CSPF vs PFFV

CSPFCCohen & Steers Preferred and Income Opportunities Active ETF

PFFVBGlobal X Variable Rate Preferred ETF

In short

CSPF An active preferred-securities fund from a specialist shop, free to roam US and overseas issues instead of tracking an index, and cutting a distribution check every month.

PFFV Most preferred funds hand you a fixed coupon and a lot of rate sensitivity. PFFV screens for variable-rate preferreds only, so coupons reset off short-term benchmarks instead of standing still, at 0.25% a year with monthly payouts.

Stated mandate

CSPF The Fund seeks total return through high current income and capital appreciation.

PFFV The fund seeks to provide investment results generally corresponding to the price and yield performance of the ICE U.S. Variable Rate Preferred Securities Index before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• CSPF No index to follow. The managers pick roughly 220 preferred and income securities across US and non-US issuers, chasing total return from both current income and price gains.
• Pays monthly, so the income shows up on a paycheck-like rhythm rather than in quarterly lumps.
• Despite arriving in 2025, it already grades in the upper half of the preferred ETF group we cover, helped by how smoothly it trades and what sits inside the portfolio.

• PFFV Costs 0.25% a year, about half the typical preferred ETF fee and a fraction of what an actively run peer like FPE charges (0.83%).
• The whole point: an index of variable-rate preferreds, whose coupons reset off short-term benchmarks rather than locking in for the life of the security.
• Passive and plain-vanilla. Roughly 60 US preferred issues picked by published index rules, with income paid out monthly.
• Stacks up as one of the stronger builds in a crowded preferred-ETF field, mostly on cost and a clean, rules-based mandate.

Worth knowing

• CSPF Active management costs money: 0.59% a year, above the middle of the preferred ETF pack and well above index-based rivals like EVPF and PFFV.
• Launched February 2025, so there is only a short record to judge the stock-picking against. Our risk read rests on roughly a year of data.
• Preferreds live between bonds and stocks: long-dated, rate-sensitive, and reliant on the issuer staying healthy. Expect bond-like swings, not cash-like calm.

• PFFV Preferred issuance skews to banks and insurers, so this is concentrated financials credit in bond clothing, spread across only about 60 positions.
• Resets cut both ways. The same floating mechanism that lifts coupons when short-term rates climb also drags them down when rates fall.
• Moderately traded and mid-sized rather than a heavyweight, so bid-ask spreads matter more here than in the largest preferred funds.

Full CSPF profile⁠

Full PFFV profile⁠