NUAG vs SCHZ

NUAGANuveen Enhanced Yield U.S. Aggregate Bond

SCHZASchwab U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

In short

NUAG The Agg, re-sorted for income. NUAG tracks an ICE BofA index that takes the same investment-grade universe and tilts weight toward its higher-yielding corners, with rules fencing in how far duration and credit quality can drift. Fee: 0.16%.

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

NUAG The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the investment results of the ICE BofA Enhanced Yield U.S. Broad Bond Index.

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

• NUAG Not a market-cap clone. The index buckets the investment-grade universe by asset class, sector, credit, duration and maturity, then leans into higher-yielding buckets while limiting drift from the base index.nuveen.com
• 0.16% sits below the typical fee in the core-bond aisle, which is unusual for a rules-based tilt rather than a plain market-cap tracker.
• Broad plumbing underneath: roughly 1,500 holdings spanning Treasuries, corporates, residential and commercial mortgage paper and asset-backed debt. Pays monthly.nuveen.com
• Running since 2016 and it owns this lane: no other fund in our core-bond coverage tracks the same enhanced-yield index. The portfolio has stayed tight to its stated mandate.

• 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

• NUAG Small and thinly traded next to the category's giants, so spreads can be wider and size matters when you trade.
• Plain-vanilla Agg trackers (AGG, SPAB and SCHZ) charge 0.03%. The reweighting engine is what the extra cost buys.
• Tilting toward yield means tilting toward credit and spread risk. The rules cap how far sector weights, duration and tracking error can wander from the Agg, but they do not erase the difference.nuveen.com

• 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 NUAG profile⁠

Full SCHZ profile⁠