An equal-weight REIT basket with a rising trailing payout — the fee above the §7 band holds the grade at warn. RSPR tracks the S&P 500 Equal Weight Real Estate Index — 31 holdings at September 30, 2026, each near-equal weight, rebalanced quarterly — and has paid quarterly since its August 2015 launch, under ticker EWRE until June 7, 2023. Trailing distributions of $1.02 are up from the $0.91 paid in calendar 2025, though the five-year calendar trend is down from $1.08 in 2021, and NAV total return was −3.7% over the year to September 30, 2026, so the payout came while the fund's value fell. The top-10 weight of 34.6% is reported only, not graded. The 0.40% expense ratio sits above the House §7 band (>0.30%) and is flagged below; under the standing precedent for above-band ETFs the card is graded warn, not bad, on expense alone.
Key risk: A sector fund's payout follows REIT dividends — a REIT downturn cuts distributions across the whole basket at once, and quarterly amounts swing with the underlying payouts, as the $0.19 September 2026 payment after $0.32 in March shows.
Changes if: The expense ratio falls to 0.30% or below, or calendar-year distributions rise for two straight years.
- !Expense ratio (§7) 0.40% exceeds the §7 fail line (>0.30%); flagged here and graded warn under the standing CGDV/BIZD precedent for above-band ETFs, never bad on expense alone. Management fee 0.40%, total annual fund operating expenses 0.40%, per the SEC summary prospectus.
- !Distribution trend (§7) Calendar totals fell $1.08 (2021) to $0.91 (2025), but TTM $1.02 is up 12.6% on the prior year and every quarter since the 2015 launch has paid; quarterly amounts are variable pass-through of underlying REIT payouts, not a managed rate cut — flagged, not failed.
- !Concentration (report only) Top 10 34.6% at Sep 30, 2026, reported only and not graded — sector REIT ETF; equal weighting keeps the top 10 far below cap-weighted peers (RWR 51.4%, ICF 59.0%).
- ✓Yield / trap review (§8) 2.96% yield, no trigger: under 8%, no suspension, distributions are regular quarterly pass-through dividends; fund listed and trading on NYSE Arca.
What this grade doesn't say: It screens the dividend only — covered, real, compounding. It says nothing about valuation or price: a well-covered payer can still be overpriced, and its price can still fall.