MIG vs USIG

MIGBVanEck Moody’s Analytics IG Corporate Bond ETF

USIGAiShares Broad USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

In short

MIG Most investment-grade bond funds buy the index and move on. MIG hands the screening to Moody's Analytics, whose credit work sorts roughly 400 corporate bonds on quality and value before they get in.

USIG Most investment-grade corporate bond funds hand you one slice of the maturity curve. USIG takes the whole thing, thousands of US dollar corporate bonds from short-dated to long, for four basis points a year.

Stated mandate

MIG The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MVIS Moody’s Analytics US Investment Grade Corporate Bond Index.

USIG The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. dollar-denominated investment-grade corporate bonds.

Why people hold it

• MIG The selection engine is the point: the MVIS Moody's Analytics US Investment Grade Corporate Bond Index screens IG credit on quality and value rather than taking the market as it comes.vaneck.com
• It does what the label says. Tracking of its stated index has been close, one of the tighter implementations among investment-grade corporate peers.vaneck.com
• About 400 corporate bonds, distributions paid monthly, and a 0.20% fee that sits within a hair of the typical IG corporate ETF.

• USIG Costs 0.04% a year, against a category median near 0.19%. CORP, which tracks the same ICE BofA US Corporate Index, charges 0.41%.
• One ticker, the full USD investment-grade corporate curve: thousands of bonds, short to long. Slice funds like IGSB (1-5 year) and IGIB (5-10 year) each cover one segment.ishares.com
• Running since 2007, it has tracked its index with very little drift and is one of the more actively traded funds in its category.
• Interest lands monthly, and this is a multi-billion-dollar fund that ranks among the strongest implementations in its peer group.

Worth knowing

• MIG A small fund that trades thinly, so spreads can run wider and orders land less smoothly than in the giant IG bond ETFs.
• That 0.20% pays for the Moody's screen. Plain broad IG index funds such as VCIT and IGSB charge a small fraction of it.
• Launched in 2020, so its live record is short next to IG funds that have run through several credit cycles.

• USIG Owning the whole curve means long-dated bonds ride along, so the price swings more when rates move than a short-maturity slice such as IGSB.
• This is corporate credit, not Treasuries. Investment grade at purchase, but prices can fall when spreads widen or an issuer is downgraded.ishares.com
• VCIT edges it on fee at 0.03%, though that fund stays in intermediate maturities rather than the full curve.

Full MIG profile⁠

Full USIG profile⁠