SGOV vs TBIL

SGOVAiShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF

TBILAF/m US Treasury 3 Month Bill Fund

In short

SGOV A cash-parking tool that owns nothing but US Treasury bills maturing in three months or less, pays out monthly, and charges 0.09%. Launched in 2020, it has grown into one of the largest bond ETFs around.

TBIL One bond, one job: TBIL owns the newest 3-month Treasury bill and rolls into the next at each month's rebalance, so you hold the current 3-month rate, not a blend. Pays monthly. Flagship of the first single-security Treasury suite.

Stated mandate

SGOV The fund seeks to track an index of U.S. Treasury bills with remaining maturities of three months or less.

TBIL The Fund seeks investment results, before fees and expenses, that generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg US Treasury Bellwether 3M Total Return USD Unhedged Index. It normally invests at least 80% of net assets in the index components.

Why people hold it

• SGOV 0.09% a year against a 0.14% median for its T-bill peer group, and it is very actively traded, which tends to keep the round-trip cost of getting in and out thin.
• One job, done plainly: track an index of Treasury bills with three months or less to run, and hand out the income monthly. Tracking has been close to the index.ishares.com
• Holdings mature in weeks, so interest-rate sensitivity is minimal and the share price moves very little when yields swing.ishares.com

• TBIL Holds one security: the most recently auctioned 3-month bill, refreshed at each month's rebalance, with that on-the-run bill written in as the fallback if the index lags an auction.fminvest.com
• Pays monthly, a faster cadence than the semi-annual coupons on the Treasury notes further out the curve.fminvest.com
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so getting in and out is rarely the hard part. Running since 2022 as the flagship of F/m's single-security Treasury lineup.fminvest.com

Worth knowing

• SGOV Cheaper bill funds exist. VBIL lists at 0.06% and CLIP at 0.07%, so the fee advantage here is over the pricier half of the group, not the whole field.
• Income tracks short-term rates. Bills roll every few weeks, so the monthly payout resets quickly in whichever direction rates go.
• The flip side of near-zero duration: no price kicker when rates drop, the way longer-dated Treasury funds get.

• TBIL At 0.15% it costs a bit more than the typical bill ETF and several times the cheapest options, with VBIL at 0.06% and XONE at 0.03%.
• One bond means no ladder to smooth things: at each roll the whole portfolio resets to the latest auction rate, up or down.fminvest.com
• An ETF, not a money market fund. The share price floats with the market instead of being managed to a stable $1.

Full SGOV profile⁠

Full TBIL profile⁠