PFIG vs USIG

PFIGBInvesco Fundamental Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

USIGAiShares Broad USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF

In short

PFIG Most corporate bond funds hand the biggest weight to whoever borrowed the most. PFIG's index sizes issuers by sales, cash flow, dividends and book assets instead, sticking to US public companies in the 1-10 year maturity band.

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

PFIG The Fund seeks to track the investment results of its specified underlying index before fees and expenses, investing primarily in securities from that index.

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

Why people hold it

• PFIG Weight comes from four accounting measures of company size (book assets, gross sales, gross dividends, cash flow), not from how much debt an issuer has outstanding.sec.gov
• The 1-10 year maturity band keeps it in short-to-intermediate territory, so price swings from rate moves are milder than long-dated corporate bond funds.researchaffiliates.com
• Spreads risk across roughly 800 investment grade bonds and pays income monthly.
• Running since 2011, and it sits in the upper half of the investment grade corporate bond funds we grade.

• 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

• PFIG 0.22% a year, above the category median and well above the plain index giants (VCIT, USIG, SPIB) at 0.03%-0.04%. The fundamental screen is what the extra buys.
• Thinly traded and modest in size, so spreads can run wider than the category heavyweights. Limit orders matter more here.
• Issuers must be US-domiciled public companies, and the fund samples the index rather than buying every bond in it.sec.govinvesco.com

• 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 PFIG profile⁠

Full USIG profile⁠