BILS vs VUSB

BILSAState Street SPDR Bloomberg 3-12 Month T-Bill ETF

VUSBAVanguard Ultra-Short Bond ETF

In short

BILS Most T-bill ETFs park at the very front of the curve. BILS deliberately steps out to bills with 3 to 12 months left to run, one rung further along the same government ladder, from the SPDR bond shop.

VUSB Vanguard's first actively managed bond ETF, run by its in-house fixed income team and priced at 0.10%. It holds investment-grade paper maturing inside two years: a step past a money fund, well short of a real bond fund.

Stated mandate

BILS The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg 3-12 Month U.S. Treasury Bill Index, providing exposure to U.S. Treasury Bills with remaining maturities of 3 to 12 months.

VUSB The fund seeks current income with limited price volatility while investing in diversified high- and medium-quality fixed-income securities. It expects to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity of 0–2 years.

Why people hold it

• BILS Targets the 3-to-12-month rung of the bill curve. Where sibling BIL sits in 1-3 month paper, BILS holds the next maturities out.ssga.com
• A compact book of roughly 40 Treasury bills, direct obligations of the US government. No corporate paper, no credit tiers to decode.ssga.com
• Tracks its Bloomberg bill index closely and pays monthly. A multi-billion-dollar fund with steady day-to-day trading behind it.

• VUSB At 0.10%, it costs half the typical ultra-short bond ETF and undercuts the other leaders in the group: SHV, PULS, FLDR and DUSB all charge 0.15%.
• Active, not adventurous. The managers buy investment-grade bonds (A3-or-better high quality plus BBB-tier medium quality) and hold average maturity to zero-to-two years.vanguard.com
• Income lands monthly, sourced from roughly 170 bonds, so no single issuer drives the outcome.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, and the same portfolio team also runs a similar Vanguard ultra-short fund.vanguard.com

Worth knowing

• BILS The 0.14% fee matches the category median but runs above the cheapest bill funds, like XONE at 0.03% and VBIL at 0.06%.
• Longer maturities move more when rates shift. Small moves by bond standards, but not as flat a line as a 0-3 month bill fund.
• Income resets as bills mature and roll into new ones, so payouts track wherever short-term Treasury rates sit at the time.ssga.com

• VUSB This is not a money market fund. No fixed $1 share price, and the market price can trade above or below the value of the holdings.vanguard.com
• The mandate allows BBB-tier credit, a notch of risk a Treasury-only neighbor like SHV doesn't take.vanguard.com
• Bonds this short reprice with short-term rates, so the monthly payout drifts up and down instead of holding a set level.vanguard.com

Full BILS profile⁠

Full VUSB profile⁠