Learn · Holdings filed for periods June 30, 2026 to August 31, 2026
What is a closet index fund?
Data as of June 30, 2026 to August 31, 2026 holdings (filed July 20, 2026 to October 29, 2026)
A closet index fund charges active management prices for a portfolio that mostly matches its benchmark index. We call a fund one when its sits below 60%, meaning more than 40% of the portfolio mirrors the index, and it charges more than the cheapest index fund tracking that same benchmark.
46 of the 120 classified funds in our registry meet that definition as of August 31, 2026. Their median filed fee is 0.57%. Pairing each one with the cheapest index fund tracking its own benchmark, the median of those controls is 0.01%, roughly 57 times less than the fund measured against it.
The two conditions
Both conditions must apply together. A portfolio that closely matches its index is not a problem if it is priced like an index fund — that is simply an index fund, and the registry labels it one. A portfolio that genuinely differs from its index is not a closet indexer however much it charges; whether it earned the fee is a question holdings cannot answer.
- It mostly matches. Active share below 60%. Below 5% we call the fund an index tracker instead, because at that point it is not attempting to differ.
- It costs more than the match. The filed net expense ratio exceeds that of the cheapest positive-fee index fund tracking the same best-fit benchmark in our registry.
What it costs
Fees are charged on the whole portfolio, including the part that matches the index. On $100,000, the median closet indexer here costs $565 a year against $10 for the median of their paired index controls, computed across the 46 of them with a filed control fee.
| Fund | Ticker | Active share | Filed fee | Fee per $100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Hartford Capital Appreciation Fund | HCACX | 45.1% | 1.86% | $1,860 |
| JPMorgan U.S. Large Cap Core Plus Fund | JCPRX | 43.8% | 1.44% | $1,440 |
| Columbia Contrarian Core Fund | CCCRX | 45.0% | 1.23% | $1,230 |
| Hartford Capital Appreciation Hls Fund | HCPCX | 46.8% | 1.18% | $1,180 |
| Federated Hermes MDT All Cap Core Fund | QAACX | 47.8% | 1.05% | $1,050 |
| Goldman Sachs U.S. Tax-Managed Equity Fund | GCTAX | 49.4% | 1.01% | $1,010 |
| Columbia Disciplined Core Fund | AQEAX | 55.7% | 0.94% | $940 |
| PGIM Jennison Blend Fund | PBQAX | 56.2% | 0.91% | $910 |
| Clearwater Core Equity Fund | QWVPX | 22.4% | 0.90% | $900 |
| Tax-Managed U.S. Large Cap Fund | RETSX | 30.4% | 0.90% | $900 |
Two caveats on reading that table. Active share is measured from filed equity holdings, so a fund running an options overlay or similar derivative strategy can look index-like here without being a closet indexer. And a fund named as an index fund that charges well above the cheapest tracker appears too: it is overpriced for what it does, but it is not pretending to be active.
Why funds end up here
Very few funds set out to charge active prices for an index portfolio. The position is usually arrived at. A fund that grows large enough has to hold large positions, and the largest positions available are the ones the index already holds in size. A manager measured quarterly against a benchmark has a career reason to stay near it, because the cost of trailing badly is far more immediate than the reward for leading. And a fund that has quietly drifted toward its benchmark rarely cuts its fee to match.
None of those is dishonest. The result is still that the investor pays for a decision the portfolio no longer reflects.
Not the same as a bad fund
A closet indexer can perform perfectly well. If it holds most of the index and charges a little more, it will tend to return roughly what the index returns minus the difference in fees. That is not a disaster; it is a slow, predictable shortfall. What the label identifies is a mismatch between the price and the product, not a prediction that the fund will fall over.
The opposite case matters too. A fund with high active share and a high fee is not automatically good value. It is simply a fund where the fee is buying something you can at least inspect, which is why the registry separates the two cases rather than ranking every expensive fund together.
What it does not mean
A closet-index label is a statement about price and portfolio difference on one filing date. It is not a prediction, not a claim the manager lacks skill, and not a recommendation to trade. A fund can match its index closely in one quarter and diverge in the next.
It is also a statement about one benchmark. Active share is measured against a specific index, and a portfolio that looks index-like against one comparison can look quite different against another. We publish the best-fit comparison we computed and name it on every fund page, so the figure can be argued with rather than taken on trust.
What this does not cover
Of 200 funds in the registry, 120 have every input the comparison needs. The remaining 80 are reported rather than guessed:
- 79 have no positive-fee index fund tracking the same benchmark, so there is nothing to price them against.
- 1 have no filed net expense ratio for their primary share class yet.
A fund in that group is not a fund that passed. It is a fund we cannot yet speak about, and it stays listed until the filing that fixes it arrives.
Next: what active share measures and what counts as low, or look up a specific fund in the closet index registry.