AGGS vs SCHZ

AGGSCHarbor Disciplined Bond ETF (AGGS)

SCHZASchwab U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

In short

AGGS Harbor hands the keys to Income Research + Management, a Boston bond boutique whose day job is institutional money, and lets it run an active core bond book at a price near the middle of an index-dominated pack.

SCHZ Schwab's core bond holding: the broad U.S. investment-grade bond market, over 10,000 issues deep, for 0.03% a year. That is the floor of a category whose median fee is more than ten times higher. Running since 2011, pays monthly.

Stated mandate

AGGS The Fund seeks total return.

SCHZ The fund seeks to track the total return of an index representing the broad U.S. investment-grade bond market.

Why people hold it

• AGGS Subadvised since its 2024 launch by Income Research + Management, an independent fixed income firm that manages bond portfolios for institutional and private clients.sec.govharborcapital.com
• At 0.35%, it charges about what the typical aggregate-bond ETF does, which is unusual for a portfolio picked bond by bond rather than copied from an index.
• Pays monthly across roughly 200 positions, so income lands on a steady cadence instead of quarterly lumps.
• Stays in its lane: total return from a diversified book of mostly US dollar bonds, matching what the prospectus describes.

• SCHZ 0.03% a year sits at the category floor, against a cohort median of 0.36%. Only a short list of aggregate-bond funds matches it, including AGG, BND and SPAB.
• Tracks the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index tightly, one of the cleanest index implementations among the 187 funds in its peer group.schwabassetmanagement.com
• One ticker, thousands of investment-grade U.S. bonds, income paid monthly. The plumbing of a bond portfolio without buying a single bond yourself.
• Live since 2011 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so trading costs on ordinary retail-sized orders tend to be minor.

Worth knowing

• AGGS Thinly traded on a small asset base, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than the giant index bond funds.
• Index rivals BND, SPAB and SCHZ charge 0.03%, so the active work here starts with a real fee gap to make up.
• Launched in 2024, so the track record is short and covers a narrow slice of rate history.

• SCHZ This is duration exposure, not a cash substitute. Interest-rate moves, not credit selection, drive most of the ride, and that is the weakest part of its risk profile.
• Investment grade and U.S. only: no high-yield, no foreign bonds. Funds like BNDX cover the international side of the cohort.
• The aggregate-bond aisle is commoditized. Against AGG, BND and SPAB at the same 0.03%, the differences come down to index variant and where you already custody, not fee.

Full AGGS profile⁠

Full SCHZ profile⁠