FEIG vs VTC

FEIGANorthern Trust ESG & Climate Investment Grade Corporate Core ETF

VTCAVanguard Total 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.

VTC Most cheap corporate bond funds sell you one slice of the maturity curve. VTC buys the whole investment-grade corporate market, short to long, for 0.03% a year, and since 2025 it owns the bonds directly instead of stacking three Vanguard funds.

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.

VTC The Fund seeks to track a broad, market-weighted corporate bond index, specifically the Bloomberg U.S. Corporate Bond Index. It uses an indexing approach focused on investment-grade, fixed-rate, taxable 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.

• VTC 0.03% a year against a 0.19% median for investment-grade corporate ETFs. On this exact Bloomberg index, nothing in the group charges less.
• One ticker, the full corporate curve. Top-graded rivals like VCIT, IGIB and IGSB each buy a single maturity band; VTC's index spans short, intermediate and long fixed-rate corporates.
• No overlays, no active tilts, no credit guesswork. Market-weighted indexing of investment-grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporates, and the portfolio hews tightly to that mandate.
• Income lands monthly, not quarterly, which matters if bond coupons are doing real work in your cash flow.

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

• VTC Whole-curve means long bonds in the mix, so prices move more with interest rates than a 1-5 year slice like IGSB does.
• The plumbing changed in March 2025: Vanguard moved it from holding three underlying corporate bond ETFs to buying the index bonds directly. Same objective, same index.sec.gov
• Moderately traded rather than a volume heavyweight, so spreads can run wider than the busiest corporate bond funds, particularly in choppy markets.

Full FEIG profile⁠

Full VTC profile⁠