IGLB vs VCLT

IGLBAiShares 10+ Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

VCLTAVanguard Long-Term Corporate Bond ETF

In short

IGLB The long end of the iShares corporate ladder: only investment-grade company bonds with more than ten years left to run. Interest-rate sensitivity isn't a side effect here, it's the design.

VCLT The long end of investment-grade credit, held plain. VCLT tracks an index of corporate bonds with 10+ years left to run, costs three cents per $100 a year, and pays monthly. Maximum rate sensitivity, minimum toll.

Stated mandate

IGLB The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. dollar-denominated investment-grade corporate bonds with remaining maturities longer than ten years. It provides exposure to long-duration, high-quality corporate credit and seeks income.

VCLT VCLT seeks to follow a market-weighted corporate bond index with long-term average maturity. It uses passive index sampling, maintains maturity consistent with the index, and normally invests at least 80% of assets in index bonds.

Why people hold it

• IGLB Fee is 0.04% a year, a sliver of what the typical investment-grade corporate bond fund charges.
• Roughly 3,800 bonds in one ticker, with income paid out monthly rather than quarterly.
• The 10+ slice of a maturity-cut iShares lineup (IGSB 1-5, IGIB 5-10), so duration is chosen by picking a slice instead of blending funds.
• Tracks the ICE BofA 10+ Year US Corporate Index closely and trades actively, putting it among the stronger builds in a crowded corporate bond field.

• VCLT 0.03% a year against a 0.19% median for investment-grade corporate bond funds. On a position held for years, that gap is real money.
• The pure long lane: the Bloomberg U.S. 10+ Year Corporate Bond Index, while cohort leaders like VCIT, IGIB and IGSB sit short or intermediate.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so entering and exiting rarely means fighting the spread.
• Boringly mechanical, which is the point: index sampling, at least 80% of assets in index bonds, monthly distributions, running since 2009.

Worth knowing

• IGLB Ten-years-and-out maturities mean the sharpest price swings in investment-grade corporates when yields move. Duration is the feature and the risk.
• Company bonds, not Treasuries: prices react to credit spreads as well as rates, and investment grade still carries downgrade risk.
• No short-maturity ballast by design, so nothing inside the fund steadies the ride when the long end sells off.

• VCLT Long maturities swing hard when rates move. This is one of the most rate-sensitive corners of investment-grade credit.
• Corporate credit only, roughly 300 bonds. No Treasuries and no short-maturity ballast to cushion a rough stretch.
• Sampling means it holds a representative slice of the index rather than every bond in it.

Full IGLB profile⁠

Full VCLT profile⁠