AVGB vs SKOR

AVGBBAvantis Credit ETF

SKORANorthern Trust Credit-Scored US Corporate Bond ETF

In short

AVGB A 2025 arrival from Avantis: roughly 160 investment-grade credit holdings run to a one-line mandate (maximize total return), developed-market issuers included, at a fee sitting right on the category median.

SKOR Most investment-grade corporate bond funds just buy the market. SKOR scores every eligible bond on issuer quality and relative value, then weights toward the winners, and stays in the one-to-under-10-year maturity lane.

Stated mandate

AVGB The fund seeks to maximize total return.

SKOR The Fund seeks to provide pre-fee investment results generally corresponding to the price and yield performance of the Northern Trust US Corporate Bond Quality Value Index.

Why people hold it

• AVGB The mandate is refreshingly plain: maximize total return from a credit portfolio of roughly 160 holdings, not a thousand-line index replica.avantisinvestors.com
• 0.19% a year lands exactly on the median fee for investment-grade corporate bond ETFs. No newcomer premium for the newer approach.
• The credit net stretches past US borders into developed international issuers, wider than a purely domestic corporate lineup.avantisinvestors.com
• Cash comes quarterly, with no advertised target yield to reverse-engineer. Payouts follow what the bonds throw off.avantisinvestors.com

• SKOR Rules-based scoring, not just size: the index optimizes toward proprietary quality and value scores instead of handing the biggest weight to whoever borrowed the most.sec.gov
• 0.15% net of a waiver through March 1, 2027 (0.16% gross), below the category median and level with the big brand-name corporate bond funds QLTA (0.15%) and LQD (0.14%).
• Tracking has been tight against its index, and it sits in the upper tier of investment-grade corporate bond ETFs on our review.
• Workmanlike plumbing: trading since 2014, over a billion dollars in assets, roughly 1,300 bonds, each issue $250 million or larger, with monthly payouts.sec.gov

Worth knowing

• AVGB The index heavyweights in this category charge a sliver of that fee: VCIT at 0.03%, USIG, SPIB and IGIB at 0.04%.
• Still a small, thinly traded fund, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than the category's giants and trade size matters more.
• It opened in April 2025. That is a thin track record next to peers with decades of behavior on the tape.

• SKOR Plain-vanilla rivals cost less: SPBO and VTC each charge 0.03%. The scoring screen is what the extra buys.
• Maturities stop short of 10 years, so it skips the long end of the corporate curve and the extra rate sensitivity that comes with it.sec.govflexshares.com
• The record spans two methodologies: the fund switched its objective and underlying index effective April 30, 2020.flexshares.comsec.gov

Full AVGB profile⁠

Full SKOR profile⁠