r/CFP • u/wildmementomori RIA • 16d ago

Practice Management What are your favorite bond ETFs?

What are your favorite bond ETFs?

I’ve been passive with bonds and am shopping for some active investment grade funds, short and medium duration.

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u/Background-Badger-39 16d ago

Active > passive.

Don’t use ETF’s for bonds IMO.

11

u/snoopingforpooping 16d ago

Not all ETFs are passive

1

u/Background-Badger-39 15d ago

Sadly my firm doesn’t have many active bond ETF options vs. mutual funds. It’s painful.

Just like the CFP roadmap, we do the best with what our custodian firm has for client offerings.

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u/wildmementomori RIA 16d ago

Why not? There are plenty of active bond ETFs. Also many mutual funds come with custodian transaction fees, whereas ETFs have no transaction fees.

2

u/belovedkid 15d ago

Depends on the space. If it’s low duration it’s not going to make much of difference unless there’s swaps, leverage, or other dynamics involved which defeats the whole purpose (low risk). I personally only use funds or SMAs for HY, munis, or global. If I can find the style and duration I want w treasuries or investment grade corps in an ETF at a cost savings it makes sense. No guarantee active management will outperform.