BKAG vs ILTB

BKAGABNY Mellon Core Bond ETF

ILTBAiShares Core 10+ Year USD Bond ETF

In short

BKAG A core bond index fund that charges nothing. BKAG tracks the same Bloomberg US Aggregate benchmark the giants track, at a 0.00% expense ratio, and has been doing it since 2020.

ILTB Take the whole U.S. bond market and keep only the long end. ILTB tracks a Bloomberg index of dollar bonds maturing in 10+ years, investment grade and high yield alike, for six basis points.

Stated mandate

BKAG The fund seeks to track the Bloomberg US Aggregate Total Return Index.

ILTB The fund seeks to track an index of U.S.-dollar-denominated investment-grade and high-yield bonds with remaining maturities above ten years.

Why people hold it

• BKAG A 0.00% expense ratio. The median fund in the core bond group charges 0.36%, and even the cheap giants (BND, SPAB, SCHZ) charge 0.03%.
• Tracks the Bloomberg US Aggregate Total Return Index tightly, one of the closest index-following records in its peer group.
• Broad by design: roughly 4,000 bonds in the portfolio, with distributions paid monthly rather than quarterly.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund from BNY Mellon, wrapped in a standard 1940 Act ETF structure with no exotic mechanics.

• ILTB Costs 0.06% a year, a fraction of the typical fund in its broad-bond peer group, where the median is 0.36%.
• One ticker for the long maturity slice of the U.S. bond market: Treasuries, corporates and high yield, all 10+ years, via the Bloomberg U.S. Universal 10+ Year Index.
• Pays monthly and has been running since 2009, through several full rate cycles.
• Broad holdings and low fees put it in the top quartile of its 187-fund bond cohort on our review.

Worth knowing

• BKAG Rate risk is the trade-off. This is full-market bond exposure, and bond prices move opposite interest rates. Volatility is the weakest part of its profile.
• Moderately traded, not one of the volume monsters in the category. Spreads and limit orders matter more here than with the largest core bond names.
• At zero, the fee edge over 0.03% rivals is real but small in dollar terms, so tracking and trading costs do more of the work.

• ILTB Long bonds only means outsized sensitivity to interest rates. Expect much bigger price swings than an aggregate fund like BND or SPAB.
• The index reaches past investment grade into high yield, so credit risk rides along with the duration.
• Moderately traded rather than a volume giant. Limit orders are the sane default.

Full BKAG profile⁠

Full ILTB profile⁠