CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nuveen Investments, a leading global provider of investment services to institutions as well as high-net-worth and affluent investors, today announced the availability of the Nuveen Inflation Protected Municipal Bond Fund (NITAX) to retail investors. The fund is managed by Nuveen Investments’ Nuveen Asset Management affiliate, and is now available through advisors at leading broker-dealers, banks, insurance companies, financial planning and investment consulting firms.
The new fund is designed to help protect its portfolio of intermediate-term investment-grade municipal bonds from the negative effects of increasing inflation. For taxable investors in the fund, the fund seeks a more tax-efficient approach to managing inflation risk primarily through its use of derivatives such as Consumer Price Index (CPI) swaps over Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS).
“Our team has a long history of managing municipal bond portfolios through various market cycles,” said John Miller, Nuveen Asset Management’s Co-Head of Global Fixed Income. “As more investors’ thoughts turn toward managing their fixed income portfolios in a rising rate environment, we are pleased that this newest fund will be able to offer our clients a distinct investment option to help mitigate the potential impact of rising inflation and taxes.”
The fund is co-managed by Dan Close and Doug Baker.
Dan Close serves as Senior Vice President and portfolio manager for many of Nuveen’s state-specific open-end municipal bond funds, as well as several closed-end funds. He has been with Nuveen Investments since 2000. Prior to his current position, he served as a research analyst covering corporate-backed, energy, transportation and utility credits. Before joining Nuveen, Close worked as an analyst at Banc of America Securities specializing in originating and structuring asset-backed securities. He received his B.S. in business from Miami University in Ohio and his M.B.A. at the J. L. Kellogg School of Management.
Doug Baker also serves as Senior Vice President and portfolio manager for the Nuveen Preferred Securities Fund, and related preferred security strategies. He joined Nuveen Asset Management in 2006 as a derivatives analyst, and later that year his responsibilities expanded to include portfolio management duties. Baker also manages Nuveen Asset Management’s derivative overlay group, where he is responsible for implementing derivatives-based hedging strategies across the Nuveen fund complex. Prior to joining Nuveen, he spent three years at Lehman Brothers in institutional fixed income and derivatives sales, and prior to that he spent five years at Bank of America in corporate and commercial banking. He earned his BS in finance with honors from the University of Illinois and his MBA in finance and economics with honors from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
Formed in 1989, Nuveen Asset Management manages more than $100 billion in fixed Income strategies as well as traditional and specialized equity investments for institutional, high-net-worth and affluent investors. The team leverages the deep and collective expertise of 55 portfolio managers and a combined research team of 58 analysts.
Fund Risks to Consider
Debt or fixed income securities are subject to credit risk and interest rate risk. The value of, and income generated by debt securities will decrease or increase based on changes in market interest rates. When interest rates rise, bond prices fall. Credit risk refers to an issuer’s ability to make interest and principal payments when due. Credit risk is heightened for the fund because it may invest in below-investment grade quality municipal bonds. The use of derivative instruments involves a high degree of financial risk, including the risk that the loss on a derivative may be greater than the principal amount invested. The fund is non-diversified and may be subject to greater market risk due to political, regulatory, or economic factors affecting individual municipal bond issuers. There can be no assurance that the fund’s inflation-hedging strategy will be successful.
Nuveen’s Recognized Family of Mutual Funds
Nuveen Investments’ family of mutual funds offers a variety of institutional-caliber investment strategies managed by its high-quality boutique affiliates. Each mutual fund is designed to contribute to a well-constructed diversified portfolio. With more than $43 billion in over 100 mutual funds as of March 31, 2011, Nuveen Investments offers a broad range of fixed income, growth, value and global portfolios spanning a variety of objectives and investment styles which draw upon the distinct investment strengths of Nuveen’s six managers including:
- NWQ Investment Management—Value Equities
- Nuveen Asset Management—Taxable and Municipal Fixed Income Strategies as well as Equity and Specialty Strategies
- Santa Barbara Asset Management—Growth Equities
- Symphony Asset Management—Risk-Managed Equity and Credit Strategies
- Tradewinds Global Investors—Global Equities
- Winslow Capital Management—Large Cap Growth Equities
Earlier this year, Nuveen Funds were the recipient of 14 U.S. Lipper Fund Awards which adds to the recognition for Nuveen mutual funds’ strong performance through the recent challenging market cycles. In addition to the individual Lipper awards, Nuveen mutual funds were ranked the second best mutual fund family (out of 57 leading mutual fund families) by Barron’s 2011 annual survey based on performance data for the one-year period ending December 31, 2010.* Further, Nuveen was listed third among 650 mutual fund families by Morningstar based on the number of funds with a 5-star overall Morningstar rating as of April 30, 2011. It is important to note that past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Nuveen funds are distributed by Nuveen Securities, LLC. To learn more about Nuveen’s family of mutual funds, visit http://www.nuveen.com/MutualFunds/Default.aspx.
* Lipper: In calculating the awards, Lipper considered all open-end funds registered for sale in the United States in qualifying classifications with at least 36 months of performance history as of the end of the calendar year. Awards were given to funds with a 3-, 5- and 10-year history as of the end of the evaluation year in equity, bond and mixed-asset Lipper U.S. Classifications with at least ten distinct portfolios. Both group and fund awards were calculated using Lipper’s Consistent Return score. A more detailed Fund Awards Methodology can be found at excellence.thomsonreuters.com/Lipper.
* Barron’s: Nuveen mutual funds were ranked the second best mutual fund family (out of 57 leading mutual fund families) in Barron’s 2011 annual survey based on performance data for the one-year period ending December 31, 2010. Nuveen also ranked #10 among 53 mutual fund families and #24 among 46 mutual fund families for the five-year and ten-year periods ending December 31, 2010, respectively. Barron's is published by Dow Jones and Company.
To qualify for the Barron’s/Lipper Fund Survey, a fund group must have at least three funds in Lipper’s general U.S. Stock category as well as one in world equity, which combines global and international funds and one mixed equity fund, which holds stock and bonds; two taxable bond funds, and one tax-exempt offering. Fund returns include reinvested dividends and capital gains and do not reflect sales charges.
Investors should consider the investment objectives and policies, risk considerations, charges and expenses of the fund carefully before investing. For a prospectus which contains this and other information relevant to an investment in the fund, please contact your securities representative or Nuveen Securities, LLC, 333 W. Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60606. Investors should read the prospectus carefully before they invest or send money.
About Nuveen Investments
Nuveen Investments provides high quality investment services designed to help secure the long-term goals of institutions, high net worth and affluent investors as well as the consultants and financial advisors who serve them. Nuveen Investments markets a wide range of specialized investment solutions which provide investors access to capabilities of its high-quality boutique investment affiliates - NWQ, Nuveen Asset Management, Santa Barbara, Symphony, Tradewinds and Winslow Capital. In total, Nuveen Investments had $212 billion of assets under management as of April 30, 2011. For more information, please visit the Nuveen Investments website at www.nuveen.com.