Ryne Mauck
5 min read
Quick Read
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SPLV fell about 36% in the 2020 crash, worse than VOO’s 34%, costing a $300,000 holder $5,430 more than the plain index fund.
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Utilities, REITs, and insurers dominate SPLV, with WEC Energy and Duke Energy each near 1% of the fund, so one sector shock can hit hard.
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Every SPLV stock already sits inside VOO, which charges just 0.03% and has beaten SPLV over five and ten years.
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You buy a low-volatility fund so a crash hurts less. In early 2020, it hurt more. From the February 19, 2020 close to the March 23, 2020 close, a hypothetical $300,000 in the Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF (NYSEARCA:SPLV) lost $107,460. A matching investment in the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:VOO) lost $102,030. The fund sold as the calmer choice cost its holder an extra $5,430.
What a $300,000 Cushion Cost You in 2020
Over that window, SPLV returned -35.82% with distributions included. VOO returned -34.01%. That leaves the low-volatility fund 1.81 percentage points worse during the exact kind of event its buyers fear most.
Fees add a second layer. VOO charges a net expense ratio of 0.03%, per its fact sheet dated March 25, 2026. That works out to $3 a year per $10,000 invested. SPLV lists its own fee in Invesco’s prospectus (0.25%). Every dollar it charges above VOO’s $3 comes out of your return each year and compounds against you for as long as you hold.
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Why a Calm Fund Can Fall Harder
SPLV holds the 100 stocks from the S&P 500 with the lowest realized volatility over the trailing 12 months, reweighted quarterly. Realized volatility measures how much a price actually moved. The method ranks stocks on how they behaved over the past year. A sudden shock can hit sectors that have been calm, and those stocks can fall as hard as the market or harder. Past calm offers no protection when conditions flip overnight.
