FIGB vs VTC

FIGBCFidelity Investment Grade Bond ETF

VTCAVanguard Total Corporate Bond ETF

In short

FIGB The name says investment grade, but Fidelity's managers can also reach into high yield and emerging-market debt while keeping interest-rate risk near the Agg. A credit-picking fund wearing a core-bond duration profile.

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

FIGB The fund seeks a high level of current income by investing primarily in debt securities across investment-grade, high-yield, and emerging-market segments, while maintaining interest-rate risk similar to the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index.

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

• FIGB Active by design: the managers hunt income across investment-grade, high-yield and emerging-market debt while holding interest-rate risk similar to the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate.
• A 0.36% expense ratio sits right at the median of its core-bond peer group, which is uncommon for a live manager competing against index trackers.
• Income is paid monthly, and the book is a focused roughly 180 positions rather than a thousands-strong index sleeve.
• The portfolio has stayed closely aligned with what its documents promise, and it lands in the upper half of its core-bond 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

• FIGB Index Aggs like BND and SPAB charge 0.03%. At 0.36%, you are paying roughly twelve times as much for the active credit calls.
• The high-yield and emerging-market sleeves carry credit risk a plain investment-grade index tracker would not take on.
• Moderately traded and mid-sized next to the giant index Aggs, so spreads can run wider, which shows up most on large or hurried orders.

• 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 FIGB profile⁠

Full VTC profile⁠