CGHM vs FTMH

CGHMACapital Group Municipal High-Income ETF

FTMHBFranklin Municipal High Yield ETF

In short

CGHM Index high-yield muni funds stop where the ratings stop. CGHM is Capital Group's active version: built to lean into lower-rated and unrated tax-exempt bonds, with the income paid out monthly.

FTMH Most muni ETFs are cheap index trackers. FTMH works the other side of the street: an active hunt for tax-exempt income in the muni market's lower-rated corners, off a strategy whose track record starts in 1985.

Stated mandate

CGHM The fund seeks a high level of current income that is exempt from regular federal income tax.

FTMH The fund seeks high current income exempt from federal income tax.

Why people hold it

• CGHM The mandate is the whole point: at least 60% in bonds rated BBB+/Baa1 or below, or unrated, the corner of the muni market index funds cap or skip.yahoo.comcapitalgroup.com
• Income lands monthly and is exempt from regular federal income tax, spread across roughly 600 bond positions rather than a few big credits.
• A young fund that is already a multi-billion-dollar one, and what it holds lines up closely with the mandate it advertises.
• Sits in the upper half of the muni ETF field we grade, a solid showing for an active fund fishing in the market's messier waters.

• FTMH One job, stated plainly in its own filings: high current income exempt from federal income tax. That is a different mandate than a broad investment-grade muni index fund.
• The strategy's record runs back to 1985, through multiple muni credit cycles, long before the ETF wrapper showed up.
• Roughly 500 bond positions, so one troubled issuer is a dent rather than a crater.
• In a crowded muni field, it lands in the upper half of the funds we review, which is respectable company for a credit-picking strategy.

Worth knowing

• CGHM At 0.34% it runs above the 0.30% muni cohort median, and well above plain index core muni funds like VTEB (0.03%) and MUB (0.05%).
• Lower-rated and unrated munis carry more credit and liquidity risk than investment-grade muni funds, so swings can be sharper when credit gets stressed.yahoo.com
• Launched in 2024, so the history here is short and has not yet run through a full credit cycle.

• FTMH 0.35% a year, above the muni-fund median of 0.30% and well above index staples like VTEB (0.03%) and MUB (0.05%). Active credit research is the thing you are paying for.
• High yield muni means lower-rated issuers. Credit risk and price swings run hotter here than in investment-grade muni index funds.
• Volume is moderate rather than firehose-level, and the underlying bonds trade thinly, so bid-ask spreads can be wider than the big index munis.

Full CGHM profile⁠

Full FTMH profile⁠