EAGG vs SCHZ

EAGGAiShares ESG Aware U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

SCHZASchwab U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

In short

EAGG The U.S. bond market's default index, run through a values filter: the same investment-grade universe, tilted toward issuers with better ESG assessments and screened on certain businesses, at 0.10% a year.

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

EAGG The fund seeks to track the Bloomberg MSCI US Aggregate ESG Focus Index, an index of U.S.-dollar-denominated investment-grade bonds from issuers assessed for favorable environmental, social, and governance practices.

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

• EAGG Costs 0.10% a year, well under the typical aggregate-bond fund, so the ESG screen does not come with a specialty-product price tag.ishares.com
• Roughly 5,000 U.S.-dollar investment-grade bonds inside, spread across Treasuries, agency paper and corporates. No single issuer swings it.
• Pays monthly, and tracks the Bloomberg MSCI US Aggregate ESG Focus Index tightly. Among the cleaner implementations in the core-bond group.
• A multi-billion-dollar iShares fund trading since 2018, with the plumbing and market-maker attention that comes with a big core-bond ETF.

• 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

• EAGG Unscreened Agg trackers (BND, SPAB, SCHZ) run 0.03%. The ESG version asks for a few extra basis points each year.
• The index reweights toward higher-rated ESG issuers and applies business-involvement screens, so the bond mix (and results) can drift from the plain Agg either way.ishares.com
• Still a rate-sensitive bond fund: broad-maturity investment-grade debt loses value when yields rise, screens or not.ishares.com

• 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 EAGG profile⁠

Full SCHZ profile⁠