If your goal is to seek an overall tax advantage: Consider an investment -
grade municipal bond fund with income that is usually exempt from federal income tax.4
Data as of June 26, 2015: The investment
grade municipal bond market has managed to hold steady with a modest negative return of -0.37 % through June 26th 2015.
You'll also have to find a high -
grade municipal bond that fits your time horizon with a yield high enough to beat the other short - term investment options.
The development of a high
grade municipal bond portfolio is an attractive strategy for many of our clients.
If your goal is to seek an overall tax advantage: Consider an investment -
grade municipal bond fund with income that is usually exempt from federal income tax.4
A DMF invests primarily in investment -
grade municipal bonds whose maturities are roughly the same as the end date of the fund itself.
Blackrock Muni Yield Investment Quality (MFT) is a closed end fund that seeks current income exempt from regular Federal income tax through investment in insured investment
grade municipal bonds.
Blackrock Muni Holdings Quality (MUS) is a closed end fund that seeks current income exempt from regular Federal income tax through investment in investment
grade municipal bonds.
I would highly urge investors to ensure a portion of their portfolio is in a historically reliable store of value — investment -
grade municipal bonds, for instance, and gold bullion and gold mining stocks.
The next day, George put 50 percent of the money into an S&P 500 fund, while Karen placed the other half into short - term, investment
grade municipal bonds.
The Bloomberg Barclay's High Yield Municipal Bond Index tracks consists of below - investment
grade municipal bonds.
Investment
grade municipal bonds tracked in the S&P National AMT - Free Municipal Bond Index have seen a negative total return of 4.97 % in June so far, the worst month since September 2008 when the index was down 5.13 %.
Without going into too much detail of statistics and standard deviation, I can tell you that there is a lot of research evidencing less than a 0.5 % default rate for investment
grade municipal bonds for the last few decades.
Investment
grade municipal bonds tracked in the S&P National AMT - Free Municipal Bond Index have seen a negative total return of 4.97 % in June so far, the worst month since September 2008 when the index was down 5.13 %.
Investment
grade municipal bonds tracked in the S&P National AMT - Free Municipal Bond Index have seen a 3.95 % return.
The yield spread between high yield and investment
grade municipal bonds is now at 265bps or 2.65 % (on March 15, 2012 the spread was 351bps).
Investment
grade municipal bonds also historically have had negative correlations to the equities markets.
Indeed, in some portfolios, e.g., high -
grade municipal bonds held by individuals, almost no attention is paid to market prices.
Investment
grade municipal bonds as measured by the S&P National AMT - Free Municipal Bond Index were down on the week having returned -0.37 %, though on the year are returning 5.52 %.
Investment
grade municipal bonds tracked in the S&P National AMT - Free Municipal Bond Index returned 8.92 %.
A quick look at the quality of investment
grade municipal bonds compared to the corporate bond market can be seen in the graph below.
Investment
grade municipal bonds tracked in the S&P National AMT - Free Municipal Bond Index have seen a negative 3.21 % return year to date.
Income, Yield and Duration: Investment
grade municipal bonds on average have a higher coupon cash flow to bondholders than corporate bonds and that cash flow is exempt from federal taxation.
With respect to principal, investment -
grade municipal bonds tend to be stable.
Yields of investment
grade municipal bonds have now fallen to levels that in relative terms make them «rich» to corporate bonds.
Tax - exempt investment
grade municipal bonds tracked in the S&P National AMT - Free Municipal Bond Index up 1.24 % year - to - date and high yield municipal bonds Read more -LSB-...]
They may be able to build a portfolio around certain investment -
grade municipal bonds an investor currently owns, provided they meet the selection criteria and overall portfolio investment guidelines.
Returns for non-callable investment
grade municipal bonds tracked in the 5, 7 and 9 year range all have demonstrated good returns in this low rate environment.
Using a tax rate of 35 %, the Taxable Equivalent Yield of these investment
grade municipal bonds has moved to 4.38 %.
Not exact matches
Some are tax - free or taxable
municipal bonds, and others are investment -
grade corporate
bonds and government
bonds.
The trio of ETFs, when they launch, will round out Franklin's
bond ETF lineup, which already includes a variety of actively managed fixed - income funds covering short - duration U.S. government debt,
municipal bonds and the investment -
grade corporate debt.
Within fixed income, we suggest raising average credit quality, particularly focusing on investments in areas like high -
grade corporate and
municipal bonds.
Being diversified means you have a wide variety of investment
grade bonds — corporate,
municipals, Treasuries and possibly foreign issues.
The major
bond market segment that most investors concentrate on is the high - quality sector: U.S. government
bonds, high -
grade corporate
bonds and high -
grade municipals.
According to Bloomberg data on the S&P AMT - Free National
Municipal Bond Index, munis returned 3.3 percent in 2015, beating taxable investment
grade bonds.
Municipal bonds have an outlook much like the low -
grade bonds but the lack of a need for tax protection counts them out of this portfolio anyway.
Investment -
grade fixed - income and
municipal bonds are doing what they should in this environment — protecting your capital and anchoring your portfolio in stability.
While the majority of
municipal bonds are investment
grade, there are high yield
municipal bonds and
bond funds that invest in them as well.
A
bond ladder involves buying a series of individual securities (typically treasury
bonds,
municipal bonds, investment
grade corporate
bonds or even CD's) across a variety of maturity dates.
Commentary: Most investment
grade short term
municipal bond funds currently yield less than 1 %.
Although the deal was priced off the
municipal bond desk in the Public Finance division, sales teams in corporate investment
grade, wealth management capital markets and the firm's Investing with Impact Financial Advisor group were all used to build the order book.
Schroders Short Term
Municipal Bond investment strategy seeks to maximize after - tax yield and income by investing across the spectrum of investment grade munici
Municipal Bond investment strategy seeks to maximize after - tax yield and income by investing across the spectrum of investment
grade municipalmunicipal debt.
By comparison the investment
grade tax - free muni market tracked in the S&P National AMT - Free
Municipal Bond Index is up 2.98 %.
The Bloomberg Barclays
Municipal Bond 10 - Year Index is an unmanaged index that is considered representative of the broad market for investment
grade, tax - exempt
bonds with a maturity of at least 10 years.
As we near the end of the first quarter, investment
grade tax - exempt
bonds tracked in the S&P National AMT - Free
Municipal Bond Index have returned 0.93 % year - to - date underperforming relative to the over 2 % return of the investment grade corporate bond market tracked in the S&P U.S. Investment Grade Corporate Bond In
Bond Index have returned 0.93 % year - to - date underperforming relative to the over 2 % return of the investment
grade corporate
bond market tracked in the S&P U.S. Investment Grade Corporate Bond In
bond market tracked in the S&P U.S. Investment
Grade Corporate
Bond In
Bond Index.
Two of the largest risks are that the average credit quality of
bonds in this sector is well below investment
grade and the heavy issuance of zero coupon
bonds creates a sector that has one of the longest durations in the
municipal bond market.
Although the advisor intends to invest at least 65 % of the fund's net assets in
municipal bonds rated investment
grade or in unrated
municipal bonds that fund management believes are of comparable quality, it is possible that in the future the fund could invest up to 100 % of its assets in «junk
bonds.»
The 19,000 tax - exempt
municipal bonds tracked in the S&P Municipal Bond Infrastructure Index mainly consist of investment grade bonds Read more
municipal bonds tracked in the S&P
Municipal Bond Infrastructure Index mainly consist of investment grade bonds Read more
Municipal Bond Infrastructure Index mainly consist of investment
grade bonds Read more -LSB-...]
Accordingly, we are migrating some of our duration exposures to the shorter part of the curve and layering in partially (or fully) rate - hedged investment -
grade and
municipal bonds out the curve to capture higher - quality spread.
Franklin Liberty Intermediate
Municipal Opportunities ETF (FLMI) will have a bent toward intermediate - and higher - yielding opportunities versus the Franklin Liberty
Municipal Bond ETF (FMLB), which will be investing more in high -
grade bonds with slightly longer maturities.