VTIP offers representative exposure to the short-term TIPS market. The fund tracks our benchmark index, which means it provides broad, unbiased exposure to the short-term TIPS market. True to its mandate, 100% of VTIP's assets are allocated to TIPS with less than 5 years to maturity. The fund has almost identical portfolio statistics as our benchmark. Based on its portfolio maturity distributions, VTIP does exactly what it says on the tin. Like all Treasury debts, TIPS are issued by and backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. On top of that, the fund is short-term in nature, so it bears minimal interest rate risk.