Masters in Business · Thursday, July 2, 2026
Stephen Lately discusses the evolution of bond laddering, noting that individual bonds can lead to concentration issues for smaller investors. He highlights iShares' iBonds, launched in 2010, as a solution that holds hundreds of bonds within a single year's maturity, offering significant diversification.
“Another approach would be something that we pioneer back in twenty ten, which is what we call an I bond, which is meant to be sort of like an individual bond exposure that mature is in a given year, butt it can hold hundreds of bonds within that year.”
“You're diversified tremendously relative to just trying to pick individual bonds for a certain year. So let's say you buy a five year corporate eebond. All those bonds will mature in year five, but you may have like upwards of three hundred bonds, and so that gives you comfort in terms of the credit risk.”