TUSI vs VBIL

TUSICTouchstone Ultra Short Income ETF

VBILAVanguard 0-3 Month Treasury Bill ETF

In short

TUSI Most ultra-short funds buy T-bills and call it a day. TUSI is actively managed, roaming across maturities and instrument types in search of total return, at 0.25% net of a waiver through April 29, 2027.

VBIL Vanguard's cash-parking ETF: roughly two dozen Treasury bills, none maturing more than three months out, at 0.06% a year. It landed in 2025 and undercut most of the T-bill shelf on price.

Stated mandate

TUSI The Fund seeks maximum total return while preserving capital. It invests at least 80% of assets in fixed-income securities and uses a diversified portfolio spanning different maturities and instruments.

VBIL VBIL seeks to track the performance of a market-weighted Treasury index with an ultra-short-term dollar-weighted average maturity, using a passive approach designed to follow the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bills 0-3 Months Index.

Why people hold it

• TUSI The mandate in plain English: maximum total return while preserving capital, with at least 80% in fixed income spread across different maturities and instruments.
• Benchmarked to the ICE BofA 3-Month U.S. Treasury Bill Index, so the active calls are measured against plain bills rather than a softer yardstick.
• No style drift. What the portfolio actually holds lines up closely with the ultra-short income mandate it advertises.
• Pays monthly, which suits a cash-adjacent sleeve, and the fund has been live since its 2022 launch.

• VBIL It charges 0.06% a year, well under the 0.14% median for 0-1 year Treasury funds and under the category veteran, BIL.
• Plain passive mandate on the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bills 0-3 Months Index, tracked very closely. One of the tightest implementations in its peer group.vanguard.com
• Roughly two dozen bills backed by the US Treasury, every one maturing inside three months. Interest goes out monthly.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund with active daily trading, which tends to keep bid-ask costs small.

Worth knowing

• TUSI Active costs money: 0.25% net of a waiver through April 29, 2027 sits above the category median and above bill trackers like VBIL (0.06%) and CLIP (0.07%).
• The gross fee is 0.43%, so that 0.25% rests on the contractual waiver, which the board can end and which runs through April 29, 2027.sec.gov
• Not a pure Treasury fund. Shareholder reports break the portfolio out by S&P and Moody's credit ratings, so results ride on credit as well as rates.sec.gov

• VBIL The payout floats with short-term rates. Monthly income rises and falls with what bills yield, and nothing about it is fixed.
• It opened in 2025, so its live record is short next to T-bill funds that have been running for years.
• Stretching maturity gets cheaper: peer XONE targets one-year duration at 0.03%, trading lower cost for more rate sensitivity.

Full TUSI profile⁠

Full VBIL profile⁠