The State Street SPDR S&P Insurance ETF (KIE) was launched on November 8, 2005, and is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to offer broad exposure to the Financials - Insurance segment of the equity market.
Passively managed ETFs are becoming increasingly popular with institutional as well as retail investors due to their low cost, transparency, flexibility and tax efficiency. They are excellent vehicles for long term investors.
Investor-friendly, sector ETFs provide many options to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Financials - Insurance is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 6, placing it in top 38%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by State Street Investment Management. It has amassed assets over $538.07 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Financials - Insurance segment of the equity market. KIE seeks to match the performance of the S&P Insurance Select Industry Index before fees and expenses.
The S&P Insurance Select Industry Index represents the insurance segment of the S&P Total Market Index.
Costs
Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.35%, making it one of the least expensive products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.52%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
ETFs offer a diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Financials sector -- about 100% of the portfolio.
Looking at individual holdings, Oscar Health Inc Class A (OSCR) accounts for about 2.88% of total assets, followed by Metlife Inc (MET) and Cno Financial Group Inc (CNO).The top 10 holdings account for about 21.92% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
So far this year, KIE return is roughly 7.98%, and it's up approximately 15.04% in the last one year (as of 07/14/2026). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $53.55 and $64.46.
The ETF has a beta of 0.60 and standard deviation of 16.68% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 56 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.
Alternatives
State Street SPDR S&P Insurance ETF sports a Zacks ETF Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. KIE, then, is not the best option for investors seeking exposure to the Financials ETFs segment of the market. Instead, there are better ETFs in the space to consider.
Invesco KBW Property & Casualty Insurance ETF (KBWP) tracks KBW Nasdaq Property & Casualty Index and the iShares U.S. Insurance ETF (IAK) tracks Dow Jones U.S. Select Insurance Index. Invesco KBW Property & Casualty Insurance ETF has $266.55 million in assets, iShares U.S. Insurance ETF has $495.36 million. KBWP has an expense ratio of 0.35%, and IAK charges 0.38%.
Bottom Line
To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.
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State Street SPDR S&P Insurance ETF (KIE): ETF Research Reports
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).