Nuveen ESG U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

Nuveen ESG U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (NUBD) tracks the Bloomberg MSCI U.S. Aggregate ESG Select Index. That index is the broad U.S. investment-grade bond market, filtered by environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings. It keeps the sector mix of the standard Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index but drops weakly rated issuers and companies tied to tobacco, weapons, gambling and similar businesses. Its 0.15% expense ratio is well above the 0.03% charged by AGG and SCHZ.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, NUBD returned -1.3%, 7th of 8 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was -0.3%.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2022 (-12.9%); its best was 2025 (+6.8%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 19.5% (Aug 4, 2020 to Oct 20, 2022), not yet recovered.

As of Jul 31, 2026, the fund held 2,411 securities; the ten largest made up 10.21% of assets.

The bonds mature in 12.3 years on average (weighted by size), with an average coupon of 3.98%.

• Over the three months to Jul 31, 2026, investors added a net $22.0M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +0.27%, +0.22%, -1.26%.

The starting point is the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. It holds U.S. dollar, investment-grade (lower default risk), taxable, fixed-rate bonds: Treasuries, agency debt, corporate bonds, and mortgage- and asset-backed securities. MSCI ESG Research scores each company against its industry peers on things like climate impact, worker relations and business ethics. Companies with significant alcohol, tobacco, nuclear power, gambling or weapons activities are excluded, and so are heavy carbon emitters. The U.S. government gets its own rating based on six risk factors. Mortgage- and asset-backed bonds go in without any ESG screen.

Bonds that pass are weighted by market value within each sector. Sector weights are then set to match the broad Aggregate index, so the overall mix looks like the standard benchmark. The index is rebalanced monthly and held 10,748 securities as of October 31, 2025. The fund doesn't buy every bond. It holds a representative sample, which came to 2,411 holdings as of July 31, 2026.

As of that date, U.S. Treasuries made up 44% of the fund, corporate bonds 27% and government-sponsored enterprise debt, mostly mortgage pools, 24%. The largest single holding was a Treasury note at 1.7%. The average maturity was 12.3 years, so the fund's price is meaningfully sensitive to interest rates. It held no derivatives.

• NUBD charges 0.15% a year, versus an average of 0.08% for the similar funds below (7th of 8, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $15 in the first year and $192 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

It tracks a screened version of the broad U.S. investment-grade bond market, the kind of fund often used as a portfolio's main bond position.

NUBD can serve as the bond core of a portfolio. Its one-year beta was 0.11 as of October 27, 2026, meaning it barely moved with stocks (beta measures how closely a fund follows the stock market). It pays monthly, and its trailing 12-month yield was 4.14% as of that date. In the SEC's standard example, its 0.15% fee costs $192 over 10 years on $10,000.

Rising rates are the weak spot. The fund lost 13.18% in 2022, its worst calendar year, and needed about 36 months to regain its early-2022 level. Its deepest drop, 19.5% from August 2020 to October 2022, was still not recovered as of October 27, 2026. It launched in 2017, so it has no 2008 record. Someone selling in a year like 2022 would have locked in losses. Past results don't predict future returns, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by bond funds with the closest average maturity and issuer mix (N-PORT).