EVPF vs PREF

EVPFBEaton Vance Preferred Securities and Income ETF

PREFBPrincipal Spectrum Preferred Securities Active ETF

In short

EVPF Eaton Vance's preferred-securities team, ETF-wrapped: an active, concentrated run at the preferred and hybrid market for 0.39% a year, under the category's median fee. Active stock-picking in a corner usually sold by the index.

PREF Most preferred ETFs shop the $25-par retail aisle. PREF goes where the institutions trade: $1,000-par preferreds, hand-picked by an active team since 2017, with income paid out monthly.

Stated mandate

EVPF The Fund seeks total return and current income, primarily through preferred securities and other income-producing securities.

PREF The fund is actively managed and does not seek to track a specified index.

Why people hold it

• EVPF Active in a category built on indexes: Eaton Vance's fundamental team picks across preferred and hybrid securities instead of owning whatever a benchmark lists.morganstanley.com
• At 0.39% a year, with no waiver propping it up, it undercuts index heavyweights PFF and PSK (0.45% each) and sits below the category median. Rare pricing for an active mandate.
• Income is the mandate, not a byproduct: total return plus current income from preferred securities, with distributions declared monthly under the prospectus.
• For a fund launched in 2026, the package lands in the upper tier of the roughly thirty US preferred ETFs on cost and mandate clarity.

• PREF Targets $1,000 par preferreds, the institutional-lot corner most preferred funds skip, with a mandate built around current income rather than index replication.principalam.com
• No benchmark to hug. Managers hold roughly 160 positions in preferred stock and junior subordinated debt from US and non-US issuers, and can shift as the market shifts.principalam.com
• Income lands monthly, not quarterly.
• Trading since 2017 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund: a seasoned strategy with a real book of assets behind it, not a launch-week experiment.

Worth knowing

• EVPF Born March 2026, so there is no multi-cycle record of how the managers steer through a rate shock or a credit wobble.
• Smaller and thinner-traded than the category's index incumbents, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than in the biggest preferred funds.
• About 80 positions in preferred and hybrid securities, a rate- and credit-sensitive corner that ranks below bonds in the capital stack.sec.gov

• PREF Active pricing: 0.55% a year against a 0.44% peer-group median, and broad financials index funds like VFH and XLF charge under a tenth of a percent for a very different job.
• There is no index to check the work against, so outcomes ride on the team's security selection.
• Preferreds rank below bonds in the capital stack and the issuers skew financial, so stress in banks and insurers shows up here.principalam.com

Full EVPF profile⁠

Full PREF profile⁠