EVYM vs HYMB

EVYMBEaton Vance High Income Municipal ETF

HYMBAState Street SPDR Nuveen ICE High Yield Municipal Bond ETF

In short

EVYM A 2025 arrival from Eaton Vance that skips the plain-vanilla muni index route and reaches for high current income exempt from regular federal income tax, paid out monthly.

HYMB Most muni index funds stop at investment grade. HYMB keeps going: its benchmark reaches from A-rated paper down through unrated deals, spreading roughly 1,900 tax-exempt bonds across that credit line. Income lands monthly.

Stated mandate

EVYM The Fund seeks high current income that is exempt from regular federal income tax.

HYMB The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the ICE US Select High Yield Crossover Municipal Index, which covers lower-rated and unrated tax-exempt municipal debt issued in the United States.

Why people hold it

• EVYM Single clear job: high current income exempt from regular federal income tax. Income shows up monthly rather than quarterly.
• The portfolio matches the label. It stays in US municipal bonds, so you get the exposure the name advertises.
• Ordinary 1940 Act fund plumbing, not a partnership or a bank note. No exotic wrapper to decode at tax time.

• HYMB The crossover mandate is the whole point: the index covers lower-rated (A3/A+ or lower) and unrated tax-exempt debt, not another top-grade general-obligation ladder.ssga.com
• About 1,900 bonds dilute any single issuer's trouble, and State Street has run the fund since 2011, through more than one muni credit scare.
• One of the more actively traded funds in the muni ETF aisle, which counts in a market where the underlying bonds themselves can sit still for weeks. Pays monthly.

Worth knowing

• EVYM At 0.40% it runs above the 0.30% muni-cohort median, and far above index workhorses like VTEB (0.03%) and MUB (0.05%).
• Launched in 2025 and thinly traded, so spreads can be wider than the category giants. Limit orders are the friendly move.
• The exemption covers regular federal income tax only. State and local tax treatment depends on where you live and what the fund holds.

• HYMB 0.35% a year is the toll for assembling illiquid paper. Broad, plain-vanilla muni index funds such as VTEB and SCMB charge 0.03%.
• Lower-rated and unrated munis carry default and downgrade risk that top-rated general-obligation bonds don't, and prices can move sharply when muni buyers step back.
• The benchmark has been swapped before (Bloomberg to ICE in 2025), so older track records reflect a different index than the one the fund follows now.ssga.com

Full EVYM profile⁠

Full HYMB profile⁠