BENJ vs TLTW

BENJAHorizon Landmark ETF

TLTWAiShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond BuyWrite Strategy ETF

In short

BENJ Most option-income Treasury funds sell calls against long bonds. BENJ flips it: hold one- to three-month T-bills as ballast, then run an actively managed options book on US stocks, ETFs and indexes.

TLTW Owns the long Treasury ETF, sells calls against it monthly, and passes the premium out as income. A 2022 launch that brought the covered-call playbook to 20+ year bonds, priced below the niche's usual fee.

Stated mandate

BENJ The Fund seeks total return through active management, investing primarily in one- to three-month U.S. Treasury bills and related ETFs while using options strategies on a broad range of domestic equity securities, ETFs, and equity indices.

TLTW The Fund tracks an index that holds the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF and writes monthly covered calls to generate income, while offering income in addition to dividends.

Why people hold it

• BENJ Costs 0.40%, under the 0.58% median for its option-income Treasury cohort and well below OVT at 0.80%.
• The bond sleeve is one- to three-month T-bills, so there is no 20+ year duration bet built in the way there is with long-bond buy-write peers like TLTW and TLTI.
• Fully active, not rule-locked: the manager can write options across single stocks, ETFs and equity indexes rather than one fixed index overlay.
• Sits in the upper half of a small, crowded peer group of Treasury-plus-options funds.

• TLTW Fee runs 0.35% a year, under the going rate in its options-income Treasury niche, and no higher-graded peer here undercuts it.
• Plumbing is refreshingly simple: hold TLT, write monthly covered calls on it, send the premium out monthly.
• Follows its index closely, and it is an actively traded, multi-billion-dollar fund rather than a thin novelty.
• One of the stronger implementations in a small peer group of Treasury option-overlay funds.

Worth knowing

• BENJ Launched in 2025, so the track record is short and there is not much history yet to judge how the options book behaves across different markets.
• Thinly traded, which can mean wider bid-ask spreads than the expense ratio alone suggests.
• Built for total return, not a set payout calendar. It has not run on the monthly-distribution cadence common elsewhere in option-income land.

• TLTW The written calls cap upside: in a sharp long-bond rally, gains above the strike belong to the option buyer.
• Duration still rules underneath. This is a 20+ year Treasury position, so rate moves drive the price whatever the income does.
• Payouts track option premiums and may include return of capital, so the monthly distribution is not a fixed coupon.

Full BENJ profile⁠

Full TLTW profile⁠