Bond Fund Portfolio
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I am looking for 4 or 5 funds to use as a package for investors who do not want any equity exposure. I have been using JPMorgan Core Plus Bond, Templeton Global, Franklin Insured Tax Free and Pimco Low Duration. Thoughts ? Other funds ? Thanks.
Franklin’s got some great bond funds. I like their US Government Securities fund, Global Bond (of course), and their Low Duration Bond. Pioneer Strategic Income is a great one as well.
Most of the people I pitch bond funds to have $10-25k they’re looking to give me for a strategy like this, not a ton of money, so we keep it within 1 family usually Frank/Temp or Pioneer to keep it simple. If they have more than that we’re usually working a fixed annuity into the equation or we’re going into a conservative wrap type strategy if they’ve got $50+
Yeah these aren’t huge tickets, usually in the 25k to 50k range. I would like to be able to cover as many bond areas as possible with as few funds as possible.
[quote=Ron 14]
I am looking for 4 or 5 funds to use as a package for investors who do not want any equity exposure. I have been using JPMorgan Core Plus Bond, Templeton Global, Franklin Insured Tax Free and Pimco Low Duration. Thoughts ? Other funds ? Thanks.
[/quote] I like Templeton Global.. Prefer Harbor Bond over low duration, because of expenses(but harbor is no load)... and Permanent portfolio, I know you said bond, but it fits...PIMCO Low Duration is very good. Try PIMCO Investment Grade Corporate Bond too. I like MFS funds as well and their Municipal Income and Emerging Markets Debt are nice. Get on the Emerging Markets bond bandwagon for the next 6-12 months, you’ll be nicely rewarded. I mean your clients will be nicely rewarded.
I would use Franklin Total Return in that situation, for the whole ticket.
I tried and failed once to put together a diversified bond fund portfolio, using X percent of international, high yield, corporate, governnment, etc., but I couldn’t figure out what percentages to use and most of them have overlap anway. If I COULD figure out the percentages, I would be a bond manager.
Templeton Global scares me – it’s been too good for too long.
I like the way Lord Abbett presents their bond funds. You could maybe mix Bond Debenture with Short Duration.
Pity we don’t have 3 year, 5 pct fixed annuties these days.
What do you guys think are the main segments to cover ?
Gov / International / Corporate / Muni / High Yield / TIPS / Short Duration. Are all of these needed?Ahhhhhhhhhh, Delaware Diversified Income. Great fund! Putting a 350k ticket in on Thursday for that.
Not necessarily, but it does have a few different types of bonds. The one I’m using is actually the Delaware Limited Term Diversified Income. It uses corporate, govt., some international and emerging markets.
Vanguard claims the risk/reward of international bonds is not worth owning them.
Does anyone remember how badly the strategic bond funds sucked starting about one year ago? Sure, they came roaring back this year. I think I’ll take a pass on them going forward.
( Franklin, Fidelity, Oppenheimer, Columbia strategic, etc.). So much for active management for protecting from a meltdown.
Lord Abbett Short Duration for the ultra conservative
Pimco Total Return for most other people. I don’t do much more than that on the taxable side.
Probably right if they are referring to indexing them. However, this is a place where you MUST you active management that knows the international landscape.Vanguard claims the risk/reward of international bonds is not worth owning them.
That's because Vanguard doesn't think tactically. Even buy/hold investing would see international bonds play a good role in a portfolio. Check the last 10 years on MEDAX. Only real down year since the '90's was last year, and they have already more than made last years losses back so far this year. I don't understand how a company could claim something like that based off the research and data that is available to them.Vanguard claims the risk/reward of international bonds is not worth owning them.