GIGL vs VTC

GIGLBGoldman Sachs Corporate Bond ETF

VTCAVanguard Total Corporate Bond ETF

In short

GIGL Goldman's credit desk in ETF form: an actively run corporate bond fund in an aisle ruled by index trackers, with permission to roam into high yield and foreign paper when the benchmark looks dull.

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

GIGL The Fund seeks a high level of total return through capital appreciation and income. It normally invests at least 80% of net assets plus investment borrowings in corporate bonds and may also use other fixed-income securities and derivatives.

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

• GIGL Active by design. A Goldman credit team picks the bonds instead of replicating the Bloomberg U.S. Credit Index, which serves as the yardstick, not the rulebook.sec.gov
• At least 80% of net assets in corporate bonds, with room for high yield, up to 25% non-dollar paper and up to 10% emerging market debt.sec.govsec.gov 2
• 0.29% net of a waiver through December 29, 2026 (0.30% gross) sits near the category median: an active mandate priced like a run-of-the-mill corporate bond fund.
• Roughly 500 bonds spread across sectors and issuers, and the fund pays monthly.gs.com

• 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

• GIGL Index rivals in this aisle cost far less: SPBO and VTC at 0.03%, USIG at 0.04%. The extra fee buys a credit team's judgment rather than a rulebook.
• Launched June 2025, so the live record is short and the fund is still building scale; it trades lighter than the category's index heavyweights, which can widen spreads.
• Interest rate futures, swaps, credit default swaps and short positions are in the toolkit, so more moving parts than a plain bond index fund.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 GIGL profile⁠

Full VTC profile⁠