SSgA Adds Bond Funds

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) recently launched five fixed-income ETFs based upon one Barclays and four Lehman bond indices; investors may cheer the offerings’ lower-than-average expense ratios of 0.13 percent to 0.18 percent.

“Our new family of fixed-income SPDRs is designed to help investors create and manage well-diversified, cost-effective portfolios,” says Anthony Rochte, a senior managing director at SSgA. “Spanning the spectrum of short, intermediate and long-term maturities and providing new access to T-Bills and the 10-year-plus segment of the market, the fixed-income SPDRs are a compelling addition to our ETF offering.”

Here’s a quick summary of each new fund:SPDR Lehman 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (AMEX: BIL)The Lehman Brothers 1-3 Month U.S. Treasury Bill Index includes all publicly issued zero-coupon U.S. Treasury Bills that have a remaining maturity of less than three months and more than one month, are rated investment grade and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value.

SPDR Barclays TIPS ETF (AMEX: IPE)The Barclays U.S. Government Inflation-Linked Index includes publicly issued U.S. Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) that have at least one year remaining to maturity on index rebalancing date and an issue size of at least $500 million.

SPDR Lehman Aggregate Bond ETF (AMEX: LAG)The Lehman Brothers U.S. Aggregate Index provides a measure of the performance of the U.S. dollar-denominated investment-grade bond market.