PBOG vs UMI

PBOGBPortfolio Building Block Integrated Oil and Gas and Exploration and Production Index ETF

UMIDUSCF Midstream Energy Income Fund

In short

PBOG Oil majors and the wildcatters in one ticker for 0.13% a year. A late-2025 launch from a lineup designed as portfolio slices, and the cheapest door into this corner of energy among its peers.

UMI Most pipeline funds are index machines. UMI is a stock picker: sub-adviser Miller/Howard runs a concentrated book of US and Canadian midstream names, with current income as the stated first job and a payout that lands monthly.

Stated mandate

PBOG The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund that seeks capital appreciation.

UMI The Fund seeks a high level of current income and, secondarily, capital appreciation. It actively invests at least 80% of net assets in equity securities of U.S. and Canadian midstream energy companies.

Why people hold it

• PBOG Charges 0.13% a year against a 0.37% median for its oil and gas peer group. The other top-ranked funds in that group (XOP, OIH, IXC, IEO) all charge 0.35% or more.
• Covers both sides of the barrel: integrated majors plus exploration and production names. XOP and IEO stay on the E&P side; OIH holds the service companies.
• Pulled in hundreds of millions of dollars within months of launch, one of three Portfolio Building Block ETFs Nasdaq began listing in November 2025.nasdaqtrader.com

• UMI Actively managed, not index-tracking. Miller/Howard screens midstream companies on income, distribution coverage, leverage and contract quality, and holds roughly 30 of them.uscfinvestments.com
• Current income is the declared primary objective and capital appreciation the secondary one, and the cash goes out monthly rather than quarterly.
• Canada is written into the mandate, not treated as a footnote: at least 80% of net assets go to equity in US and Canadian midstream companies of any size.uscfinvestments.com
• Direct MLP exposure is capped at 25% of total assets, the line that keeps the fund taxed as a regulated investment company instead of as a corporation.uscfinvestments.com

Worth knowing

• PBOG Launched in November 2025, so the track record is thin and any read on its risk profile rests on a short window.
• One sector, one commodity. When crude drops, there is nothing else in the basket to cushion it.
• Volume is moderate rather than deep, so spreads can widen around the open and close. Limit orders earn their keep.

• UMI Stock picking carries a price: the 0.85% expense ratio runs well above the median for its oil and gas cohort, where XOP and IEO sit near 0.35%.
• It trades thinly next to the big energy ETFs, so spreads can be wider and sizable orders need more care at the screen.
• About 30 names inside one slice of one sector, and the fund discloses that distributions can include return of capital, which reduces your cost basis.

Full PBOG profile⁠

Full UMI profile⁠