Guide · US Treasury (Intermediate)
Best US Treasury ETFs
A Treasury-only fund holds nothing but US Treasury debt — no corporate or agency mortgage exposure, no credit risk. This matters more than it sounds: aggregate bond funds (BND, AGG) hold ~30% in credit-sensitive securities that correlate with equity in stressed markets, which gives up some of the diversification benefit a passive investor reaches for when they buy bonds. Treasury-only funds restore that pure-diversifier behavior at the cost of slightly lower yield in normal times.
How the scoring ranks these funds
Duration drives almost everything in this category. Short-term Treasuries (VGSH, SHY, BIL) have minimal interest-rate risk and behave like cash with a Treasury wrapper. Intermediate Treasuries (VGIT, GOVT, IEI) sit in the 4-6 year duration zone and are the most-recommended duration target on the Bogleheads forum. Long Treasuries (VGLT, TLT) carry 16+ year duration — they swing meaningfully with rates and are typically held as a deliberate risk-parity component rather than a "safe" bond.
See the methodology for the full formula behind each sub-score.
Top picks
-
87
composite / 100
Vanguard's intermediate-Treasury fund. 3 bps and the highest-scoring catalog fund across all three Treasury duration buckets. Tracks the Bloomberg US Treasury 3-10 Year Index — the duration sweet spot most diversifier-seeking investors land on.
- Expense
- 0.030%
- AUM
- $48.59B
- Issuer
- Vanguard
- Detail
- VGIT page →
-
87
composite / 100
Vanguard's short-Treasury fund. 3 bps; 1-3 year duration. Behaves nearly as a cash equivalent with modest yield — the standard "dry powder" slot in a portfolio that wants Treasury exposure without rate risk.
- Expense
- 0.030%
- AUM
- $33.48B
- Issuer
- Vanguard
- Detail
- VGSH page →
-
86
composite / 100
Vanguard's long-Treasury fund. 3 bps; 16+ year duration. Held as a deliberate equity-hedge component (e.g. the long-leg of a risk-parity sleeve), not as a "safe" bond — long Treasuries move dramatically when rates change, which is the point.
- Expense
- 0.030%
- AUM
- $14.26B
- Issuer
- Vanguard
- Detail
- VGLT page →
-
86
composite / 100
iShares' all-maturity Treasury fund. 5 bps; spans 1+ year Treasuries weighted by issuance, so it ends up at roughly an intermediate duration. The single-fund alternative to picking a duration target — fine for "I just want Treasuries" exposure.
- Expense
- 0.050%
- AUM
- $41.03B
- Issuer
- iShares
- Detail
- GOVT page →
-
81
composite / 100
iShares' 20+ year Treasury fund. 15 bps — five times VGLT's cost for similar exposure. The first-mover and the most-cited long-Treasury name in financial media; VGLT is the cheaper substitute for a new position.
- Expense
- 0.15%
- AUM
- $42.91B
- Issuer
- iShares
- Detail
- TLT page →
Also in the category
Other funds scoring in this category. Same data, no editorial commentary yet.
Which duration to hold
Duration matching the rest of the portfolio's "spending horizon" is the textbook answer; in practice most diversifier-seeking investors land on intermediate (VGIT / GOVT). Short Treasuries make sense as cash management. Long Treasuries are a specialist tool — they're the equity-tail-risk hedge that drove the All-Weather and Permanent portfolios but they impose meaningful drawdown risk in their own right (see TLT's 2022 drawdown of ~30%).
Treasury interest is state-tax exempt
US Treasury interest is exempt from state and local income tax, which makes Treasury funds modestly more tax-efficient than corporate bond funds at the state level. The methodology table reflects this at a 35 base for Treasuries vs. 25 for aggregate bonds. The effect is meaningful in high-tax-state portfolios (CA, NY, NJ) and immaterial in no-tax states (TX, FL, WA).
Guide. Picks come from the live PlainIndex composite for this category; editorial commentary on each pick is hand-written. Re-pulled with every catalog refresh.
PlainIndex publishes data and editorial commentary — nothing here is personalized investment advice. Read the methodology for how the scores referenced here are computed.