FIW vs TBLU

FIWBFirst Trust Water ETF

TBLUBTortoise Global Water Fund

In short

FIW Water is the least glamorous essential business on earth, and FIW has been buying it since 2007: roughly 40 companies earning real revenue from drinking water and wastewater, at a fee below most of the water field.

TBLU Tortoise didn't license a water benchmark, it built one. TBLU tracks its own global water index, ESG screened, for 0.40% a year.

Stated mandate

FIW The fund seeks returns that generally track the pre-expense price and yield of the ISE Clean Edge WaterTM Index, which covers listed companies deriving substantial revenue from potable and wastewater activities.

TBLU The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total-return performance of the Tortoise Global Water Net Total Return Index.

Why people hold it

• FIW Launched in 2007, it predates most of the water theme. Its track record covers a financial crisis and a rate shock, not just one friendly stretch of market.
• 0.50% a year undercuts the two best-known rivals in the space, Invesco's CGW (0.58%) and PHO (0.59%), and sits below the water cohort's median fee.
• Narrow by design: the ISE Clean Edge Water Index holds companies drawing substantial revenue from potable and wastewater work, so about 40 names instead of a loose infrastructure grab bag.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund in a thin category, and one of the stronger builds in its water peer group on cost, tradability and portfolio quality. It pays quarterly.

• TBLU Costs 0.40% a year, at the low end of the water category and under the bigger water funds FIW, CGW and PHO.
• Tracks the in-house Tortoise Global Water Net Total Return Index: water companies worldwide, with an ESG screen written into selection.
• Trading since 2017, so it has a real operating history rather than a launch-week theme deck.
• Stands in the upper half of a small water-ETF peer group, helped by the cheap fee.

Worth knowing

• FIW Concentration cuts both ways: about 40 stocks in one theme swing harder than a broad market fund, and water can drift out of favor for years at a time.
• Cheap for water, not cheap outright. 0.50% is many times what a plain broad-market index fund charges for the same equity exposure wrapper.
• Trading is moderate rather than heavy, so spreads can widen when markets move fast. Income arrives quarterly, not monthly.

• TBLU Thinly traded next to the category's largest funds, so spreads can be wider and big orders need more care.
• The benchmark is Tortoise's own index, not a third-party one, so cross-provider methodology comparisons take extra digging.
• One theme, global scope: it can move a long way from a broad world equity fund in either direction. Cash comes once or twice a year, not monthly.

Full FIW profile⁠

Full TBLU profile⁠