MINN vs VCRM

MINNCMairs & Power Minnesota Municipal Bond ETF

VCRMAVanguard Core Tax-Exempt Bond E

In short

MINN A muni fund with a ZIP code. MINN holds roughly 90 Minnesota bonds and seeks current income exempt from both federal and Minnesota income taxes, for 0.25% a year.

VCRM Vanguard's active answer in a mostly-index category: managers working the whole muni curve for 0.12% a year, under half the muni ETF median fee. Monthly income, exempt from federal personal income taxes.

Stated mandate

MINN The Fund seeks current income exempt from federal and Minnesota income taxes.

VCRM The fund seeks total return through current income exempt from federal personal income taxes and capital appreciation.

Why people hold it

• MINN The mandate is unusually specific: income exempt from federal and Minnesota income taxes, not a national grab bag of 50 states' paper.
• At 0.25% a year it charges less than the median muni bond ETF (0.30%), which is rare for a single-state portfolio.
• Pays monthly and spreads exposure across roughly 90 bonds rather than a handful of issuers.
• Live since 2021, so there is a real multi-year record to read instead of a launch-week backtest.

• VCRM Active management priced at 0.12% a year, less than half the 0.30% median for muni ETFs.
• Run by Vanguard's Fixed Income Group, with all-curve exposure to primarily high-quality investment-grade munis spread across sectors, states and credit tiers.prnewswire.com
• Pays monthly, with income the fund seeks to keep exempt from federal personal income taxes.vanguard.com
• Sticks tightly to its stated mandate and grades among the strongest implementations in its muni peer group.

Worth knowing

• MINN A small, thinly traded fund. Trades can meet wider bid-ask spreads than the giants of the muni aisle.
• The Minnesota half of the tax break only does work for Minnesota taxpayers. Everyone else is paying a state-specific fee for federal exemption alone.
• National muni ETFs such as VTEB and SCMB run at 0.03%, so the state tilt costs roughly eight times the cheapest broad option.

• VCRM You pay up for the manager: index peers VTEB and SCMB run at 0.03%, a quarter of VCRM's 0.12%.
• Launched in November 2024, so there is only a short record to judge the active mandate on.
• All-curve exposure puts longer maturities in the mix, so prices move with rates. And the exemption is federal: state treatment of a national muni fund depends on where you live.prnewswire.com

Full MINN profile⁠

Full VCRM profile⁠