The combination of an Average People Pillar rating and a Below Average Process Pillar rating limit  ALPS Intermediate Municipal Bond ETF to a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral.  The strategy charges fees in line with its similarly distributed peers, priced within the middle quintile.  

 The strategy gets a Below Average Process Pillar rating. The strategy's industry-standard management team still needs to prove it has a competitive advantage and earns an Average People Pillar rating. Even though the strategy's parent organization has some investor-friendly attributes like significant personal investments from managers, a cohort of unseasoned portfolio managers holds it back. As a result, the firm obtains a Low Parent Pillar.

Analyst Rating

Morningstar's evaluation of this fund's process aims to determine how repeatable, consistent, and reliable it is, and whether management maintains a competitive advantage. ALPS Intermediate Municipal Bond ETF earns a Below Average Process Pillar rating.    The process benefits from the experience of the management team, which averages 24 years at this fund. However, the rating is held back by the parent firm's five-year retention rate of 62%, which suggests it could do more to retain its portfolio managers. The parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 43% also holds the process back. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and outperformed their respective category's median Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return for the period. The parent's subpar success ratio suggests that the firm could do better across its fund lineup.

 The investment strategy as stated in the fund's prospectus is as follows: 


The investment seeks to protect investor’s capital and generate attractive risk-adjusted returns.  Under normal circumstances, the fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, and in municipal bonds that pay interest that is generally excludable from gross income for federal income tax purposes (except that the interest paid by certain municipal securities may be includable in taxable income for purposes of the federal alternative minimum tax).

 This strategy has a 3.5% 12-month yield, higher than its average peer's 2.8%. Plus, its 30-day SEC yield (a measure similar to yield-to-maturity) sits at 3.3%. Higher yields tend to indicate higher credit risk.

Below Average

Process

ALPS Intermediate Municipal Bond ETF earns an Average People Pillar rating. The main contributor to the rating is the stability of the management team. Specifically, the fund has not seen a manager change in the last two years. The parent firm's five-year success ratio of 42% also influences the rating. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and outperformed their respective category's median return for the period. Their compelling success ratio suggests that the firm does well for investors and that this fund may benefit from that. Lastly, the rating is limited by the parent firm's five-year retention rate of 62%, which suggests it could do more to keep its portfolio managers.

Average

People

ALPS has a ways to go to become an industry-standard steward, resulting in a Low Parent Pillar rating. Despite the negative rating, an area of strength of the firm is manager investment.  Over 34% of the firm's assets are covered by invested managers, in an effort to align portfolio manager and shareholder interests. With an average asset-weighted tenure of eight years among the longest-tenured managers at ALPS, the firm is on par with peers. Seasoned teams tend to have more experience to draw upon should they need to weather turbulent market conditions. The firm charges fees on its open-end and exchange-traded funds that are on par with category peers. On average, fund fees on its products fall in the middle quintile, giving it neither an advantage nor disadvantage compared with the competition.

Parent

Alps Intermediate Municipal Bond ETF

MNBD is actively managed to provide exposure to investment-grade, intermediate-term municipal bonds that are exempt from federal income tax.

The start to 2024 by municipal bonds hasn't been anything to boast about. Neither has it been alarmingly bad.

Active Could Be Ideal for Muni Bond Exposure in 2024

The number of wealthy individuals is on the rise, increasing the need for fixed income options that will minimize their tax burden. One of those ways includes municipal bonds.

Increase in Wealthy Population Should Boost This ETF

Getting maximum quality and yield in certain market environments may seem like balancing on a tightrope at times. However, municipal bonds these days are offering fixed income investors a healthy mix of both.

Get Quality and Yield With This Muni Bond ETF

It's often said that fixed income is one of the asset classes most conducive to active management. Within that space, municipal bonds stand out as a segment ripe for success with active management.

Access Active Management and Municipal Bonds With This ETF

2024 is shaping up to be a year of record issuance for the bond market in both the private and public sectors. In the case of the latter, record municipal bonds issuance is opening up opportunities for investors to get exposure ETFs that tailor their focus to munis.

Get Active Exposure to Municipal Bonds Amid Higher Issuance

As more investors are heading back to bonds, an ideal choice to get an added dose of yield as well as credit quality is municipal bonds. More specifically, exchange traded funds (ETFs) that offer muni exposure can provide efficient access.

Get Extra Yield and Credit Quality With This Municipal Bond ETF

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It has been suggested that active management has a greater ability to outperform in bear markets.  All three major indexes were solidly in bear market territory by the end of September, meaning that each has fallen more than 20% from posted highs.

These 3 Active ETFs Outperformed the S&P 500 in September

The ALPS Intermediate Municipal Bond ETF (MNBD) has been off to a strong start since its launch less than three weeks ago.  The new fund has taken in over $13 million in net inflows since its inception, reaching $30 million in assets under management as of June 6, according to VettaFi.

What's Driving Investors to MNBD?

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News for Alps Intermediate Municipal Bond ETF ETF (MNBD)