AVIG vs SCHZ

AVIGAAvantis Core Fixed Income ETF

SCHZASchwab U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

In short

AVIG A core US bond fund with a different brief: its stated goal is maximizing total return, not just mirroring the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate. It costs 0.15% a year and spreads the risk across roughly 900 bonds.

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

AVIG Seeks to maximize 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

• AVIG Charges 0.15% a year, well under half the median fee in its core bond cohort. Cost stops being the argument.
• Roughly 900 bonds, benchmarked to the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate. The portfolio it actually runs lines up closely with the mandate in its own documents.avantisinvestors.com
• Among Agg-benchmarked funds, one of the stronger implementations in a crowded peer group, on both cost and portfolio construction.
• Launched in 2020 by Avantis as a broad US investment-grade bond holding, not a narrow slice of the market.avantisinvestors.com

• 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

• AVIG Straight Agg index trackers (BND, AGG, SPAB) charge 0.03%. The extra basis points here buy a total-return mandate rather than a pure index copy.
• It's a core bond portfolio, so the price moves with interest rates. Rate sensitivity is the main risk you're carrying.
• Smaller and less heavily traded than the mega Agg trackers, so bid-ask spreads can run a touch wider.

• 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 AVIG profile⁠

Full SCHZ profile⁠