RDVI vs SCEP

RDVIAFT Vest Rising Dividend Achievers Target Income ETF

SCEPASterling Capital Hedged Equity Premium Income ETF

In short

RDVI Two engines in one wrapper: roughly 50 rising-dividend stocks on the equity side, and calls sold on the S&P 500 (not on those stocks) for the income, targeting 8 points above the index's dividend yield, paid monthly.

SCEP Most premium-income ETFs sell calls and leave the downside wide open. Sterling's active take pairs those covered calls with protective puts, so the hedge is written into the strategy instead of bolted on later.

Stated mandate

RDVI The Fund seeks current income and, secondarily, capital appreciation. It primarily invests in U.S.-traded equities in the Nasdaq US Rising Dividend Achievers Index and sells U.S.-traded calls on the S&P 500 Index or ETFs tracking it.

SCEP The Fund seeks long-term capital growth, income, and preservation of capital. It invests primarily in U.S. large- and mid-cap equity and equity-related securities and uses a dynamic covered-call and protective-put overlay to add income and mitigate downside risk.

Why people hold it

• RDVI The income target is written into the mandate: annualized distributions aimed at 8 percentage points above the S&P 500's dividend yield, paid monthly.
• Calls are written on the S&P 500, not on the fund's own holdings, so no individual dividend grower in the portfolio gets called away when it runs.ftportfolios.com
• A concentrated equity sleeve of about 50 US dividend growers, not a 500-name index clone wearing an options overlay.
• Billion-dollar-plus asset base and active daily trading, which puts it among the easier funds to move in and out of in this crowded category.

• SCEP Two-sided overlay: covered calls generate income, protective puts are there to cushion drawdowns. That is a collar, not a call-only income sleeve.
• A 0.65% expense ratio undercuts the roughly 0.95% median fee across active options-income funds.
• The overlay is dynamic and actively managed, sitting on a portfolio of US large- and mid-cap stocks rather than a fixed index and a set strike calendar.
• Stands as one of the stronger overall builds in a crowded options-income field, where most rivals sell upside without buying any protection.

Worth knowing

• RDVI At 0.75%, it runs above the typical S&P 500 income fund, and cheaper overlays exist in the same lane (IVVW at 0.25%, GPIX at 0.35%).
• The prospectus discloses distributions can include return of capital, so part of a monthly payment may be your own money coming back.
• Stocks and options sit on different benchmarks. When the S&P 500 outruns the dividend-grower sleeve, the short calls give back more than the holdings pick up.

• SCEP It launched in December 2025, so the overlay has not yet run through a full market cycle.
• Cheaper than the typical peer, pricier than the category's low-fee names: PAPI charges 0.29% and TCAL 0.34%.
• Payouts arrive on an irregular schedule rather than the fixed monthly cadence many premium-income funds advertise, and the fund trades thinly, so spreads matter.

Full RDVI profile⁠

Full SCEP profile⁠