Fixed income

Municipal Ultra Short Plus Strategy

The strategy seeks tax-free income by principally investing in a diversified portfolio of municipal securities with an average maturity of one year or less.

Competitive advantages

Independent thinking and discipline

Research is conducted by a seasoned team in which all members operate as credit analysts for each of the credits that they cover. This empowers the team to act opportunistically with a relative value approach in the marketplace.

Seeks to capture alpha from market inefficiencies

The team benefits from an open work environment in which continuous interaction is supported to make quick and informed decisions. This includes partnerships with strategists and taxable fixed income teams who provide valuable perspectives.

Flexible but uncompromising

The team's disciplined credit analysis and proprietary risk management model allow portfolio managers the willingness and ability to move down in credit without compromising investment process.

Investment approach

Exploiting market inefficiencies while employing prudent risk management

A unique and collaborative approach

Through a unique and collaborative approach, portfolio managers, research analysts, and traders work together to identify the most attractive investments for portfolios to reflect our views and investor needs.

Municipal markets are inefficient

The strategy seeks to capture maximum alpha from market inefficiencies. Independent thinking identifies opportunities from changing market conditions and pricing inefficiencies.

Effectively manages four main elements of outperformance

The strategy seeks to generate excess performance by actively managing the four key elements of total return: duration, yield curve positioning, sector and credit-quality allocation, and security selection.

Disciplined relative value orientation with timely credit research

The team achieves a disciplined relative value orientation with timely credit research. Seasoned credit analysts seek to provide excess returns by using the ability and willingness to move down in credit without compromising the investment process.

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Composite performance

Average annual returns

Average annual returns

(as of 6/30/2026)
7/1/1991
1M
3M
YTD
1Y
3Y
5Y
10Y
Inception
Composite (Gross)
0.35
0.87
1.50
3.42
3.85
2.58
2.04
3.01
Composite (Net)
0.33
0.81
1.37
3.17
3.59
2.33
1.79
2.68
Benchmark
0.29
0.68
1.23
2.66
3.17
2.23
1.69

Performance is historical and does not guarantee future results. For more information, please refer to the GIPS composite report found in the documents section.


Calendar year

Calendar year

2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
Composite (Gross)
3.93
3.76
4.00
-0.31
0.54
1.56
2.42
1.80
1.57
0.41
Composite (Net)
3.67
3.50
3.74
-0.56
0.29
1.31
2.16
1.55
1.32
0.16
Benchmark
3.01
2.91
3.97
0.07
0.16
1.04
2.08
1.55
1.29
0.30

Performance is historical and does not guarantee future results. For more information, please refer to the GIPS composite report found in the documents section.


Our team

Meet the investment team

Investment success results from disciplined return-enhancement strategies balanced with prudent risk management.

View Team
Bruce

Bruce Johns

Portfolio Manager
James

James Randazzo

Portfolio Manager
Nicholos

Nicholos Venditti

Head of Municipal Fixed Income

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.

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*This custom index consists of the Bloomberg 1-Year Municipal Bond Index through 31 August 2017 and a blend of 50% in the Bloomberg 1-Year Municipal Bond Index and 50% in the iMoneyNet Tax-Free National Institutional Money Market Funds Average from 1 September 2017 forward.