FEIG vs USIG

FEIGANorthern Trust ESG & Climate Investment Grade Corporate Core ETF

USIGAiShares Broad USD Investment Grade 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.

USIG Most investment-grade corporate bond funds hand you one slice of the maturity curve. USIG takes the whole thing, thousands of US dollar corporate bonds from short-dated to long, for four basis points a year.

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.

USIG The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. dollar-denominated investment-grade corporate bonds.

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.

• USIG Costs 0.04% a year, against a category median near 0.19%. CORP, which tracks the same ICE BofA US Corporate Index, charges 0.41%.
• One ticker, the full USD investment-grade corporate curve: thousands of bonds, short to long. Slice funds like IGSB (1-5 year) and IGIB (5-10 year) each cover one segment.ishares.com
• Running since 2007, it has tracked its index with very little drift and is one of the more actively traded funds in its category.
• Interest lands monthly, and this is a multi-billion-dollar fund that ranks among the strongest implementations in its peer 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

• USIG Owning the whole curve means long-dated bonds ride along, so the price swings more when rates move than a short-maturity slice such as IGSB.
• This is corporate credit, not Treasuries. Investment grade at purchase, but prices can fall when spreads widen or an issuer is downgraded.ishares.com
• VCIT edges it on fee at 0.03%, though that fund stays in intermediate maturities rather than the full curve.

Full FEIG profile⁠

Full USIG profile⁠