---
title: "Trust for Professional Managers files to convert Performance Trust Municipal Bond Fund (PTIMX) into an ETF"
url: "https://etf.net/news/performance-trust-municipal-files-etf-2026-10-21"
published_at: "2026-10-21T12:06:46.576Z"
updated_at: "2026-10-21T12:06:46.576Z"
byline: "ETF.net Research"
---

# Trust for Professional Managers files to convert Performance Trust Municipal Bond Fund (PTIMX) into an ETF

The filing asks for no shareholder vote, prints a 0.39% fee against the 0.48% Institutional holders pay now, and sets a proposed close of Jan. 29, 2027.

By ETF.net Research. Published Oct 21, 2026.

Trust for Professional Managers, the trust of which the fund is a series, filed Tuesday to convert Performance Trust Municipal Bond Fund into an exchange-traded fund. The [Form N-14](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1141819/000089418926029477/ptamn-14.htm) says no shareholder vote is required under Delaware law and the trust's declaration of trust, or under the federal rule for this kind of reorganization, and that none is being requested.

PT Asset Management, the Chicago adviser that runs the fund and operates as PTAM, would stay on. Institutional holders pay **0.48%** now, the figure on [PTAM's Sept. 30 fact sheet](https://s3.amazonaws.com/ptam.com/documents/ptimx_factsheet.pdf). The filing estimates the ETF's annual cost at **0.39%**.

The N-14 registers the shares that would be issued in the reorganization. It is not effective, and it is not a launch.

The trust's board, including the independent trustees, approved the plan on Oct. 15. It found the reorganization in the fund's best interests and not dilutive to existing shareholders. On Aug. 24 the trust filed a [prospectus](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1141819/000089418926022879/ptammunibond485a.htm), marked subject to completion, to add the ETF as a new series. That filing is not effective either, and it still has no ticker.

## What holders would have to do

The filing expects the reorganization after the close of trading on or about Jan. 29, 2027. It schedules the new fund, a newly created series of the same trust, to open for trading on Feb. 1, 2027, on Cboe BZX Exchange. The document does not give it a ticker.

Shareholders whose shares already sit in a brokerage account that can hold an ETF would receive ETF shares equal in aggregate net asset value. The last day to buy the mutual fund, or to redeem it, is Jan. 26, 2027. PTAM would pay the reorganization costs. Investors would not pay a sales charge, a commission or a redemption fee to receive the shares.

If the shares are not in an account that can hold an ETF by Jan. 26, 2027, the holder does not receive ETF shares. The filing says that if they sit in a brokerage account that cannot accept an ETF, in a direct individual retirement account at U.S. Bank, the fund's custodian, or in a retirement plan that cannot hold ETF shares, the investment will be liquidated on or about Jan. 29, 2027, for cash equal to net asset value. That cash payment may be a taxable gain or loss in a taxable account.

For the direct IRA, the filing is more specific. The cash may be reduced by taxes and penalties that apply, and the liquidation would be an age-based distribution with 10% federal withholding.

Class A shares, ticker PTRMX, move first. An [Oct. 16 supplement](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1141819/000089418926029406/ptametfreorgannouncement49.htm) says those shares close to new investors on or about Jan. 12, 2027, and convert into Institutional Class shares, ticker PTIMX, after the close on Jan. 15, 2027. The supplement says that conversion is not a federal income-taxable event, and that Institutional shares have lower fees than Class A.

As of Sept. 30, the N-14's unaudited table shows $699.1 million in the Institutional class and $11.6 million in Class A. Almost all of the money is in the class that pays 0.48%.

The ETF will not issue fractional shares. Cash for a leftover fraction "will likely be a taxable event," the filing says. An exchange of whole shares is intended to qualify as tax-free. A tax opinion to that effect is a closing condition the plan says cannot be waived.

## What holders would pay

Class A holders reach the 0.39% by way of the January conversion into Institutional shares, and then into the ETF. The supplement says Institutional shares already cost less than Class A.

The ETF fee is unitary. The fund would pay PTAM 0.39%, and PTAM would pay the operating expenses. The same table lists a 0.40% management fee for the Institutional class. Interest, taxes, trading costs and certain other expenses sit outside the 0.39%.

The filing says an ETF structure may mean lower net expenses, trading through the day, a daily look at the portfolio and a wider chance to gather assets.

The filing says sales to meet mutual-fund redemptions can create taxable gains for shareholders who stay. An ETF can meet many of those redemptions by delivering bonds instead of selling them, which generally avoids that gain.

## The ETF may hold shorter bonds

G. Michael Plaiss and Mark Peiler would remain the portfolio managers, and they would keep selecting the bonds. The objective does not change: a high level of current interest income substantially exempt from regular federal income tax, consistent with preservation of capital. The ETF would adopt the Institutional class's accounting and performance history. The mutual fund would then be dissolved.

The one change in the stated ranges is the floor. Effective maturity is normally more than 10 years and less than 22 for the mutual fund, and more than 5 years and less than 22 for the ETF. Duration is normally more than 5 years and less than 11, against more than 4 and less than 11. The ceilings are the same. The lower floors mean the ETF may hold shorter bonds than the mutual fund's range allows, so the portfolio can be somewhat less sensitive to interest rates, not more. It would not have to sit at that floor.

Under normal conditions, each version invests at least 80% of net assets, plus borrowings for investment, in investment-grade municipal securities, and may put up to 20% in below-investment-grade municipals.

## Where a 0.39% fee sits

PTAM's first ETF, and its only U.S.-listed one, is the Performance Trust Short Term Bond ETF STBF. The municipal fund in this filing would be more than five times the $127.53 million [PTAM listed](https://ptam.com/product-overview) for that fund as of Oct. 16. PTAM also runs a bond ETF in Europe, the Performance Trust Total Return Bond UCITS ETF.

The managers pick the bonds. A 0.39% fee would match First Trust Managed Municipal ETF FMB, which [First Trust](https://www.ftportfolios.com/retail/etf/etfsummary.aspx?Ticker=FMB) lists at a 0.39% expense ratio, as of March 2, 2026, and [groups with its actively managed funds](https://www.ftportfolios.com/retail/etf/etflist.aspx?Type=ActivelyManaged).

[J.P. Morgan](https://am.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpm-am-aem/americas/us/en/literature/fact-sheet/etfs/FS-JMUB.PDF) lists 0.18% for JPMorgan Municipal ETF JMUB, as of Sept. 30, and [describes that fund as actively managed](https://am.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpm-am-aem/americas/us/en/literature/fund-story/STO-JMUB.pdf). BlackRock's [iShares National Muni Bond ETF](https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239766/MUB) MUB lists a 0.05% expense ratio and seeks to track an index of investment-grade municipal bonds.

Chart: A **0.39%** fee would match FMB and sit above JMUB

On Sept. 16, [Morgan Stanley Investment Management](https://www.morganstanley.com/press-releases/municipal-mutual-funds-conversion-to-etfs) said it intends to convert eight Eaton Vance municipal mutual funds into ETFs.

"The appetite for actively managed municipal ETFs is growing," Ally Wallace, global head of ETFs at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, said in that announcement.

The reorganization still needs an effective registration, the tax opinion and the other conditions in the plan, including no stop order and no material adverse change in the funds' objectives, policies or fees. Until those are met, Jan. 29 is a date in a filing, not a listing.

Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/performance-trust-municipal-files-etf-2026-10-21. Please cite the page URL.