JPMorgan National Municipal Income A JITAX

Fees are a weakness here. The strategy's lofty fees are a high hurdle to clear, as it is priced within the second-highest quintile among peers.

The strategy's investment process inspires confidence and earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained an underweight position in BBB rated bonds and an overweight in debt with 10- to 15-year maturities compared with category peers. The strategy's entire management team changed less than a year ago. The strategy's new leadership earns an Above Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm an Above Average Parent Pillar rating, and this rating is inherited from vehicles belonging to the same branding entity and is indirectly assigned by an analyst.

JPMorgan National Municipal Income Fund earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating.

The main driver of the rating is the parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 57%. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and beat their respective category's median Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return for the period. The parent firm's impressive risk-adjusted performance, as shown by its average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 3.3 stars, also influences the rating. Lastly, the process is limited by the number of months that the management team has been running this vehicle together.

Compared with other funds in the Muni National Interm Morningstar Category, this fund, historically, hews closely to peers' credit and interest-rate sensitivity over the past few years. Opening the analysis to additional factors, the portfolio has displayed biases over time, whether towards or away from certain fixed-income instruments. Compared with the category average, the managers have been underweight BBB rated bonds in recent years. In the latest month, the strategy has also relatively underweighted BBB rated bonds compared with Morningstar Category peers. Additionally, there's been a bias towards debt with 10- to 15-year maturities over the past few years. Compared with category peers, the strategy had more exposure to debt with 10- to 15-year maturities in the most recent month. Finally, during the past few years, the fund leaned away from corporate bonds. Nevertheless, the fund's corporate debt exposure was in line with peers in the latest month.

This strategy's 12-month yield is 3.1%, higher than its average peer's 2.8%. In addition, it has a 3.0% 30-day SEC yield (a measure similar to yield-to-maturity). While a higher yield may deliver more income, it also tends to indicate higher credit risk. The portfolio has a lower average credit rating of BBB, compared with the category average's A and 4% of the fund's assets are rated non-investment-grade, compared to its peers' 1%. Strategies with more credit risk may have a higher return, but they are riskier.

Even though this strategy’s track record dates back to September 2001, the listed management team joined within the past three years. Therefore, the track record achieved under the previous team is not representative of the fund’s current merits.

As of 2022, this investment stalwart manages more than USD 2.5 trillion in AUM. Composed of various global cohorts and diverse asset classes, the firm has more tightly integrated its capabilities in recent years, notably through the development of proprietary analytical and risk systems. Investment teams are robustly staffed and helmed by seasoned contributors. The firm’s strategies tend to produce reliable portfolios, and several flagship offerings are Morningstar Medalists. Manager incentives align with fundholders'; compensation reflects longer-term performance factors, and portfolio managers invest in the firm’s strategies as part of their compensation plans.

The firm’s funds tend to be well-priced, but they aren’t as competitive as many highly regarded peers of similar scale. Recent product launches include thematic and single-country strategies, both of which carry the potential for volatile performance and flows, along with misuse by investors. The firm remains intrepid when it comes to developing an environmental, social, and governance-focused framework and continues to move into other areas such as direct indexing through its 55iP acquisition and China through its joint venture, but these complicated initiatives take time to assess any real and lasting effect.

This makes it difficult to compare recent and past performance. The new team took the reins in February 2024. With this narrow of a time frame with the new team, it is difficult to meaningfully assess the fund’s performance.

It is good practice to weigh them heavily in any investment evaluation. This share class is in the second-costliest quintile of its Morningstar Category. Its pricey fee, in conjunction with the fund’s People, Process, and Parent Pillars, indicates that this share class is unlikely to deliver positive alpha versus its category benchmark, explaining its Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral.