EAGG vs SPAB

EAGGAiShares ESG Aware U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

SPABAState Street SPDR Portfolio 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.

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

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.

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

• 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.

• 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

• 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

• 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 EAGG profile⁠

Full SPAB profile⁠