EMLP vs ENFR

EMLPCFirst Trust North American Energy Infrastructure Fund

ENFRBAlerian Energy Infrastructure ETF

In short

EMLP The pipeline-and-utility fund that refused to turn itself into a C-corp. EMLP keeps direct MLP holdings under 25% of assets to stay a plain 1940 Act fund, then fills out the book with US and Canadian pipelines and regulated utilities, hand-picked since 2012.

ENFR Midstream, not drillers. ENFR owns the pipelines, storage tanks and processing plants that move North American energy, tracking the Alerian Midstream Energy Select Index in a compact portfolio of roughly two dozen names.

Stated mandate

EMLP The Fund seeks total return. Its strategy emphasizes current shareholder distributions and dividends while investing principally in energy infrastructure companies.

ENFR ENFR seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Alerian Midstream Energy Select Index. It also seeks total return through income and capital appreciation.

Why people hold it

• EMLP Staying RIC-eligible by capping direct MLP exposure below 25% means the fund itself is exempt from the corporate income tax that pure-play MLP funds carry.ftportfolios.com
• Regulated US and Canadian gas and electric utilities sit beside the pipelines, a different engine than the oil-major-heavy broad energy funds.sec.gov
• Sub-advised by Energy Income Partners, a Westport shop founded in 2003 around high-payout energy infrastructure. Running since 2012, pays quarterly.sec.gov

• ENFR Charges 0.35%, under the 0.45% median for broad energy ETFs and below iShares' IYE at 0.38%.
• Different engine than most energy funds: infrastructure operators rather than the explorers and refiners whose fortunes swing with the barrel price.alpsfunds.com
• Income is written into the mandate: the fund seeks total return through income and capital appreciation, and distributions come on a quarterly schedule.
• Trading since 2013 and rated among the stronger names in our broad energy peer group.

Worth knowing

• EMLP 0.95% a year is the bill for the active approach. Index-tracking peers in the group, XLE and FENY, charge 0.08%.
• About 60 names and non-diversified, tilted to pipelines and utilities, so its path can part ways with broad energy indexes.sec.gov
• There is no public index keeping score. Results are measured against a blended benchmark, so they ride on the manager's judgment.

• ENFR Around 26 holdings in one slice of one sector. Single-name news and midstream-specific swings land harder here than in a diversified energy fund.
• The broad energy giants (XLE, FENY, VDE) all sit under 0.10%. Specialist indexing costs more.
• Moderately traded rather than a volume heavyweight, which can mean wider bid-ask spreads than the largest energy ETFs.

Full EMLP profile⁠

Full ENFR profile⁠