MutualFundWire.com: Sapir and Co Add a Levered Equal Weight ETF

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Thursday, September 4, 2025

Sapir and Co Add a Levered Equal Weight ETF

The team at an $85-billion-AUM* fund firm in the Mid-Atlantic are expanding their lineup yet again, this time with a new leveraged equal weight index fund.

Michael Lynn Sapir
ProShare Advisors, ProFund Advisors
CEO

Last week, Michael Sapir, CEO of ProShares [profile], unveiled the launch of the ProShares Ultra S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (URSP on the NYSE Arca). Bethesda, Maryland-based ProShare Advisors serves as the new ETF's investment advisor.

URSP's inception date was August 25. The new fund comes with an expense ratio of 95 basis points (which bakes in a 24bps fee waiver promised through September 30, 2026).

The ProShares team lays claim to URSP being the first ever ETF to be designed to offer twice the daily returns (i.e. 2x) of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index (SPXEW). URSP's PM team includes:

Michael Neches, senior portfolio manager; and

Devin Sullivan, PM.

Sapir notes the importance of the S&P 500 index but puts the launch of URSP in the context of some investors' concerns about the traditional (i.e. market-cap-weighted) version of the index. The ProShares team notes that 1/3 of the S&P 500 is now in 7 companies.

"As the S&P 500 has become in recent years increasingly concentrated in a limited number of mega-cap companies, many in the technology sector, more investors have preferred large-cap U.S. equity exposure more evenly distributed among the companies in the index," Sapir states. "We are pleased to offer the only levered ETF benchmarked to the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index for those investors who desire magnified exposure to S&P 500 companies less dominated by the biggest names and the technology sector."

URSP is a series of ProShares Trust. The new fund's other service providers include:

ACA Group as provider of a principal financial officer and treasurer;

Dechert LLP as counsel;

JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. as administrator, custodian, index receipt agent, and securities lending agent;

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as independent accounting firm;

SEI Investments Distribution Co. as distributor and principal underwriter; and

Ultimus Fund Solutions as legal administrator.