Should I Buy This “Boring” Income ETF Again? Why I’m Adding OMAH to My Defensive Portfolio

The market has been heavily influenced by technology, and when tech pulls back, many income investors suddenly realize how concentrated their portfolios can become.

That’s what prompted me to revisit OMAH, the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF. I covered the fund previously, liked what I saw, and then eventually rotated out as technology stocks took off.

Now I’m looking at it differently.

OMAH is designed around the publicly disclosed holdings of Berkshire Hathaway, combined with an options-income strategy. The fund targets approximately 15% annual income paid monthly, giving investors exposure to a value-oriented portfolio while generating additional cash flow through option premiums.

The basic idea is simple: the underlying stocks provide equity exposure, while the options strategy generates the income.

That makes OMAH very different from the tech-heavy income ETFs that dominate much of my portfolio.

OMAH combines the top publicly disclosed Berkshire Hathaway holdings with roughly a 10% allocation to Berkshire Hathaway itself.

Some of its major holdings include:

• Berkshire Hathaway

• Apple

• American Express

• Delta Air Lines

• DaVita

• Bank of America

• Chubb

• Sirius XM

• Kraft Heinz

• Moody’s

The sector exposure is also notably different from a portfolio dominated by Nvidia, semiconductors, and other AI-related companies.

Financials make up the largest portion of the portfolio, followed by technology, consumer-related businesses, energy, healthcare, and industrials.

That diversification is exactly what makes the fund interesting to me.

It doesn't need technology stocks to explode for the strategy to work. Instead, it gives me exposure to businesses that tend to be more value-oriented and less dependent on the current AI-driven market cycle.

And then the fund layers covered calls over those holdings to generate additional income.

In other words, the stocks have one job and the options strategy has another.

The equity portfolio provides participation and collateral. The options generate the cash flow.

The biggest surprise for me was the consistency of OMAH's distributions.

From March 2025 through July 2026, the fund delivered 16 consecutive monthly distributions, generally staying within a remarkably tight range of roughly $0.23 to $0.25 per share.

That consistency matters.

Income investing isn't just about finding the fund with the highest yield on the screen. If you're building an income portfolio for the long term, you also want to know whether the fund can consistently deliver the cash flow you're counting on.

OMAH's trailing yield initially looked low because the fund was new and didn't yet have much distribution history. But as the months passed, that number climbed steadily.

The trailing 12-month yield eventually reached roughly 14–15%, with an average trailing-year yield of approximately 12.3% over the period discussed.

The annual payout was around $2.82 per share.

That's not necessarily the highest yield available in the income ETF universe, but the combination of yield and consistency is what makes OMAH interesting to me.

There's another important distinction: price return isn't the same thing as total return.

Over the previous year, OMAH's share price was down roughly 4.7%. But once distributions were included, total return was approximately 9.7%.

That's still below the S&P 500's roughly 17% return over the same period, but that comparison needs context.

A covered-call income ETF is intentionally trading some upside potential for cash flow. When the market is ripping higher, that trade-off becomes obvious.

But when markets become more uncertain, a defensive income strategy can become much more attractive.

OMAH isn't designed to beat the S&P 500 in a powerful bull market.

That's not its job.

Its job is to provide income from a portfolio that isn't completely dependent on technology momentum.

The April sell-off provided an interesting real-world test. While the S&P 500 experienced a sharp drawdown, OMAH experienced a shallower decline and stabilized relatively quickly.

That's exactly the type of behavior I want from something sitting in my defensive portfolio.

There are still drawbacks.

The expense ratio is around 0.99%, which is higher than many passive index ETFs. The fund is also relatively young, with about 16 months of history in the analysis.

And investors need to understand the tax treatment.

Unlike some of the NEOS funds that use Section 1256 contracts and can benefit from 60/40 tax treatment, OMAH isn't structured that way. Its distributions may generally be treated as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, capital gains, or some combination.

That means OMAH may be more attractive in a tax-advantaged account depending on an investor's individual circumstances.

Most importantly, investors shouldn't look at the 15% target yield and assume that means 15% total return.

The fund can pay substantial income while the underlying share price moves sideways or declines.

That's the fundamental income-investing trade-off.

After doing the research, I've decided that I'm adding OMAH back to my portfolio.

I'm not abandoning technology. I'm still bullish on tech over the long term, and I believe the current pullback is a normal part of the market cycle rather than a reason to panic.

But that doesn't mean every dollar in my portfolio needs to chase the same upside.

Some dollars can pursue growth.

Some can generate aggressive income.

And some can simply provide stability.

That's where OMAH fits for me.

Its Berkshire Hathaway-inspired holdings, consistent monthly distributions, value-oriented exposure, and options-income strategy give me something different from my tech-heavy positions.

I'm not looking for OMAH to become my best-performing ETF.

I'm looking for it to be a steady income position that helps diversify my portfolio and lets me sleep better when technology gets volatile.

I'll be adding it to my defensive mode and will share the actual position size in my next portfolio update.

That's ultimately the philosophy behind my income snowball: every dollar has a job.

And this one just got hired.