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Muni Bonds Aren ’ t Just For Rich Folks
The Baird Strategic Municipal Bond Fund has outperformed during its five-year run . By Jeff Schlegel
Baird Strategic Municipal Bond Fund
TICKER ASSETS
BSNIX $ 1.4 billion
PERFORMANCE |
YTD |
1 yr . |
3 yr . |
|
3.75 % |
9.93 % |
1.79 % |
TOP 5 HOLDINGS Cass County North Dakota Joint Water Resource District Refunding Improvement Bonds — Series A ; Wallkill New York Bond Anticipation Notes ; Fort Bend Texas Independent School District Variable Rate Unlimited Tax School Building and Refunding Bonds — Series B ; Rosemont Illinois — Series A ; New Jersey Turnpike Authority Turnpike Revenue Bonds — Series A
CONTACT INFO
866-442-2473 • bairdassetmanagement . com
BOND CREDIT QUALITY PROFILE ( As a % of portfolio ) AAA 12.5 % AA 45.9 % A 22.5 %
SECTOR PROFILE ( As a % of portfolio ) Pre-Refunded ETM / U . S . Treasury 5.9 % General Obligation 16.8 % Revenue 75.1 % Cash 2.3 %
BBB 12.5 % Below BBB 1.7 % Not Rated 4.8 %
Performance and AUM as of 9 / 30 / 24 . Top five holdings as of 8 / 31 / 24 . Portfolio stats as of 6 / 30 / 24 . Performance and expense ratio figures are for the institutional class shares . Sources : Baird Asset Management and Morningstar .
BELIEVE IT OR NOT , MUNICIPAL BONDS CAN BE SEXY and exciting . OK , that might be an overstatement . But it ’ s probably not an overstatement to say that many investors view them as dull , straightforward investment vehicles offering low-yielding — if taxadvantaged — interest income that benefits the affluent more than the mass affluent . In reality , while muni bonds are neither sexy nor snoozy , they occupy a lively space within the capital markets and can offer advantages to investors , even if they ’ re not in the highest tax brackets .
“ Many people think of bonds , and especially muni bonds , as a sleepy and simple asset class ,” says Duane McAllister , who says he ’ s contended with misperceptions about these bonds throughout his long career as a fixed-income investment manager . “ But it ’ s a complex , broadly diversified market with different types of issuers coming to market at different times with different structures .”
The muni bond world is inefficient , he says . That gives active managers the opportunity to generate above-average total returns . And those inefficiencies have guided him and fellow senior portfolio manager Lyle Fitterer in making the Baird Strategic Municipal Bond Fund one of the top performers in its category since it launched in November 2019 .
The fund might be young , but McAllister and Fitterer both have more than 35 years of experience managing fixed-income portfolios , with a primary focus on the municipal market . The fund took shape soon after Fitterer joined Baird after a quarter century at Wells Fargo Asset Management ( now known as Allspring Global Investments ). The two managers run the Strategic Municipal Bond Fund along with six other team members .
Fund research company Lipper earlier this year named the Baird fund as the top short-intermediate municipal debt fund over the past three years . Morningstar listed it as the top performer in its muni national intermediate category in that period . In addition , the fund has earned a top-quartile ranking in that Morningstar category in four of its five years on the market ( including year to date as of early October ).
42 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2024 WWW . FA-MAG . COM