MAGG vs SCHZ

MAGGCMadison Aggregate Bond ETF

SCHZASchwab U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

In short

MAGG Madison's compact take on the Agg: roughly 200 bonds instead of the benchmark's thousands, paying monthly. A hand-built core bond portfolio at the category's median fee, in a corner of the market where the index giants charge pennies.

SCHZ Schwab's core bond holding: the broad U.S. investment-grade bond market, over 10,000 issues deep, for 0.03% a year. That is the floor of a category whose median fee is more than ten times higher. Running since 2011, pays monthly.

Stated mandate

MAGG The fund normally invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus investment-purpose borrowings, in bonds.

SCHZ The fund seeks to track the total return of an index representing the broad U.S. investment-grade bond market.

Why people hold it

• MAGG Holds about 200 bonds against a Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate benchmark that spans thousands: a curated portfolio, not a full index replica.
• The 0.36% fee sits right at the category median and matches Fidelity's FBND, so the managed approach doesn't carry a boutique premium.
• Pays monthly, and the prospectus commits at least 80% of net assets to bonds, keeping it a core fixed income sleeve rather than a wanderer.

• SCHZ 0.03% a year sits at the category floor, against a cohort median of 0.36%. Only a short list of aggregate-bond funds matches it, including AGG, BND and SPAB.
• Tracks the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index tightly, one of the cleanest index implementations among the 187 funds in its peer group.schwabassetmanagement.com
• One ticker, thousands of investment-grade U.S. bonds, income paid monthly. The plumbing of a bond portfolio without buying a single bond yourself.
• Live since 2011 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so trading costs on ordinary retail-sized orders tend to be minor.

Worth knowing

• MAGG Index funds on the same Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate benchmark (BND, AGG, SPAB) charge 0.03%, roughly a twelfth of this fee.
• Thinly traded with a modest asset base, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than the category anchors', which shows up most on bigger orders.
• Launched in 2023, it has a short live record next to the decades-old funds tracking the same benchmark.

• SCHZ This is duration exposure, not a cash substitute. Interest-rate moves, not credit selection, drive most of the ride, and that is the weakest part of its risk profile.
• Investment grade and U.S. only: no high-yield, no foreign bonds. Funds like BNDX cover the international side of the cohort.
• The aggregate-bond aisle is commoditized. Against AGG, BND and SPAB at the same 0.03%, the differences come down to index variant and where you already custody, not fee.

Full MAGG profile⁠

Full SCHZ profile⁠