JPMorgan National Municipal Income I JITIX

The portfolio maintains a sizable cost advantage over competitors, priced within the second-cheapest fee quintile among peers.

The strategy underwent an entire portfolio management team change less than a year ago, but confidence in the strategy's new leadership drives an Above Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's investment approach stands out and earns an Above Average Process 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 most important driver of the rating is the parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 56%. 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 firm's impressive risk-adjusted performance, as shown by its average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 3.3 stars, also contributes to the process. 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 average strategy in the category, 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 debt. Nevertheless, the fund's corporate bonds exposure was in line with peers in the latest month.

This strategy has a 3.4% 12-month yield, higher than its average peer's 2.8%. It also has a 3.4% 30-day SEC yield (a standardized, point-in-time estimate of the fund’s future income return). 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 its non-investment-grade stake is 4% of assets, compared to its peers' 1%. Lower quality bonds have higher yields but come with more risk.

This strategy has seen its entire listed management team change within the past three years. Even though this strategy dates back to September 2001, it's difficult to analyze the new team until they spend more time on the strategy.

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.

Since the new regime's current strategy does not necessarily represent the past, it is difficult to compare them. The new team took the reins in February 2024 and looking at their performance so far, they have posted admirable results. Since the manager change one month ago, the strategy earned a 0.2% return through month-end, mirroring its typical peer's 0.1% and leading the Bloomberg Barclays Municipal 1-15 Year Bond Index's 0.00% loss. With this narrow of a time frame with the new team, it is difficult to meaningfully assess the fund’s risk.

This share class is within the second-cheapest quintile of its Morningstar Category. Its low expense ratio, in conjunction with the fund’s People, Process, and Parent Pillars, suggests that this share class should be able to deliver positive alpha relative to its category benchmark, leading to its Morningstar Medalist Rating of Bronze.