Vanguard Global Bond Funds (or others)

Pat38493

I would like to increase my bond holdings in the run up to retirement as I will definitely need more bonds to get to my target allocations.

Therefore I want to divert my employer pension contributions going forward into a bonds fund.

I am looking to get a global bond diversified bond fund - I did some research on pick a fund and morningstar and it looks like the Vanguard funds are fine for me.  The other funds that seem to outperform it as global bond funds seem to be actually not the same as they are focussed on corporate and/or government bonds.

My main question is around the Vanguard Global Bonds Index  IE00B50W2R13 versus the Vanguard bonds aggregate ETF   IE00BG47K971

These funds appear to be the same purpose but according to pick a fund site, the ETF recorded a 1 year gain of 5% versus only 2.4% on the other one.  However morningstar reports different.  Is Pick a fund simply wrong there as the portfolio looks like it's almost the same?

The only other fund that seemed worth considering was  IE00BJQS1C92 Mercer short duration global bonds fund, but this one looks like it's actually heavily in cash right now in spite of being called a bonds fund.

Anything else worth considering for a single option bond component to a cash flow ladder?

gm0

Trickier than you would hope.  This one.

ISIN: IE00B4WXJK79 is an option. Unhedged. But UK Gilts only not global. So FX less important directly.  As GBP.  And short durations 0-5.
Cheap 0.07%. 
ETF so at Fidelity would sit inside the £90 platform fee cap.

Overall I use these screening factors

I don't regard corporates and US less than prime corporates in particular.  As "safe assets".  Even the B stuff.  Not talking about actual junk.   I view them as a speculative asset class like equities.  So anything with lower credit quality and too many corporates in to juice apparent short term vs find rivals isn't what I want.  Vanilla gilts. Diversified and hedged (global).  Or UK gilts. GBP.  Shortish durations.

For an actual ladder spitting cashflow then consider buying actual bonds or linkers that spit a defined, known at entry cashflow and ignore interest rates and capital/yield on funds.

For a minimal risk asset class alongside equities in a mix - for diversification vs 100% equities
Reduced volatilty via correlation - some of the time.  Then I want global and government bonds.  To be the vast majority at least.  And the mandate to not allow it to just flip to EM B corps at whim. 
But for global I want hedged.  And given the lower returns of the asset class.  I want cheap
And then on one of the platforms I use.

So I might well choose the gilts fund above - on Fidelity.  If I didn't want unhedged global.  Like several of the other USD ETF offers there which are more global but unhedged.  Depends how much currency FX exposure you want in your life.  I feel I have plenty on unhedged equities.