The Battle of Bond ETFs: How JPST Stacks Up Against BIL

Once the largest actively managed exchange-traded fund in the U.S., the JPMorgan Ultra-Short Income ETF (JPST) lost its crown in 2023 to another exchange-traded fund from JPMorgan: the JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI).

But two years after losing the top spot on the active AUM leaderboard, JPST remains a highly popular fund, and one that could conceivably reclaim its No. 1 position eventually.

This year, investors have put nearly $2 billion into the fund, making it the 10th most popular ETF of the year by inflows.

JPST is an ultra-short-term bond ETF that invests in “a diversified portfolio of short-term, investment grade fixed- and floating-rate corporate and structured debt.”

The managers of the ETF target a portfolio duration of less than one year, which means that it isn’t a very interest-rate-sensitive fund. In the nearly eight years since it’s been on the market, JPST’s largest peak-to-trough decline was 3.3% in 2020.

JPST leverages active management with the aim of safely capturing yields above what investors can get in ETFs and money market funds that exclusively hold Treasury bills.

JPST versus BIL 

It’s a strategy that’s paid off. Since the fund’s inception in 2017, it’s delivered a total return of 23.2% versus a return of 17.6% for the SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL) in the same period. 

JPST currently has a 30-day SEC yield of 4.54% versus 4.17% for BIL.

JPST is slightly more expensive than BIL, with an annual expense ratio of 0.18% versus 0.14%, according to etf.com’s ETF Comparison tool. 


BIL is currently the largest ETF among ultra-short-term bond ETFs, with assets under management of $37.3 billion. That’s followed by the iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV), which has $33.6 billion in AUM, and then JPST, with $30.1 billion.

Among active ETFs, JPST is also the third-largest fund, behind the $39 billion JEPI and the $33.7 billion Dimensional US Core Equity 2 ETF (DFAC).

But JPST is outpacing both of those ETFs in terms of inflows this year. Since the start of the year, JEPI has picked up $1 billion in inflows, while DFAC has registered inflows of just under $300 million.