FEIG vs SPBO

FEIGANorthern Trust ESG & Climate Investment Grade Corporate Core ETF

SPBOAState Street SPDR Portfolio Corporate Bond ETF

In short

FEIG A core investment-grade corporate bond fund with an ESG overlay: built to shadow a plain market-cap corporate index while screening out coal, tobacco and weapons, for 0.12% net of a waiver through March 1, 2027.

SPBO The whole investment-grade corporate bond market in one ticker for three basis points. Most rivals sell you a maturity slice; SPBO owns the lot, and it undercuts other funds tracking the very same Bloomberg index.

Stated mandate

FEIG The Fund seeks results that generally match the price and yield performance of the Northern Trust ESG & Climate Investment Grade U.S. Corporate Core Index before fees and expenses.

SPBO The fund seeks investment results that generally correspond, before fees and expenses, to the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg U.S. Corporate Bond Index.

Why people hold it

• FEIG 0.12% net of a waiver through March 1, 2027 (0.13% gross), below the category median and cheaper than LQD at 0.14% or QLTA at 0.15%.
• The index is optimized to minimize tracking differences against a market-cap-weighted parent corporate index, so the credit shape stays core while the ESG tilt sits on top.sec.gov
• Screens remove thermal coal, coal-fired power, tobacco, civilian firearms, controversial weapons and UN Global Compact violators before the index is built.sec.govsec.gov 2
• Roughly 800 bonds of US-dollar investment grade credit, paying monthly, and a mandate that matches the label: one of the stronger profiles in its peer group.

• SPBO 0.03% a year against a category median of 0.19%. In bond land, where the yield does the heavy lifting, that fee gap is not a rounding error.
• Thousands of corporate bonds across the full maturity range, so you hold the broad IG corporate market instead of one duration bucket.ssga.com
• Same index, very different tolls: KORP charges 0.29%, JLQD 0.35%, JHCB 0.53%. SPBO sits at the cheap end of that list.
• Running since 2011, pays monthly, and tracks its benchmark about as closely as anything in the investment-grade corporate group.

Worth knowing

• FEIG Thinly traded next to the category's giants, so the spread at the moment you trade matters more than the expense ratio.
• The screens push the portfolio away from a plain corporate index, and it costs more than bare-bones core options like SPBO at 0.03% or USIG at 0.04%.sec.gov
• ESG and climate inputs come from Northern Trust's own scoring plus third-party data, so you are hiring out that judgment.sec.gov

• SPBO Full maturity range means long-dated paper is in the mix, so the price moves more when rates move than short-maturity peers like IGSB or SPIB.
• Corporate credit only. No Treasuries or mortgages to lean on, so the fund rides the health of corporate borrowers as well as the rate cycle.ssga.com
• Investment grade by design, US issuers only. No high-yield or emerging-market bonds in the basket.

Full FEIG profile⁠

Full SPBO profile⁠