Pennsylvania Tax-Free Strategy
The strategy seeks total return as well as current income exempt from federal and Pennsylvania income taxes. It invests primarily in intermediate- to long-term, investment-grade municipal obligations. The objective is to outperform the Bloomberg Pennsylvania Municipal Bond Index by actively managing the four key elements of total return: security selection, sector rotation, duration management, and yield-curve positioning.
Competitive advantages
Independent thinking and discipline
A large, seasoned team of municipal fixed income analysts is supported by compliance and portfolio analytics systems.
Collaboration across asset classes
The team can use taxable fixed income analysts to gain intelligence on corporate bonds.
Flexible but uncompromising
The team has the willingness and ability to move down in credit without compromising the investment process.
Exploiting market inefficiencies while employing prudent risk management
Investment success results from disciplined return-enhancement strategies balanced with prudent risk management.
Key risks
Market risk: Security markets are volatile and may decline significantly in response to adverse issuer, regulatory, political, or economic developments with different sectors of the market and different security types reacting differently to such developments.
Debt securities risk: Debt securities are subject to both credit and interest rate risk. Credit risk is the possibility that the issuer or guarantor of a debt security may be unable, or perceived to be unable or unwilling, to pay interest or repay principal when they become due, and credit risk increases as an issuer’s credit quality or financial strength declines. Interest rate risk is the possibility that interest rates will change over time such that when interest rates rise, the value of debt securities tends to fall and the longer the terms of the debt securities held the greater the impact of this risk.
High yield risk: If a strategy invests in high yield securities (commonly known as junk bonds), these securities are considered speculative and have a much greater risk of default or of not returning principal and their values tend to be more volatile than higher-rated securities with similar maturities.
Foreign securities risk: If a strategy invests in the securities of non-U.S. issuers, these investments may be subject to lower liquidity, greater price volatility, and risks related to adverse political, regulatory, market, or economic developments and may be affected by changes in foreign currency exchange rates.
Investors should know that this strategy deployed may be subject to additional investment risks. For important information about the investment manager, please refer to the investment manager’s Form ADV Part 2, which is available upon request.
