July 17, 2026 · Updated September 3, 2026 · By Josh P.

New Avantis CIBC ETFs: CAGR, CAKE and CAGX Explained

CIBC's three new Avantis ETFs began trading August 27, 2026: 60/40 CAKE, 80/20 CAGR, and globally weighted CAGX. See their benchmarks, fees, and allocations.

ETFs Avantis CIBC asset allocation factor investing Canadian investing

CIBC has added three ETFs to its Avantis lineup: CAKE, CAGR, and CAGX. Yes, CAKE is really the ticker. The lineup is fairly straightforward: two CAGE-style funds with bonds, and one all-equity fund that largely drops the Canadian home bias.

All three are now live. CIBC published their ETF Facts on August 20, 2026, and the units began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on August 27, 2026. Each trades in Canadian dollars, is eligible for registered plans, and carries a 0.28% annual management fee.

The three ETFs at a glance

Ticker	Full name	Target allocation	Management fee	Risk rating
CAKE	Avantis CIBC Balanced Asset Allocation ETF	60% equity / 40% fixed income	0.28%	Low to medium
CAGR	Avantis CIBC Growth Asset Allocation ETF	80% equity / 20% fixed income	0.28%	Low to medium
CAGX	Avantis CIBC World Equity ETF	100% global equity	0.28%	Medium

Each one is an actively managed fund of funds. All three pay net income quarterly, in March, June, September and December, and the portfolios can use other ETFs managed by CIBC, Avantis, or their affiliates.

Will they be factor tilted?

The equity side is expected to be. Avantis is the portfolio sub-advisor, and CIBC describes the Avantis process as putting more weight in companies with higher profitability and more attractive valuations. That is the same systematic approach used by the existing Avantis CIBC equity ETFs.

There is a caveat. CIBC's ETF brochure now describes CAGX as providing global equity diversification "with the full Avantis methodology built in," which is the same phrase it uses for CAGE. But the filing still does not name the underlying ETFs or explicitly require a value and profitability tilt, and the August 20 ETF Facts show top 10 investments and investment mix as unavailable because the funds are new. I think it is fair to describe the equity sleeves as factor tilted, but the exact strength and implementation of those tilts will not be clear until CIBC publishes the holdings.

For CAGX, that expected factor tilt applies across the whole portfolio. For CAKE and CAGR, it applies to the equity portion. The filing says their bond funds are also expected to be actively managed, but it does not provide enough detail to say whether the fixed-income sleeves will follow a distinct factor strategy.

CAKE and CAGR: the missing CAGE portfolios

The quick comparison is VBAL and VGRO, but with factor-tilted Avantis equity funds instead of conventional market-cap index funds.

CAKE targets a classic 60/40 portfolio for investors who want less volatility and more income than an all-equity fund.
CAGR targets 80/20 for investors who still want equity-led growth with a smaller bond cushion.

The stock side can cover Canada, the US, international developed markets, and emerging markets. The bond side can include both Canadian and foreign fixed income.

CIBC now publishes a blended reference benchmark for each fund:

Fund	Benchmark
CAKE	FTSE Canada Universe Bond 40%, MSCI USA IMI 27%, MSCI Canada Domestic IMI 18%, MSCI EAFE IMI 9.6%, MSCI Emerging Markets IMI 5.4%
CAGR	MSCI USA IMI 36%, MSCI Canada Domestic IMI 24%, FTSE Canada Universe Bond 20%, MSCI EAFE IMI 12.8%, MSCI Emerging Markets IMI 7.2%

A benchmark is what CIBC measures performance against, not a basket the managers are obliged to hold. These are actively managed funds and their holdings are still unpublished, so treat what follows as an inference about intent rather than a stated portfolio target. On that reading, the weights match the 60/40 and 80/20 headline splits, and the equity side of each rescales to roughly 45% US, 30% Canada, 16% international developed, and 9% emerging markets. A 30% Canadian weight would match CAGE, which would leave CAGX as the only one of the three that drops the home bias. The published holdings will settle it.

These will not be rigid copies of VBAL and VGRO. The filing gives the portfolio sub-advisor room to move as much as 10 percentage points above or below the target weights and to rebalance the mix at its discretion. We also still do not know the exact underlying ETFs or how the bond allocation will be built.

CAGX: CAGE without the big Canada tilt

CAGX is the most interesting of the three to me. Its reference index is the MSCI AC World IMI Index. The July filing proposed these long-term regional targets, and CIBC has not published holdings that would confirm the fund launched on them:

Region	Target weight
United States	65%
International developed markets	20%
Emerging markets	12%
Canada	3%

The 3% Canadian allocation is the key difference. CAGE's published portfolio started with 30% in Canadian equities. CAGX brings that down to roughly Canada's weight in the global market.

That could make CAGX a useful one-ticket option for someone who wants Avantis's value and profitability tilts without putting nearly a third of the portfolio in Canada. Calling it a Canadian version of VT would go too far, however. CAGX is active, not an index fund, and its holdings can stray from market-cap weights.

What is still unknown

Launch answered some questions and left others open. A few important details are still missing:

the exact underlying ETFs inside all three funds;
the construction and duration of the bond sleeves in CAKE and CAGR; or
the MER and total cost after fund expenses.

The 0.28% is the management fee, not the MER. The ETF Facts confirm the 0.28% annual management fee and add that operating expenses and trading costs are not yet available because the funds are new. CIBC's fund pages show N/A for the MER on all three, noting that it cannot be displayed in a fund's first year of inception. Fees and expenses of the underlying funds can be additional unless CIBC absorbs or reimburses them, so the final all-in cost is worth checking carefully once it is published.

My read

CAKE and CAGR round out the Avantis lineup in a sensible way. Investors who like CAGE's approach now have 60/40 and 80/20 choices without having to add and rebalance a separate bond ETF. None of the three publishes an MER yet, and no calculator can cost them until their holdings and MERs are available. CAGE is the closest proxy in the meantime: the CAGE fee breakdown shows the published management-fee cost while its first MER is pending, and the all-in-one fee calculator prices it against holding its components yourself.

CAGX is the standout. There are not many simple Canadian-listed choices for a globally weighted, all-cap portfolio with systematic value and profitability tilts. CAKE and CAGR could be just as useful, but I want to see what Avantis puts in the bond sleeves first.

They are buyable now, but the cost and holdings picture is still incomplete, so there is no rush. Once the holdings and MERs are published, the useful comparisons will be CAKE versus VBAL, CAGR versus VGRO, and CAGX versus broad global index funds. I have worked through the most important portfolio question separately in CAGX vs CAGE: which Avantis ETF is better for Canadians?.

This article is for general information only and is not investment advice. Read the prospectus and ETF Facts before investing. See our disclosure.