AGG vs EAGG

AGGAiShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

EAGGAiShares ESG Aware U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

In short

AGG Launched in 2003, one of the first funds to pack the entire U.S. investment-grade bond market into a single ticker: Treasuries, corporates and mortgage bonds, three basis points a year, cash paid monthly.

EAGG The U.S. bond market's default index, run through a values filter: the same investment-grade universe, tilted toward issuers with better ESG assessments and screened on certain businesses, at 0.10% a year.

Stated mandate

AGG The fund seeks to track the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, providing broad exposure to the total U.S. investment-grade bond market.

EAGG The fund seeks to track the Bloomberg MSCI US Aggregate ESG Focus Index, an index of U.S.-dollar-denominated investment-grade bonds from issuers assessed for favorable environmental, social, and governance practices.

Why people hold it

• AGG 0.03% a year against a peer-group median near 0.36%. On a bond fund, the fee comes straight out of the coupon, so the gap matters more than it looks.
• A $100 billion-plus fund and very actively traded, the kind of depth that keeps bid-ask costs down for retail-sized orders.
• Tracks the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate closely, with one of the tightest index-following records in its peer group. Income is distributed monthly.
• Running since 2003, giving it one of the longest track records among U.S. bond index ETFs.

• EAGG Costs 0.10% a year, well under the typical aggregate-bond fund, so the ESG screen does not come with a specialty-product price tag.ishares.com
• Roughly 5,000 U.S.-dollar investment-grade bonds inside, spread across Treasuries, agency paper and corporates. No single issuer swings it.
• Pays monthly, and tracks the Bloomberg MSCI US Aggregate ESG Focus Index tightly. Among the cleaner implementations in the core-bond group.
• A multi-billion-dollar iShares fund trading since 2018, with the plumbing and market-maker attention that comes with a big core-bond ETF.

Worth knowing

• AGG Investment grade and U.S. dollar only. High-yield debt and foreign bonds sit outside the mandate, so this is designed as core ballast rather than a yield hunt.
• Rate risk comes as it comes. The index gets tracked whether yields rise or fall, with no manager stepping in to shorten duration.
• The same index is sold by SPAB, SCHZ and BBAG at the same 0.03%. The portfolio is the commodity here; scale and trading depth are the tiebreakers.

• EAGG Unscreened Agg trackers (BND, SPAB, SCHZ) run 0.03%. The ESG version asks for a few extra basis points each year.
• The index reweights toward higher-rated ESG issuers and applies business-involvement screens, so the bond mix (and results) can drift from the plain Agg either way.ishares.com
• Still a rate-sensitive bond fund: broad-maturity investment-grade debt loses value when yields rise, screens or not.ishares.com

Full AGG profile⁠

Full EAGG profile⁠