NFRA vs TOLZ

NFRAANorthern Trust STOXX Global Broad Infrastructure ETF

TOLZBProShares DJ Brookfield Global Infrastructure ETF

In short

NFRA Most global infrastructure funds stop at utilities and toll roads. NFRA's index goes wider, adding cell towers, data centers, hospitals, prisons and postal routes to the pipelines and railroads, across developed and emerging markets.

TOLZ Named for toll roads, and it means it. TOLZ holds the owners and operators of infrastructure itself (airports, pipelines, cell towers, water) across developed markets, not the contractors that build it.

Stated mandate

NFRA The fund seeks to match, before fees and expenses, the performance of the STOXX Global Broad Infrastructure Index.

TOLZ The fund seeks capital appreciation and income through an actively managed portfolio of companies associated with sustainable infrastructure and the transition to a more sustainable global economy.

Why people hold it

• NFRA Five supersectors in one wrapper: communications, energy, utilities, transportation and government outsourcing (hospitals, postal, correctional), across roughly 220 holdings.flexshares.com
• Charges 0.47% net (0.48% gross), net of a waiver through March 1, 2027, below the infrastructure category median.
• The index does real work: half of revenue must come from infrastructure, names must clear a $1 million daily-volume screen, and sector caps limit crowding. Rebalanced quarterly.flexshares.com
• Listed in 2013 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that pays quarterly, it sits among the stronger builds in its peer group.

• TOLZ Pure-play screen: the index tracks owners and operators of the assets, from toll roads and ports to power lines and cell towers, not the firms that pour the concrete.proshares.comproshares.com 2
• Costs 0.46% a year, under the typical infrastructure ETF, and it has followed the same Dow Jones Brookfield index since launching in 2014.proshares.com
• Roughly 110 developed-market companies, distributions paid quarterly, and one of the stronger builds in a crowded infrastructure peer group.

Worth knowing

• NFRA Cheaper options sit on the same shelf: IFRA at 0.30%, IGF at 0.37%, GII at 0.40%. Each tracks a different index with a different definition of infrastructure.
• Broad cuts both ways: telecoms, railroads and postal operators share the portfolio with utilities, so this is not a pure regulated-utility sleeve.flexshares.comflexshares.com 2
• Volume is moderate rather than heavy for the category, which can mean wider spreads on larger orders.

• TOLZ Thinly traded with a modest asset base, so spreads can run wider than on the category's giants and orders deserve a limit price.
• Holds master limited partnerships, which brings partnership tax quirks and means part of a distribution can be a return of capital.proshares.com
• The pure-play rule leaves out engineering, machinery and materials names, so the U.S. build-out exposure inside funds like PAVE is absent here.proshares.com

Full NFRA profile⁠

Full TOLZ profile⁠