The FlexShares Credit-Scored U.S. Long Corporate Bond Index Fund (LKOR) follows a proprietary index of investment-grade debt with maturities of 10 years or longer, but with a twist characteristic of Northern Trust’s FlexShares lineup. The index scores bonds by evaluating the issuers’ value and quality by looking at measures like solvency, profitability, and management efficiency. The index weights the portfolio towards those with the highest scores while those with the worst performance are excluded. Then, to preserve diversification, the methodology limits the weight of individual bonds, issuers, sectors, duration and turnover.
The FlexShares Credit-Scored U.S. Long Corporate Bond Index Fund (LKOR) follows a proprietary index of investment-grade debt with maturities of 10 years or longer, but with a twist characteristic of Northern Trust’s FlexShares lineup. The index scores bonds by evaluating the issuers’ value and quality by looking at measures like solvency, profitability, and management efficiency. The index weights the portfolio towards those with the highest scores while those with the worst performance are excluded. Then, to preserve diversification, the methodology limits the weight of individual bonds, issuers, sectors, duration and turnover.
Like many FlexShares funds, investors pay a premium for Northern Trust’s fancy factors. Is it worth it? We compared performance to a few long-term corporate bond ETFs that charge a fraction of LKOR’s management fee, such as the Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Bond ETF (VCLT) or the iShares Long-Term Corporate Bond ETF (IGLB). LKOR beat them both. It also outperformed the iShares Edge Investment Grade Enhanced Bond ETF (IGEB), which also tries to mitigate risk by focussing on quality on value. As they say, past performance is no guarantee of future results, but LKOR is definitely worth considering.