Posts about index funds aren't usually Instagram viral material, but it happened in 2023! It was about the Hypatia Women CEO fund - an index of companies lead by women - and it caught my attention for pretending to be a new idea. Don't get me wrong, it's a good idea. I do support diversity and I do think women can lead companies that grow our money! But WCEO is far from being the first... there are lots of versions of these funds and there are questions to look into before we invest in them.
Disclaimer for this post: I always say I'm not an advisor giving advice, but on this one I'm REALLY not, I have not found the magic questions for index funds. But I will tell you what I look at and what I'm in. I've invested in several of these, but I'm not turning over my whole portfolio.
Another disclaimer... a lot of these funds haven't been around for 5 years so I'm listing 3 year growth. This is a terrible time to list 3 year growth because 3 years ago, the market was at quite a high. I will have to come back and update this post when they've actually made it 5 years, which is right around the corner for the 2019 starters.
SHE
Was SHE the first one? It definitely made its mark... literally. In March 2017 when State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) launched SHE, they commissioned the famous Fearless Girl statue to stand on wall street facing the bull. We thought that statue was from an independent, anti-stock market guerilla artist... nope! They were selling an index fund! But it has the lowest expense ratio of the bunch, so I'm in it.
- Started in: 2016
- Historic growth: 5% (3 year), 19% (1 year)
- Expense Ratio: 0.2%
- Top holdings: Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Accenture
- Am I in it? Yes
PXWEX
- Started in: 1993
- Historical growth: 9% (5 year), 3.5% (3 year), 18% (1 year)
- Expense Ratio: 0.52%
- Top holdings: Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Accenture, Coca-Cola
- Am I in it? Not yet but just doing these reports I'm thinking maybe.
FWOMX
Fidelity jumped on the bandwagon with their own Women's Leadership Fund. It invests at least 80% of assets in equity securities of companies that prioritize and advance women's leadership and development.
- Started in: 2019
- Historical growth: 5% (3 year), 21% (1 year)
- Expense Ratio: 0.8%
- Top holdings: Microsoft, Apple, Accenture, NVIDIA, Salesforce
- Am I in it? Of course. I'm a sucker for these funds and Fidelity.
WOMN
Impact Shares has several diversity funds, and this one says it will support the YWCA but I can't figure out from the annual report just how much they're giving. I'm in it, it's performed well. The fund manager is a man... interesting choice. But their top holding NVIDIA has done GREAT this year so their returns are doing very well.
- Started in: 2018
- Historical growth: 10% (3 year), 22% (1 year)
- Expense Ratio: 0.75%
- Top holdings: NVIDIA, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Exxon
- Am I in it? Yes
WCEO
The Hypatia fund's goal is to invests in companies with a woman CEO and a $500M market cap - a little over 100 companies. It's not as tech-heavy as the others and it's pickier, since the others are looking at overall diversity not the strict C-suite, so it has a lot fewer holdings.
- Started in: 2023
- Historical growth: -0.5% (1 year)
- Expense Ratio: 0.85%
- Top holdings: Clearfield fiber optics, Oil States Intl, International Seaways Tankers, Oracle
- Am I in it? No, it's too new and that's a lot of oil companies
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