Fidelity Investments launched the Fidelity Municipal Income 2025 Fund – an addition to Fidelity's Defined Maturity Funds (DMF) lineup that seeks to bridge the gap between individual bonds and bond funds.
"With aging demographics, the need for income-specific investment solutions among U.S. investors will only continue to grow," said Nancy Prior, president of Fidelity's Fixed Income division, in a statement. "Extending the lineup will maintain a range of target maturities for investors managing varying income needs."
The Fidelity DMFs provide an investment option to investors interested in tax-exempt income over defined periods of time.
As the Fidelity Municipal Income 2017 Fund nears its maturity date, Fidelity Municipal Income 2025 Fund will be added to the existing series of DMFs with current maturity years of 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023.
Fidelity Municipal Income 2025 seeks as high a level of current income, exempt from federal income tax, as is consistent with the preservation of capital by normally investing at least 80% of assets in investment-grade municipal securities whose interest is exempt from federal income tax.
Fidelity will actively manage the fund to take advantage of opportunities to add value through professional management, credit analysis, diversification and risk management. The duration, however, will be tightly constrained to the stated target maturity date. Similar to Fidelity's other DMF funds in the lineup, Fidelity Municipal Income 2025 will be managed by Fidelity's municipal bond team.
"The DMF funds may be appropriate for income-seeking investors who are interested in combining the defined-maturity feature of individual bonds with the many features of bond funds, including diversification and professional management, thus removing much of the legwork of individual bond investing," Prior said in a statement.
The new fund is available directly to investors, as well as through advisors at banks, insurance companies and broker-dealers via Fidelity Advisor Funds classes A and Institutional. The retail class is sold without a load and has a total expense ratio of 0.40%.
The Advisor share classes have a total expense ratio of 0.65% for Class A and 0.40% for the Institutional Class. The minimum investment will be $10,000 for retail and Advisor share classes.
Gurtin Launches Sustainable Municipal Investment Strategy
Gurtin Municipal Bond Management launched a Municipal Social Advancement strategy – adding to Gurtin's existing suite of sustainable municipal bond strategies. This strategy enables customization of separately managed municipal bond portfolios that align investors' values with their investments.
The Municipal Social Advancement strategy is designed as a solution for investors who wish to pursue competitive financial returns while supporting positive social and environmental outcomes. These separately managed portfolios can be tailored to focus municipal investments in one, or a combination of all three, of the following areas: education, environment and U.S. infrastructure.
Additionally, investors can choose to have their Municipal Social Advancement portfolios structured as California-specific or national, with a short-, limited-, or intermediate-term duration.
