Eaton Vance plans April launch of two laddered municipal bond funds

By Toni Weeks

San Luis Obispo, Calif., Feb. 17 – Eaton Vance Municipals Trust II announced in an N-1A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission its plans to offer two new municipal bond funds, the Eaton Vance TABS 1-to-10 Year Laddered Municipal Bond Fund and the Eaton Vance TABS 10-to-20 Year Laddered Municipal Bond Fund. The new funds are expected to launch in April.

Each fund seeks to provide current income exempt from regular federal income tax. Under normal market conditions, each fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets in municipal obligations, the interest on which is exempt from regular federal income tax. The shorter fund will invest in municipal obligations with final maturities of between one and 10 years, and the longer fund will invest in municipal obligations with final maturities of between 10 and 20 years. At least 90% of the fund’s net assets are normally invested in municipal obligations rated investment grade or higher.

James H. Evans, Brian C. Barney and Devon J. Cooch will be the portfolio managers of the one-to-10-year fund, while Evans, Barney and Christopher J. Harshman will be the portfolio managers of the 10-to-20-year fund.

Each fund will offer class A, class C and class I shares. The ticker symbols have not yet been set.

For either fund, class A shares are subject to a 4.75% maximum sales charge, and class C shares are subject to a 1% maximum deferred sales charge. Including management fees of 0.3%, and taking into account the effects of an expense reimbursement from the investment adviser, total annual fund operating expenses are expected to be 0.65% for class A, 1.4% for class C and 0.4% for class I shares.

Investment adviser Boston-based Eaton Vance Management is also the adviser to another laddered municipal fund, the Eaton Vance TABS 5-to-15 Year Laddered Municipal Bond Fund. Prior to Feb. 17, this fund was called the Eaton Vance Tax-Advantaged Bond Strategies Long Term Fund.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.