IGSB vs SUSB

IGSBAiShares 1-5 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

SUSBBiShares ESG Aware 1-5 Year USD Corporate Bond ETF

In short

IGSB Corporate credit with the rate risk dialed down: roughly 4,700 investment-grade bonds, none maturing past five years, for four basis points. iShares has run it since 2007.

SUSB Short-dated corporate bonds with an ESG filter. SUSB tracks a Bloomberg MSCI index of 1-5 year investment-grade US corporate debt screened for environmental, social and governance characteristics, at 0.12% a year.

Stated mandate

IGSB The fund seeks to track an index containing U.S. dollar-denominated investment-grade corporate bonds with remaining maturities from one through five years.

SUSB The fund seeks to track an index of short-term, investment-grade U.S.-dollar corporate bonds whose issuers have positive aggregate environmental, social, and governance characteristics.

Why people hold it

• IGSB Four basis points a year, a fraction of the typical investment-grade corporate bond fund's fee and level with the cheapest tier of its peer group.
• One-to-five-year maturities mean prices move less when rates move than long-dated corporate funds. Same corporate credit, shorter leash.ishares.com
• Thousands of individual bonds tracking the ICE BofA 1-5 Year US Corporate Index, with income paid monthly.ishares.com
• Trading since 2007, actively traded, and one of the strongest builds in the investment-grade corporate group on cost, portfolio and execution.

• SUSB Charges 0.12%, under the typical investment-grade corporate bond fund, and the portfolio behind it is one of the stronger builds in that group.
• Maturities stop at five years, so prices move less when rates shift than long-dated corporate debt does. Income is paid monthly.
• The ESG call is not a manager's hunch. It follows the Bloomberg MSCI US Corporate 1-5 Year ESG Focus Index, spread across roughly 1,700 bonds.
• Running since 2017 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, so this is a screened bond strategy with real operating history and real scale behind it.

Worth knowing

• IGSB Short maturities cut both ways: less price damage when rates rise, less lift when they fall.
• These are company bonds, not Treasuries. Investment grade, but credit spreads can widen and prices move with them.
• Only the front of the curve. Sibling IGIB runs 5-10 years and USIG spans broad maturities, both at the same fee.

• SUSB The screen costs extra. IGSB, the unscreened iShares 1-5 year investment-grade corporate fund, charges 0.04%.
• ESG here means MSCI's definition, applied at the index level. If your own standards differ, the holdings list is the place to check.
• Trading is moderate rather than heavy, so spreads can run wider than at the category giants like VCIT and USIG.

Full IGSB profile⁠

Full SUSB profile⁠