Building a Bond Ladder Through Fixed Income Trading: The 2027 Strategy

When constructing a durable income plan, fixed income trading plays a crucial role in timing cash flows and managing longevity risk. A recent investment move by BCS Wealth Management illustrates this principle in action. In January, the firm acquired over 418,000 shares of the Invesco BulletShares 2027 Corporate Bond ETF (NASDAQ: BSCR), deploying approximately $8.26 million in what represents a deliberate, sequence-based approach to bond portfolio construction.

How a Major Fund Executed Its Bond Trade

On January 23, BCS Wealth Management disclosed the acquisition through an SEC filing, building out its fixed income allocation with a targeted purchase. The trade reflected careful timing around corporate bond positioning ahead of the 2027 maturity window.

After the transaction closed, the firm’s total BSCR holding expanded to 800,215 shares, valued at roughly $15.80 million. While this represents only 1.6% of the fund’s reportable assets under management, the smaller position size speaks to a disciplined approach—avoiding concentration risk while maintaining meaningful exposure.

The fund’s largest holdings remain equity-focused, dominated by broad-market ETFs like VOO ($95.2 million, 9.6% of AUM) and SCHX ($36.2 million, 3.7% of AUM). Yet the bond sleeve, though smaller, serves a specific purpose that equities cannot replicate.

Understanding Why Bond Maturity Sequencing Matters

BSCR, priced at $19.70 as of late January with an annualized yield of 4.3%, targets U.S. corporate debt maturing precisely in 2027. The fund holds roughly 500 investment-grade bonds with an effective duration of approximately 1.25 years—short enough to preserve principal, long enough to capture meaningful income.

The real insight lies in the structure itself. Rather than buying all bonds in a single maturity year, BCS Wealth Management has built holdings that stagger across 2026, 2027, 2028, and extending through 2034. This maturity ladder approach accomplishes three goals simultaneously:

• Predictable liquidity: Principal and interest arrive on a known schedule, reducing the need to sell bonds at unfavorable prices.
• Rate flexibility: By spreading maturities across years, the firm avoids locking capital into a single interest rate environment.
• Redeployment optionality: As bonds mature, capital becomes available to be reinvested based on changing conditions rather than a preset schedule.

Why Structured Fixed Income Holdings Offer Planning Flexibility

This transaction does not exist in isolation. It sits within a carefully sequenced multi-year framework that resembles a well-constructed bond ladder. Each rung—2026, 2027, 2028, and beyond—provides a defined point when cash returns to the portfolio manager’s hands.

The 2027 position strengthens that ladder with 500 high-quality corporate bonds, a 0.10% expense ratio, and a fund designed to terminate in late 2027 when holdings mature and principal returns. This design eliminates the uncertainty of perpetual bond funds; investors know exactly when their capital will be returned.

For a multi-asset portfolio still dominated by equities, the bond ladder plays a different role than stocks. Equities provide growth and total return potential; fixed income trading via structured ETFs like BSCR provides income certainty and a defined payoff date. The combination creates a portfolio that neither relies on a single market regime nor depends on continuous active decisions.

The Broader Lesson for Investors

The appeal of this approach transcends any single fund or purchase. A well-constructed bond ladder creates what investors call “sequencing flexibility”—the ability to let bonds mature on schedule, collect the proceeds, and then decide where to redeploy capital based on prevailing conditions.

Rather than chasing higher yields through riskier securities, this strategy emphasizes timing and optionality. For those planning a long-term income stream over 8-10 years, staggering maturity dates removes the pressure to reinvest all proceeds at once and creates natural checkpoints for strategy reassessment.

BCS Wealth Management’s January purchase reflects this philosophy: not a tactical bet on rates or credit spreads, but a deliberate step in building a multi-year sequence of defined cash flows. The 2027 maturity window provides one key rung in that ladder, aligning future income needs with a structure designed to deliver.