy and three strategies.

 

Consistency Across Strategies: While all three of our investment strategies have followed the EGC approach for some time, only the Small Company strategy has used a stylized benchmark—the Russell 2000® Growth index. The previous core international benchmarks include value-oriented companies that don’t align with the firm’s EGC approach.

 

Evolving client preferences: Many clients already use growth benchmarks for our international strategies. This reflects the industry-wide shift in recent years toward using stylized benchmarks in international markets.

 

Better clarity on geographic exposure: Our two international strategies have been predominantly developed markets. As of June 30, 2025, the exposure to emerging markets was just 4% in the International Small Company Fund and 8% in the International All Company Fund. We think these two new MSCI World ex USA indexes capture our geographic exposure best, covering 22 developed market countries excluding the U.S. but including Canada. By contrast, the MSCI ACWI ex USA index has significant exposure to 24 emerging market countries, and the MSCI EAFE index covers all developed markets, but excludes Canada.

 

What This Means for Investors in Our International Strategies

 

This is a modification in how performance is contextualized—not in what is being done. Our benchmark changes signify no alterations to our investment strategy. The international investment process, philosophy and team all remain unaffected. In fact, we think these benchmark changes instead reiterate our firmwide commitment to bottom-up EGC investing and delivering exceptional long-term results.

 

We hope these efforts make it easier for our investors to analyze and report on our performance. Clients, consultants and allocators should have an easier time comparing our strategies to similarly focused managers. We welcome your thoughts and questions, so please do not hesitate to reach out to us.


 

DISCLOSURES

 

Brown Capital Management, LLC ("BCM") is an investment advisor registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. More information about BCM, including its investment strategies, fees and objectives, can be obtained by visiting www.browncapital.com. BCM’s Form ADV contains information regarding our business practices and background of our key personnel. Form CRS contains key considerations for retail clients. A copy of BCM’s Forms ADV Part 2 and Form CRS is available, without charge, upon request or by calling (800) 809-3863.

 

The opinions expressed are those of BCM. The opinions referenced are as of the date of publication and are subject to change due to changes in the market or economic conditions and may not necessarily come to pass. Forward looking statements cannot be guaranteed. This document may contain certain information that constitutes “forward-looking statements” which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “expect,” “will,” “hope,” “forecast,” “intend,” “target,” “believe,” and/or comparable terminology. No assurance, representation, or warranty is made by any person that any of BCM’s assumptions, expectations, objectives, and/or goals will be achieved. Nothing contained in this document may be relied upon as a guarantee, promise, assurance, or representation as to the future.

 

Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund: As with all mutual funds, an investment in the Fund is subject to investment risks, including the possible loss of the principal amount invested. There can be no assurances that the Fund will be successful in meeting its objectives. Investment in the Fund is also subject to market risk, investment style risk, investment adviser risk, market sector risk, equity securities risk, portfolio turnover risk, small companies risk, and other risks as set forth in the Fund’s prospectus. Funds that emphasize investments in smaller companies generally experience greater price volatility.

 

Brown Capital Management, LLC (the “Advisor”) has entered into an Expense Limitation Agreement with the International All Company Fund under which it has agreed to reduce the amount of the investment advisory fees to be paid to the Advisor by the International All Company Fund and to assume other expenses of the International All Company Fund, if necessary, in an amount that limits the International All Company Fund’s annual operating expenses (other than interest, taxes, brokerage commissions, acquired fund fees and expenses, other expenditures which are capitalized in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, other extraordinary expenses not incurred in the ordinary course of the International All Company Fund’s business, and amounts, if any, payable under a Rule 12b-1 distribution plan) to not more than 1.00% until July 31, 2025. The Expense Limitation Agreement may not be terminated by either party prior to that date. Subject to certain conditions such as Fund asset levels being at certain thresholds and operating expenses being less than the operating expenses limit for the International All Company Fund, the International All Company Fund may reimburse the Advisor for fees waived or limited and other expenses assumed by the Advisor pursuant to the Expense Limitation Agreement. Each waiver or reimbursement of an expense by the Advisor is subject to repayment by the International All Company Fund within three years following the month in which the expense was incurred, provided that the International All Company Fund is able to make the repayment without exceeding the lesser of the expense limitation in place at the time of the waiver and/ or reimbursement or the current expense limitation arrangement.

 

Past performance does not guarantee future results. Returns are presented net of investment advisory fees. Not every client's account will have these exact characteristics. The actual characteristics with respect to any particular client account will vary based on a number of factors including but not limited to: (i) the size of the account; (ii) investment restrictions applicable to the account, if any; and (iii) market exigencies at the time of investment. BCM reserves the right to modify its current investment strategies and techniques based on changing market dynamics or client needs. It should not be assumed that any of the recommendations or characteristics discussed herein will prove to be profitable, or that the investment recommendations or decisions we make in the future will be profitable. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal and there is no guarantee that investment objectives will be met.

 

The MSCI EAFE (Europe/ Australia/Asia/Far East) Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure developed market equity performance, excluding U.S. and Canada. The MSCI All Country World ex US Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure equity market performance in the global developed and emerging markets. Morningstar US Fund Foreign Large Growth Category: Portfolios focus on high-priced growth stocks, mainly outside of the United States. Most of these portfolios divide their assets among a dozen or more developed markets, including Japan, Britain, France, and Germany. These portfolios primarily invest in stocks that have market caps in the top 70% of each economically integrated market (such as Europe or Asia ex Japan). Growth is defined based on fast growth (high growth rates for earnings, sales, book value, and cash flow) and high valuations (high price ratios and low dividend yields). These portfolios typically will have less than 20% of assets invested in U.S. stocks. The volatility (beta) of an account may be greater or less than its respective benchmark. The MSCI ACWI ex USA Small Cap Index captures small cap representation across 22 of 23 Developed Markets (DM) countries (excluding the US) and 24 Emerging Markets (EM) countries*. With 4,079 constituents, the index covers approximately 14% of the global equity opportunity set outside the US. One may not invest directly into an index.

 

The MSCI World ex USA Growth Index captures large and mid cap securities exhibiting overall growth style characteristics across Developed Markets (DM) countries--excluding the United States. The growth investment style characteristics for index construction are defined using five variables: long-term forward EPS growth rate, short-term forward EPS growth rate, current internal growth rate and long-term historical EPS growth trend and long-term historical sales per share growth trend. The MSCI World ex USA Small Cap Growth Index captures small cap securities exhibiting overall growth style characteristics across the 22 Developed Markets countries* excluding the US. The growth investment style characteristics for index construction are defined using five variables: long-term forward EPS growth rate, short-term forward EPS growth rate, current internal growth rate and long-term historical EPS growth trend and long-term historical sales per share growth trend. The Russell 2000® Growth Index measures the performance of the small-cap growth segment of the US equity universe. It includes those Russell 2000® companies with higher price-to-value ratios and higher forecasted growth values. The Russell 2000® Growth Index is constructed to provide a comprehensive and unbiased barometer for the small-cap growth segment. The index is completely reconstituted annually to ensure larger stocks do not distort the performance and characteristics of the true small-cap opportunity set and that the represented companies continue to reflect growth characteristics. One may not invest directly into an index.

 

All holdings information is provided for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities/sectors represented. It should not be assumed that any of the securities transactions, holdings or sectors discussed herein were or will prove to be profitable, or that the investment recommendations or decisions we make in the future will be profitable or will equal the investment performance of the securities discussed herein. There is no assurance that any securities discussed herein will remain in an account's portfolio at the time you receive this report or that securities sold have not been repurchased. The securities discussed may not represent an account's entire portfolio and in the aggregate may represent only a small percentage of an account's portfolio holdings. A complete list of holdings is available upon request. Diversification does not eliminate the risk of experiencing investment losses.

 

BCM-25-119 | BRN002274

Changing Our International Benchmarks