BBAG vs SCHZ

BBAGAJPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

SCHZASchwab U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

In short

BBAG Core US bond exposure for 0.03% a year. JPMorgan turned up late to the Agg price war in 2018 and came in at the floor, matching the fee charged by rivals many times its size.

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

BBAG The fund seeks results that closely track the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, which represents the U.S. investment-grade fixed-rate bond market.

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

• BBAG 0.03% a year sits on the category's price floor, level with AGG, BND, SPAB and SCHZ and far below the typical core-bond fund.
• The whole job is hugging the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, and it does that tightly: among the closer trackers in a crowded core-bond field.jpmorgan.com
• One line item covers roughly 1,700 investment-grade, fixed-rate US bonds. No issue picking, no maturity ladders to babysit.
• Distributions come monthly, not quarterly, so income lands on a steadier cadence.

• 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

• BBAG Interest rates drive this thing. Broad investment-grade bonds lose price when yields rise, and the fund carries that exposure undiluted.
• Investment grade, fixed rate, US only. High-yield credit, floating-rate paper and foreign bonds sit outside the mandate by design.
• Smaller and less heavily traded than AGG and BND, so spreads can run wider. Limit orders matter more here than with the giants.

• 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 BBAG profile⁠

Full SCHZ profile⁠