Municipal bonds: now more than ever

Performance data quoted represents past performance and does not guarantee future results.

Source: Morningstar as of 9/30/2024. Rankings for all funds are for the Institutional share class. Performance for other share classes may vary. Rankings based on total return excluding sales charges, independently calculated and not combined to create an overall ranking. The following funds are ranked as follows: Strategic Municipal Opportunities Fund: 1 Year 73/168; 3 Year 110/164; 5 Year 112/155; 10 Year 61/116. California Municipal Opportunities Fund: 1 Year 4/60; 3 Year 14/58; 5 Year 11/58; 10 Year 2/45. New York Municipal Opportunities Fund: 1 Year 44/81; 3 Year 2/81; 5 Year 7/76; 10 Year 7/63. National Municipal Fund: 1 Year 193/289; 3 Year 206/262; 5 Year 160/240; 10 Year 60/176. High Yield Municipal Fund: 1 Year 14/191; 3 Year 106/184; 5 Year 27/177; 10 Year 14/118. Short-Term Municipal Fund: 1 Year 76/225; 3 Year 46/207; 5 Year 88/198; 10 Year 89/146. Pennsylvania Municipal Bond Fund: 1 Year 5/49; 3 Year 29/49; 5 Year 27/48; 10 Year 15/40. New Jersey Municipal Bond Fund: 1 Year 19/46; 3 Year 16/46; 5 Year 15/46; 10 Year 8/38. Ratings based on risk-adjusted total return, determined monthly and subject to change.

Source: Morningstar as of 9/30/2024. The Morningstar Rating™ for funds, or “star rating”, is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life sub-accounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product’s monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. Strategic Municipal Opportunities Fund (Inst. shares) received a Morningstar Rating of 3 stars for the 3-year period, 2 stars for the 5-year period and 3 stars for the 10-year period, rated against 164, 155 and 116 Muni National Interm Funds, respectively. California Municipal Opportunities Fund (Inst. shares) received a Morningstar Rating of 4 stars for the 3-year period, 4 stars for the 5-year period and 5 stars for the 10-year period, rated against 58, 58 and 45 Muni California Interm Funds, respectively. New York Municipal Opportunities Fund (Inst. shares) received a Morningstar Rating of 5 stars for the 3-year period, 4 stars for the 5-year period and 4 stars for the 10-year period, rated against 81, 63 and 47 Muni New York Interm Funds, respectively. National Municipal Fund (Inst. shares) received a Morningstar Rating of 2 stars for the 3-year period, 3 stars for the 5-year period and 4 stars for the 10-year period, rated against 262, 240 and 176 Muni National Interm Funds, respectively. High Yield Municipal Fund (Inst. shares) received a Morningstar Rating of 3 stars for the 3-year period, 4 stars for the 5-year period and 4 stars for the 10-year period, rated against 184, 177 and 118 High Yield Municipal Funds, respectively. Short-Term Municipal Fund (Inst. shares) received a Morningstar Rating of 4 stars for the 3-year period, 3 stars for the 5-year period and 3 stars for the 10-year period, rated against 207, 198 and 146 Muni National Short Funds, respectively. Pennsylvania Municipal Bond Fund (Inst. shares) received a Morningstar Rating of 3 stars for the 3-year period, 3 stars for the 5-year period and 4 stars for the 10-year period, rated against 49, 48 and 40 Municipal Pennsylvania Funds, respectively. New Jersey Municipal Bond Fund (Inst. shares) received a Morningstar Rating of 4 stars for the 3-year period, 4 stars for the 5-year period and 4 stars for the 10-year period, rated against 46, 46 and 38 Municipal New Jersey Funds, respectively. Other share classes for these funds may have different performance characteristics.