SPDR Portfolio Long Term Corporate Bond ETF

SPDR Portfolio Long Term Corporate Bond ETF (SPLB) is a State Street index fund. It tracks the Bloomberg U.S. Long Term Corporate Bond Index: investment-grade, US-dollar company bonds that mature in 10 years or more. Its 0.04% expense ratio is well below the 0.10% average for similar funds, and its trailing yield was 5.69%, paid monthly, as of October 27, 2026. The trade-off is that its price reacts strongly to interest rates. It lost 25.87% in 2022.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, SPLB returned -5.6%, 7th of 8 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was -3.4%.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2022 (-25.7%); its best was 2023 (+11.1%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 34.5% (Sep 22, 2021 to Oct 24, 2022), not yet recovered.

As of Jun 30, 2026, the fund held 2,948 securities; the ten largest made up 2.87% of assets, and 2.35% sat in cash and money-market holdings.

The bonds mature in 22.8 years on average (weighted by size), with an average coupon of 4.95%.

• Over the three months to Jun 30, 2026, investors withdrew a net $140.4M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +0.39%, +1.62%, +0.27%.

SPLB aims to match the price and yield performance of the Bloomberg U.S. Long Term Corporate Bond Index, before fees. Bloomberg, which has no ties to the fund, decides which bonds are in the index and how much weight each one gets. To qualify, a bond must be investment grade (rated as lower default risk), fixed-rate, taxable, priced in US dollars and at least 10 years from maturity, with $300 million or more outstanding. Issuers can be US or non-US industrial, utility and financial companies. Floating-rate notes, private placements and Eurobonds are left out.

The adviser, SSGA Funds Management, uses sampling. That means the fund can hold a representative subset of the index rather than every bond, as long as the overall risk and return stay close to the index. The index had 3,133 bonds as of July 31, 2026. As of June 30, 2026, the fund held 2,948, and its 10 largest positions made up just 2.87% of assets. It held 2.35% in cash and no derivatives. At least 80% of assets must be in index securities.

The index rebalances monthly, on the last business day of the month. Portfolio turnover was 26%. As of June 30, 2026, the average bond had 22.8 years left to maturity, so the fund's price swings far more with interest rates than a short-term bond fund's. Companies can also call (repay early) some bonds when rates fall, which would push the fund to reinvest at lower yields.

• SPLB charges 0.04% a year, versus an average of 0.1% for the similar funds below (3rd of 8, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $4 in the first year and $51 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

It pays monthly interest from a broad basket of investment-grade company bonds at a very low cost, but its long maturities make it too volatile to serve as a steady anchor.

SPLB's main draw is income: a 5.69% trailing 12-month yield as of October 27, 2026, paid monthly. In the SEC's standard example, costs come to $4 a year on $10,000. The catch is that its long maturities make the price move sharply with interest rates. The fund launched in March 2009, after the low point of the 2008 crisis, and it returned 13.59% in calendar 2020. In 2022 it lost 25.87%. Its deepest drop, 34.5% from September 2021 to October 2022, had still not been fully made up as of October 27, 2026. A retiree who had to draw on it in a year like 2022 would have locked in large losses. Shorter-term bonds or cash elsewhere in the plan can soften that risk. Past results don't predict the future, 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).