GIGB vs IG

GIGBAGoldman Sachs Access Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

IGBPrincipal Investment Grade Corporate Active ETF

In short

GIGB Most investment-grade corporate bond funds just buy the biggest borrowers. Goldman's index screens the market on liquidity and fundamentals first, then spreads the money across roughly 1,600 bonds for 0.08% a year.

IG Most investment-grade corporate bond ETFs just buy the index. IG hires a manager to pick the credits, charges 0.19% (the category median), and pays income monthly. Active credit work at an index-adjacent price.

Stated mandate

GIGB The Fund seeks to track the FTSE Goldman Sachs Investment Grade Corporate Bond Index, which measures U.S.-dollar-denominated investment-grade corporate bonds meeting liquidity and fundamental screening criteria.

IG The Fund seeks current income and, secondarily, capital appreciation.

Why people hold it

• GIGB Costs 0.08% a year, well under the typical investment-grade corporate bond ETF's 0.19%.
• The index screens US dollar investment-grade corporates for liquidity and fundamentals rather than simply following who borrowed the most.gsam.com
• Tracks that index about as tightly as passive bond funds get, and holds roughly 1,600 bonds so no single issuer carries the load.
• Pays monthly, matching how corporate bond coupons tend to land in a portfolio.

• IG Actively managed, not index-tracking: the manager can lean into or step away from individual issuers and sectors instead of owning the market by weight.
• At 0.19%, it costs the same as the typical investment-grade corporate bond ETF. The active mandate doesn't come with an active-management markup.
• Income comes first in the mandate (current income, with capital appreciation secondary), and distributions are paid monthly.
• Trading since 2018, with a portfolio that lines up closely with what the prospectus says it does. Sits in the upper half of its investment-grade corporate peer group.

Worth knowing

• GIGB Cheap, but not the cheapest shelf: VCIT, USIG and SPIB run at 0.03% to 0.04%. You are paying a few basis points for the screening.
• Broad-maturity corporate credit moves on two levers, interest rates and credit spreads, so it swings more than short-dated bond funds.
• A mid-sized, moderately traded fund rather than a giant, so trading spreads can run wider than the largest names in the category.

• IG Thinly traded compared with the index heavyweights, so bid-ask spreads can be wider and bigger orders need more patience.
• That 0.19% is several times the 0.03%-0.04% charged by the largest index peers, VCIT and USIG. The gap is the price of the manager's judgment.
• A small fund next to the multi-billion-dollar index leaders in this corner of the bond market.

Full GIGB profile⁠

Full IG profile⁠