IQHI vs SPHY

IQHICNYLI MacKay High Income ETF

SPHYAState Street SPDR Portfolio High Yield Bond ETF

In short

IQHI Born as an ESG high yield fund, IQHI dropped the screen in 2025 and now chases one thing: current income. MacKay Shields' credit team roams junk bonds, loans and convertibles, and the fund pays monthly.

SPHY State Street's junk-bond workhorse: roughly 1,900 US high yield bonds in one wrapper for 0.05% a year, a fraction of what the typical high yield ETF charges, with income paid monthly.

Stated mandate

IQHI The Fund seeks to maximize current income.

SPHY The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the ICE BofA US High Yield Index.

Why people hold it

• IQHI Actively run by MacKay Shields, with a mandate reaching past plain bonds into loans, convertibles, CLOs and asset-backed paper, plus derivatives to hedge or manage duration.sec.gov
• The ESG overlay came off in February 2025, when the fund was renamed from NYLI MacKay ESG High Income ETF. The mandate now reads simply: maximize current income.sec.gov
• Pays monthly, and spreads credit risk across roughly 400 positions rather than a concentrated handful.

• SPHY 0.05% a year against a peer-group median about eight times higher. In high yield, the fee comes straight out of coupon income, so the gap does real work.
• Holds about 1,900 bonds tracking the ICE BofA US High Yield Index, broad enough that no single issuer's trouble dominates the portfolio.ssga.com
• Live since 2012, a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and has stuck tightly to its stated index rather than drifting from the mandate.
• Distributions arrive monthly, in step with how the underlying coupons come in.

Worth knowing

• IQHI Costs 0.41% net of a fee waiver (0.58% gross), near the category median, but index rivals run far leaner: SCYB at 0.03%, SPHY at 0.05%, USHY at 0.08%.
• Thinly traded next to the category's heavyweights, so spreads can run wider and large orders may move the price.
• Below-investment-grade debt without limitation means real default and credit risk, and loans and CLOs add layers most index high yield funds skip.sec.gov

• SPHY This is below-investment-grade credit. Defaults and spread moves drive the price far more than Treasury yields do, and sell-offs in this asset class can be sharp.
• Fees here are already near the floor: SCYB lists 0.03% and HYLB matches at 0.05%, so the cost edge over the strongest peers is narrow.
• Scope is US high yield corporates, full stop. No investment-grade ballast, no emerging market debt, nothing to soften a credit drawdown from inside the fund.ssga.com

Full IQHI profile⁠

Full SPHY profile⁠