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Grab These 3 Municipal Bond Funds for Reducing Risk

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The debt securities category will always be the first choice for risk-averse investors because this class of instruments provides a regular income at low levels of risk. Income from regular dividends helps to ease the pain caused by plunging stock prices.

When considering the safety of capital invested, municipal bond mutual funds are second only to those investing in government securities. In addition, interest income earned from these securities is exempt from federal taxes and, in many cases, from state taxes.

Below, we share with you three top-ranked municipal bond funds, viz., AB Municipal Bond Inflation Strategy (AUNAX - Free Report) , SEI Asset Allocation Trust Conservative Strategy Allocation Fund (SMGAX - Free Report) and American Funds Tax-Aware Conservative Growth and Income Portfolio (TAIAX - Free Report) . Each has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. Investors can click here to see the complete list of municipal bond funds.

AB Municipal Bond Inflation Strategy fund invests most of its net assets in investment-grade, fixed-income municipal securities that pay interest exempt from federal taxation. AUNAX advisors also invest in below-investment-grade, fixed-income securities, otherwise known as junk bonds.

AB Municipal Bond Inflation Strategy has three-year annualized returns of 1.5%. As of the end of January 2023, AUNAX held 60.7% of its net assets in miscellaneous bonds.

SEI Asset Allocation Trust Conservative Strategy Allocation Fund invests most of its assets in underlying SEI funds that are, in turn, diversified across securities and other instruments of various asset classes, each of which has its own investment goal. Generally, the underlying SEI funds of SMGAX funds consist of equity funds, bond and money market funds, and real estate funds.

SEI Asset Allocation Trust Conservative Strategy Allocation Fund has three-year annualized returns of 2.5%. SMGAX has an expense ratio of 0.35%.

American Funds Tax-Aware Conservative Growth and Income Portfolio invests in a variety of funds from the United States in different combinations and weights. The funds that it invests in are characterized to generate income from their investments and may include growth-and-income, equity-income, balanced and fixed-income funds. TAIAX also focuses on dividend-paying stocks and invests a portion in emerging markets.

American Funds Tax-Aware Conservative Growth and Income Portfolio has three-year annualized returns of 2.9%. Andrew B. Suzman has been one of the fund managers of TAIAX since 2012.

To view the Zacks Rank and the past performance of all municipal bond funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of municipal bond funds.

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