AVIG vs SPAB

AVIGAAvantis Core Fixed Income ETF

SPABAState Street SPDR Portfolio 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.

SPAB A 2007-vintage core bond fund priced at 0.03%: roughly 8,500 US investment-grade bonds in one ticket, at the same rock-bottom fee the household names charge for the same index.

Stated mandate

AVIG Seeks to maximize total return.

SPAB The fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index before fees and expenses, providing broad exposure to U.S.-dollar-denominated investment-grade bonds.

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

• SPAB 0.03% a year against a 0.36% median for its peer group, and the same ticket price as AGG, SCHZ and BBAG on the identical index.
• Roughly 8,500 dollar-denominated investment-grade bonds in one line item, tracking the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. Diversification you could not assemble bond by bond.ssga.com
• Trades actively and has tracked its index closely, putting it among the stronger implementations in the core-bond group.
• Running since 2007, now a multi-billion-dollar fund, and it pays monthly rather than quarterly.

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.

• SPAB Bond prices move opposite yields. When rates rise the index falls and the fund follows it down; a 0.03% fee cannot cushion that.
• AGG, SCHZ and BBAG hold the same declared index at the same 0.03%. Picking among them comes down to spreads and platform, not the portfolio.
• Investment grade and US dollar only by mandate: high yield and foreign-currency debt sit outside the remit.ssga.com

Full AVIG profile⁠

Full SPAB profile⁠