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QQQI's 14% yield looks bigger than JEPQ's 11%, but JEPQ's 21% total return beat QQQI's 18% over the past year.

QQQI charges nearly double JEPQ's expense ratio, and part of its headline income may simply be your own capital quietly handed back.

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Buy NEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF (NASDAQ:QQQI) for the headline yield and you're handing the issuer nearly twice the fee of the fund next to it on the shelf, for an income stream that leans on capped upside and, at times, return of your own money. On a $10,000 investment, that fee difference alone costs roughly $33 every year before accounting for any difference in performance.

QQQI's prospectus lists a 0.68% net expense ratio. JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income ETF (NASDAQ:JEPQ) charges 0.35%. In dollar terms, QQQI takes $68 per year for every $10,000 you park in it, versus $35 at JEPQ.

Compounded over years of ownership, that fee differential meaningfully erodes returns, with the money leaving your account and landing in the issuer's. Before you've factored in a single distribution, JEPQ starts each year with a materially lower cost hurdle to clear.

Yield is the headline number, but total return provides a more complete picture of what shareholders actually earn. QQQI distributed $7.62 per share over the trailing 12 months against a recent share price of $54.34, equal to a distribution rate of roughly 14.0%. JEPQ distributed $6.52 per share over the same period on a $59.87 share price, putting its trailing distribution rate closer to 10.9%.

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Now the total-return comparison over the same window: JEPQ returned 20.87% over the past year on a price-adjusted basis, while QQQI returned 17.64%. Year to date the gap holds: JEPQ at 10.3%, QQQI at 9.51%. The higher-yielding fund delivered less to shareholders once fees and the covered-call overlay were accounted for.

That overlay is the structural cost the fund's own family of prospectuses spells out in plain English. When a fund sells call options against its equity holdings, "gains on the Underlying Security above the strike price(s) of the sold calls are generally expected to be reduced or foregone." That is the mechanism. In rallies, upside is capped and traded for premium income. There is another line worth reading aloud: "a portion (sometimes significant) of the Fund's distributions may be classified as return of capital." Return of capital represents your own principal being handed back, with tax consequences deferred until you sell.

JEPQ is the obvious lower-cost mirror. Same Nasdaq-100 universe, same premium-income concept, roughly half the expense ratio at 0.35% versus 0.68%, and a longer track record. JEPQ has 1,077 trading days of price history versus QQQI's 641. The trade-off is real: JEPQ's payout is lumpier month to month, with distributions ranging from $0.44 to $0.70 across the past year, whereas QQQI has kept monthly payments in a tighter $0.61 to $0.66 band in 2026. Smoother checks come at a higher price and a lower total return so far.

A 14% distribution rate and a 14% total return are separate things. The right question to bring to any covered-call income fund is simple: how much of that yield is premium income, how much is return of your own capital, and what am I paying in expense ratio to receive it? On both counts, QQQI's headline is doing more work than the fund's math supports.

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