SCHZ vs TABD

SCHZASchwab U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

TABDCTransamerica Bond Active ETF

In short

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.

TABD Transamerica's first move into ETFs: an actively run core bond portfolio steered by Aegon's fixed income desk, aiming for total return from income plus price gains, at 0.39% a year.

Stated mandate

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

TABD The Fund seeks total return from current income and capital appreciation.

Why people hold it

• 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.

• TABD Active bond management for 0.39% a year, only a few basis points above the median fee in a cohort dominated by cheap index trackers.
• Run by Aegon Asset Management, Transamerica's affiliated bond shop, and launched December 2025 as one of the firm's first two active ETFs.prnewswire.comtransamerica.com
• Clear mandate: total return from current income and capital appreciation, principally through bonds and bond-like derivatives. No index to track.

Worth knowing

• 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.

• TABD Index heavyweights BND, SPAB and SCHZ charge 0.03%. Here you pay roughly ten times that for a manager's discretion.
• Launched in December 2025, so there is no long record to judge. Results ride on the subadviser's calls, not an index.
• Small and lightly traded next to the category's giants, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than on the mega funds.

Full SCHZ profile⁠

Full TABD profile⁠