ASEC vs PAAA

ASECCAmerican Century Securitized Credit ETF

PAAAAPGIM AAA CLO ETF

In short

ASEC Most of its peer group buys one thing: AAA CLOs. ASEC casts wider, actively picking investment-grade securitized debt tied to aircraft leases, cell towers and consumer loans, at a fee sitting right at the category median.

PAAA PGIM's entry in the AAA CLO race: an actively run book of the senior-most slice of collateralized loan obligations, floating-rate, priced at 0.19%, paid out monthly. Same playbook as the category's biggest names, a hair cheaper.

Stated mandate

ASEC The fund is actively managed to seek high current income and total return through high-quality, lower-duration U.S. securitized debt, including underrepresented asset-backed securities and other securitized subsectors.

PAAA The Fund seeks to maximize total return through current income and capital appreciation. It invests primarily in U.S. dollar-denominated AAA-rated CLOs and is actively managed rather than designed to replicate a specific index.

Why people hold it

• ASEC Reaches past the CLO aisle into esoteric asset-backed paper: aircraft leases, equipment leases, consumer loans, cell towers, digital infrastructure.americancentury.com
• The mandate is written down: at least 80% of net assets in securitized credit, with a focus on investment-grade U.S. issues and lower duration.yahoo.comamericancentury.com
• At 0.29%, the fee lands exactly at the median for its securitized-credit peers, and income is paid quarterly across roughly 100 holdings.
• Human judgment, not an index: American Century's team picks the collateral, which is the point in a corner of the bond market where deals differ a lot.americancentury.com

• PAAA At 0.19%, one of the cheapest tickets into AAA CLOs, undercutting the 0.20% charged by CLOA, JAAA, FAAA and ACLO and sitting well below the category median.
• Keeps at least 80% of investable assets in US dollar CLOs rated AAA at purchase, the tranche that stands first in line for cash from the underlying loan pool.mutualfunds.compgim.com
• CLO coupons float, so the income stream resets with short-term rates rather than locking to a fixed coupon. Cash goes out monthly.pgim.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, with spread and execution behavior among the strongest in its peer group.

Worth knowing

• ASEC Cheaper AAA CLO options exist (PAAA at 0.19%, JAAA and CLOA at 0.20%). You pay up here for a broader, actively chosen securitized mix.
• Launched in 2026, so the track record is short, and an active fund has no index to measure it against.
• It is a small, thinly traded fund, where bid/ask spreads tend to run wider than in the category's giants.

• PAAA Actively managed against the JP Morgan CLOIE AAA Index, not built to match it. Holdings and results can diverge from the benchmark by design.
• The AAA stamp sits atop a pool of leveraged loans to below-investment-grade borrowers, and up to 20% of investable assets can go outside AAA-rated CLOs.mutualfunds.com
• Launched in 2023, so the track record is short and does not yet span a full credit cycle.

Full ASEC profile⁠

Full PAAA profile⁠