ILTB vs SPAB

ILTBAiShares Core 10+ Year USD Bond ETF

SPABAState Street SPDR Portfolio Aggregate Bond ETF

In short

ILTB Take the whole U.S. bond market and keep only the long end. ILTB tracks a Bloomberg index of dollar bonds maturing in 10+ years, investment grade and high yield alike, for six basis points.

SPAB A 2007-vintage core bond fund priced at 0.03%: roughly 8,500 US investment-grade bonds in one ticket, at the same rock-bottom fee the household names charge for the same index.

Stated mandate

ILTB The fund seeks to track an index of U.S.-dollar-denominated investment-grade and high-yield bonds with remaining maturities above ten years.

SPAB The fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index before fees and expenses, providing broad exposure to U.S.-dollar-denominated investment-grade bonds.

Why people hold it

• ILTB Costs 0.06% a year, a fraction of the typical fund in its broad-bond peer group, where the median is 0.36%.
• One ticker for the long maturity slice of the U.S. bond market: Treasuries, corporates and high yield, all 10+ years, via the Bloomberg U.S. Universal 10+ Year Index.
• Pays monthly and has been running since 2009, through several full rate cycles.
• Broad holdings and low fees put it in the top quartile of its 187-fund bond cohort on our review.

• SPAB 0.03% a year against a 0.36% median for its peer group, and the same ticket price as AGG, SCHZ and BBAG on the identical index.
• Roughly 8,500 dollar-denominated investment-grade bonds in one line item, tracking the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. Diversification you could not assemble bond by bond.ssga.com
• Trades actively and has tracked its index closely, putting it among the stronger implementations in the core-bond group.
• Running since 2007, now a multi-billion-dollar fund, and it pays monthly rather than quarterly.

Worth knowing

• ILTB Long bonds only means outsized sensitivity to interest rates. Expect much bigger price swings than an aggregate fund like BND or SPAB.
• The index reaches past investment grade into high yield, so credit risk rides along with the duration.
• Moderately traded rather than a volume giant. Limit orders are the sane default.

• SPAB Bond prices move opposite yields. When rates rise the index falls and the fund follows it down; a 0.03% fee cannot cushion that.
• AGG, SCHZ and BBAG hold the same declared index at the same 0.03%. Picking among them comes down to spreads and platform, not the portfolio.
• Investment grade and US dollar only by mandate: high yield and foreign-currency debt sit outside the remit.ssga.com

Full ILTB profile⁠

Full SPAB profile⁠