This Berkshire ETF Costs 20 Times More Than Owning BRK-B Directly—Here’s Why

If you own VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF (NYSEARCA:OMAH), you are paying an active manager to manufacture income from a stock famous for refusing to pay any. Warren Buffett has spent decades explaining why Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B | BRK-B Price Prediction) does not send you a dividend check. OMAH sews one on anyway, and quietly bills you for the stitching.

What You Are Actually Paying

OMAH’s prospectus dated June 29, 2026 lists a net expense ratio of 0.98%. On a $10,000 position, that is roughly $98 a year siphoned off before you see a cent of return. Hold that position for 20 years and the simple fee reaches about $1,960, and that assumes your balance never grows.

However, assuming modest growth, we can expect an even higher dollar amount in fees paid. On a $10,000 stake compounding at 8% a year, a 0.98% annual drag would cost roughly $7,768 in foregone wealth over 20 years compared with a zero-fee alternative.

Berkshire itself charges nothing to own it. The B shares closed at $509.16 on July 29, 2026, and Berkshire has never paid a dividend. Every dollar of appreciation stays in the share price until you decide to sell.

The Part the Factsheet Does Not Highlight

OMAH’s structure targets a 15% annual income distribution on a Berkshire-anchored portfolio. That income has to come from somewhere. In a covered-call overlay, it comes from selling call options that cap participation in the very upside investors bought Berkshire to capture. Over five years, BRK-B is up 82.96% and over ten years 252.92%. A strategy that systematically sells the right tail of that distribution is the strategy that pays for those distribution checks.

Then comes the tax bill. Buffett has argued for years that dividends force taxable events on shareholders who did not choose them. OMAH engineers exactly that outcome. The fund converts what would have been unrealized capital appreciation in BRK-B into periodic distributions that can hit as ordinary income depending on how they are characterized. Under 2026 rules, ordinary income can climb to a top marginal rate of 37% for high earners, versus long-term capital gains that a direct BRK-B holder controls by choosing when to sell. Return of capital in distributions, if present, lowers your cost basis and shifts the tax to a later date.

OMAH reported net assets of about $748.6 million as of April 30, 2026, meaning the 0.98% fee is being collected on real money by a fund that is still young. The price performance record starts in March 2025. There is no decade of live data to lean on when judging whether the overlay pays for itself.

The Cheaper Mirror

The cheapest version of “Berkshire exposure” is Berkshire.

BRK-B carries no fund fee, no forced distributions, and no options overlay. Berkshire trades at a trailing P/E of 15 with a beta of 0.607, and sits on record cash reserves of $380 billion as of the most recent quarter.

If income is the goal, a broad low-cost value ETF that holds Berkshire as a top position offers a diversified alternative at a fraction of OMAH’s expense ratio. Both alternatives skip the synthetic 15% yield by design.

What This Means for You

Before you accept the trade, ask the question OMAH’s marketing does not put on the front page. Are you being paid enough in distributions to cover the 0.98% fee, the capped upside, and the tax friction on income you never asked for, versus simply owning the stock the fund is built around? The answer sits in your own tax bracket and your own time horizon, and it is worth doing the math before the next distribution hits.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.