SCHP vs TIPZ

SCHPASchwab US TIPS ETF

TIPZCPIMCO Broad U.S. TIPS Index Exchange-Traded Fund

In short

SCHP Inflation insurance in the plainest wrapper available: SCHP owns the full maturity range of Treasury inflation-protected bonds and tracks its Bloomberg index for three basis points a year.

TIPZ PIMCO's plain-vanilla take on inflation protection: an index basket of inflation-linked U.S. Treasuries, running since 2009. Narrow mandate, no active tilts, and a price tag that sits above most funds doing the same job.

Stated mandate

SCHP The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of an index composed of inflation-protected U.S. Treasury securities.

TIPZ The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, an index made up of inflation-protected U.S. Treasury securities.

Why people hold it

• SCHP 0.03% a year, a quarter of the typical Treasury-fund fee and level with the cheapest names in the group (VGIT, VCSH).
• One job, done literally: only inflation-linked US Treasuries, whose principal adjusts with the official consumer price index.
• Running since 2010, now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and hugs the Bloomberg Series-L index closely.
• Passive, no maturity tilt, no manager view: one of the cleaner builds among Treasury ETFs.

• TIPZ One job, stated plainly: hold inflation-protected U.S. Treasuries and track an index of them. The inflation linkage is the whole product, not a sleeve buried inside a broader bond fund.
• Live since 2009, so it has traded through the zero-rate decade and the inflation spike that followed. A long operating history in a category full of newer entrants.
• Broad-maturity by design: it takes the whole TIPS curve rather than betting on short or long bonds, and it is U.S.-only, so there is no currency or foreign-issuer wrinkle.

Worth knowing

• SCHP Inflation-linked is not rate-proof. This spans the whole maturity spectrum, so prices move with real yields.
• Distributions are irregular. Coupons sit on an inflation-adjusted principal, so the cash arrives lumpy, not as a steady check.
• About 50 bonds, all Uncle Sam. No credit spread, no corporate yield pickup; inflation and duration are the whole story.

• TIPZ Costs 0.20% a year against a 0.12% median for its Treasury cohort. SPIP (0.12%) and VTP (0.05%) charge less for similar inflation-linked exposure.
• A small fund that trades thinly, which usually shows up as wider bid-ask spreads than the category's largest names.
• Distributions arrive on an irregular cadence, because TIPS income rides on inflation adjustments to principal rather than a fixed coupon.

Full SCHP profile⁠

Full TIPZ profile⁠