IVV vs USPX

IVVAiShares Core S&P 500 ETF

USPXAFranklin U.S. Equity Index ETF

In short

IVV The 2000-vintage iShares take on the S&P 500, now a $100B-plus cornerstone holding: roughly 500 large US companies, 0.03% a year, and tracking that stays tight to the index.

USPX The odd one out in the S&P 500 aisle. Franklin's fund tracks a Morningstar large-cap benchmark instead, for three basis points. Same big-US-stocks job, different scorecard, and a fee that undercuts most of the peer group.

Stated mandate

IVV The fund seeks to track the investment results of an index made up of large-capitalization U.S. equities.

USPX The fund seeks to provide U.S. equity exposure through an index-based strategy.

Why people hold it

• IVV Costs 0.03% a year, a fraction of the typical fee among S&P 500 trackers, and undercuts the category's founding fund (SPY, 0.09%) on the same index.
• Tracking is the whole job, and it does it about as tightly as this peer group gets: roughly 500 large US companies, no manager discretion bolted on.
• A $100B-plus fund that trades heavily all session, which is what keeps bid-ask spreads thin for retail-sized orders and institutional blocks alike.
• Running since 2000 as a registered open-end fund, with quarterly distributions and one of the longest live records in the S&P 500 aisle.ishares.com

• USPX 0.03% a year, a fraction of the roughly 0.15% typical in its peer group and level with the fee on VOO and IVV.
• Sticks close to its Morningstar US Target Market Exposure Index, one of the tighter index-following records among the S&P 500 wrappers it sits beside.
• Rules-based cap-weighted US equity, roughly 190 names, no factor tilts or manager picks. Pays quarterly.
• Running since 2016 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, with Franklin Templeton behind it.

Worth knowing

• IVV Pure US large cap. No mid caps, no small caps, nothing overseas, so it works as one slab of a portfolio rather than the whole thing.
• It rides the index in both directions: when the S&P 500 has an ugly year, this has the same ugly year, minus the fee.
• A near-identical rival shaves a basis point (SPYM at 0.02%). On $10,000 that gap is about a dollar a year, so structure and trading habits matter more.

• USPX Different index, different constituent rules. Holdings and returns can drift from the S&P 500 trackers most people compare it to.
• Moderately traded rather than a volume monster like SPY, which can mean wider bid-ask spreads than the biggest names in the category.
• Fewer names than the 500-stock benchmarks next door, and cap weighting keeps the largest US companies in the driver's seat.

Full IVV profile⁠

Full USPX profile⁠