IAK vs KIE

IAKBiShares U.S. Insurance ETF

KIEAState Street SPDR S&P Insurance ETF

In short

IAK Financials, minus the banks. IAK tracks a market-cap index of U.S. insurers (life, property-casualty, brokers) in roughly 60 names, and it has run that same pure-play mandate since 2006.

KIE Most financial-sector funds are banks with a side of insurance. KIE flips it: roughly 50 insurance stocks and nothing else, running since 2005 at a price below the typical broad-financials fund.

Stated mandate

IAK The fund pursues the results of an index of U.S. insurance-sector equities. It uses representative-sampling indexing rather than active management and generally places at least 80% of assets in index components.

KIE The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return performance of the S&P Insurance Select Industry Index.

Why people hold it

• IAK Insurance only. The index covers U.S. insurance-sector equities, so banks and capital-markets names do not ride along the way they do in a broad financials fund.ishares.com
• Costs 0.37% a year, below the 0.44% median for its financials peer group.
• A 2006 launch, run as a plain index sampler with no manager stock-picking, and it tracks its benchmark closely. One of the better implementations in its cohort.
• Pays out on a quarterly schedule.

• KIE 0.35% a year, under the 0.44% median for its financials peer group, and modest for a single-industry slice.
• Trading since 2005, through the financial crisis and every rate cycle since.
• One of the more actively traded funds in its category, which typically shows up as tighter bid-ask spreads for the people buying it.
• Roughly 50 insurance names, few enough to actually read the holdings list, with distributions paid quarterly.ssga.com

Worth knowing

• IAK About 60 stocks in one industry. Results hinge on the insurance cycle (underwriting losses, rates) rather than on the broad market.
• Whole-sector trackers like XLF and VFH charge under a tenth of a percent, so the insurance carve-out is the pricier way to own financials.
• Moderately traded and mid-size in assets, not a category heavyweight. Limit orders earn their keep here, especially in larger clips.

• KIE Broad financials rivals like XLF and VFH charge closer to 0.08%. The insurance-only focus costs extra.
• One industry, about 50 stocks: catastrophe losses, reserve surprises and rate swings hit the whole basket at once.
• Insurance is a slice of the financial sector, not a stand-in for it. Banks, exchanges and payment networks sit outside this index.ssga.com

Full IAK profile⁠

Full KIE profile⁠