Hail Muni’s! The Overlooked Asset in Allocation

July 1, 2003 — The volatility of the markets can sometimes blur the relative value of good, steady performers in the investment universe. This phenomenon has been particularly evident with regard to the striking performance offered by municipal bonds in recent years. Indeed the cocktail chit-chat, which most employ to mark territory or illustrate success in the market, rarely contain stories about that municipal bond that really pushed it or that tax-exempt bond stash that took some lucky investor to the moon. But, it is well worth noting that in the midst of all the hoopla about equity’s returns during the last decade, muni’s have generated tax adjusted returns close to or better than many of the key equity indices over most time periods since the early 1990’s. Moreover, municipal securities have provided greater tax adjusted gross returns than the broad investment grade, high yield, and convertible bonds markets for most time periods during the last 10 years.