EUSB vs SCHZ

EUSBAiShares ESG Advanced Universal USD Bond ETF

SCHZASchwab U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

In short

EUSB A total-bond-market build with a conscience clause: thousands of taxable dollar bonds, screened for ESG ratings and stripped of fossil fuel issuers, at a fee well under the typical broad bond ETF.

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

EUSB The Fund seeks to track the Bloomberg MSCI US Universal Choice ESG Screened Index, an index of U.S. dollar-denominated taxable bonds with favorable ESG ratings and extensive screens, including fossil-fuel exclusions.

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

• EUSB Charges 0.12% a year, well below the median fee in its broad-bond group and cheap for a rules-screened portfolio.
• The screens are the product: favorable ESG ratings plus extensive exclusions, fossil fuels included, written into the index rather than left to a manager's mood.ishares.com
• Spreads exposure across several thousand US dollar taxable bonds and pays monthly, so the income cadence is steady.
• Delivers the mandate it advertises, one of the tighter ESG implementations among broad bond funds we grade.

• 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

• EUSB Screening changes the mix. Cutting fossil fuel issuers means the portfolio's sector map and results can diverge from a plain total-bond index.
• Cheap, not cheapest: unscreened aggregate peers like BND, SPAB and SCHZ run 0.03%.
• Smaller and less actively traded than the core bond giants, which can show up as wider bid-ask spreads on larger orders.

• 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 EUSB profile⁠

Full SCHZ profile⁠