EVIM vs TAFM

EVIMAEaton Vance Intermediate Municipal Income ETF

TAFMAAB Tax-Aware Intermediate Municipal ETF

In short

EVIM Active muni management at index-fund pricing. Eaton Vance charges 0.11% for a federally tax-exempt, intermediate-maturity bond portfolio built by bond pickers instead of copied from a benchmark.

TAFM Active muni management in an ETF wrapper: AB steers roughly 600 intermediate-term municipal bonds toward after-tax income instead of hugging a benchmark, and charges a shade under the typical muni fund.

Stated mandate

EVIM The fund seeks income through a diversified portfolio of debt securities whose interest is exempt from regular federal income tax, with at least 80% of assets committed to that municipal-bond strategy.

TAFM The actively managed ETF seeks enhanced income and attractive risk-adjusted after-tax returns. It invests in an intermediate-duration municipal bond portfolio.

Why people hold it

• EVIM Charges 0.11% a year against a roughly 0.30% muni-ETF median. That is a hands-on bond desk priced in index-fund territory.
• At least 80% of assets go to munis whose interest is exempt from regular federal income tax, with room for up to 20% in taxable munis and Treasuries.aaii.com
• Income lands monthly, and the core of it escapes regular federal income tax.
• Diversified core muni exposure across sectors, states and credit tiers, and one of the stronger implementations in a crowded tax-exempt bond field.eatonvance.com

• TAFM Costs 0.28% a year, under the muni ETF median and cheaper than active benchmark-mates FTMU (0.30%) and FTCA (0.35%).
• Actively run rather than index-replicating: managers shop across roughly 600 municipal bonds aiming at enhanced income and after-tax risk-adjusted returns.alliancebernstein.com
• Income is paid monthly, not quarterly, which suits investors who want muni coupons on a regular cadence.
• Sits in the upper tier of a crowded municipal bond peer group, one of the stronger active implementations in the category.

Worth knowing

• EVIM Index rivals cost less: VTEB and SCMB at 0.03%, MUB at 0.05%. The gap is what the active team costs.
• Trades lighter than the household-name index munis, so spreads can widen and limit orders matter more.
• Launched in 2023, so the record is short, and results trace back to the manager's bond selection rather than a published index.aaii.com

• TAFM Index rivals VTEB and SCMB charge 0.03%, so you are paying multiples of plain muni beta for the manager's judgment.
• Intermediate duration means the portfolio moves with interest rates, so this is a rate-sensitive way to hold munis.alliancebernstein.com
• Launched in December 2023 with a mid-size asset base, so the track record is short and it trades less heavily than the category's giants.

Full EVIM profile⁠

Full TAFM profile⁠