GENM vs ITM

GENMDGenter Capital Municipal Quality Intermediate ETF

ITMAVanEck Intermediate Muni ETF

In short

GENM A boutique manager's take on the muni middle: high-grade, intermediate-maturity US bonds paying federally tax-free income every month. Young and small next to the index giants, and priced like the specialist it is.

ITM Most big muni ETFs buy the whole curve. ITM, running since 2007, sticks to the middle: a passive, AMT-free national index of roughly 1,400 bonds, paid out monthly, for 0.18% a year.

Stated mandate

GENM The fund seeks current income exempt from federal income tax, with capital appreciation as a secondary objective.

ITM The fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of the ICE Intermediate AMT-Free Broad National Municipal Index before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• GENM The mandate is plain: current income exempt from federal income tax first, capital appreciation second. Income is paid monthly.
• A tight lane with little room to drift: US municipal bonds only, quality and intermediate by name, inside a standard 1940 Act fund wrapper.
• No benchmark index is declared behind it, so the portfolio is assembled bond by bond rather than copied from a published muni ladder.

• ITM 0.18% a year against a 0.30% median for muni ETFs in its group. Modest for a fund that screens the maturity range instead of buying the entire market.
• A straight index tracker of the ICE Intermediate AMT-Free Broad National Municipal Index, and it stays unusually close to that benchmark for its cohort.vaneck.com
• Mid-curve by design: shorter maturities than long muni funds mean less price movement per shift in rates, with more coupon than the ultra-short end.vaneck.com
• Roughly 1,400 bonds, income paid monthly, and a 2007 launch that puts several full rate cycles behind it.

Worth knowing

• GENM At 0.39% a year, the fee sits above the muni-fund median of 0.30% and far above index anchors like VTEB and SCMB at 0.03%.
• Small asset base, thin trading. The spread paid getting in or out can weigh as much as the headline fee.
• Launched in 2024, so there is only a short track record to judge it by, and it sits in the lower reaches of a crowded muni-bond field.

• ITM Broad national trackers like VTEB, SCMB and MUB run at a few basis points. ITM's fee buys the intermediate screen, not the lowest sticker in the aisle.
• Intermediate maturities soften rate moves rather than cancel them, and municipal issuers carry credit risk.
• National in scope and AMT-free, so there is no single-state tax focus of the kind state-targeted peers like NYF are built around.

Full GENM profile⁠

Full ITM profile⁠