The Active Edge: Tech-Enhanced Muni Bond Portfolios – AllianceBernstein – 3.4.25

Summary:

On Demand CE

Volatility has increased substantially across the municipal bond market—in fact, monthly return variability grew twofold in just the last four years as compared with the prior 10 years. This heightened volatility has created dislocations and opportunities, but only for investors with the right portfolio design and technology tools to exploit them. To add to an investor’s challenge, the municipal trading landscape has become increasingly fragmented due to the persistent rise in the popularity of separately managed accounts (SMAs), making it more difficult for managers to be active.

Register now to join a panel of experts from AB for a wide-ranging conversation on the changing nature of municipal investing, including:

• How active management can help exploit current market opportunities across the curve and credit spectrum and where tax-efficient inflation protection may fit in a portfolio
• Ways technological innovation can help active managers take advantage of volatility and add tax efficiency in today’s changing marketplace
• How to improve client outcomes through the marriage of quantitative analysis and fundamental credit research
• Insights into potential changes to tax policy as well as an update on the California wildfires, and how crisis often breeds opportunity

Accepted for 1 CFP^® / IWI / CFA CE Credit

Speakers:

Jason Mertz is the Product Manager for AB’s Municipal Bond Platform, covering all 40 Act mutual funds and separately managed account solutions. He works extensively with the firm’s portfolio management, credit research and trading team to monitor and communicate portfolio positioning and analysis to clients around the US. Prior to joining AB in 2016, Mertz worked at Blackrock as a separately managed account analyst. He holds a BA in finance and international business from Muhlenberg College. Location: Nashville

Daryl Clements is a Senior Vice President and a Municipal Bond Portfolio Manager on AB’s Municipal Fixed Income team, where he is responsible for overseeing the firm’s various separately managed accounts (SMA) and mutual fund assets. He joined AB in 2002 as a municipal credit research analyst, responsible for evaluating municipal issuers nationwide, with a particular focus on the transportation, public power and tobacco-backed bonds sectors. In 2006, Clements was promoted to the portfolio-management team and became a member of the Tax-Exempt Fixed Income Investment Policy Group. Since that time, municipal assets under management have increased from US$22 billion to nearly US$60 billion. Within that growth, Clements spent considerable time expanding and broadening the team’s SMA business. Prior to joining the firm, he was an associate director and municipal credit analyst for Financial Guaranty Insurance Company for six years and a municipal research associate for five years before that with Moody’s Investors Service. Clements holds a BS in business, management and finance from Brooklyn College and an MBA in finance from Pace University. In 2008, he co-authored the “How to Analyze Airport Revenue Bonds” chapter in The Handbook of Municipal Bonds. Location: New York

Susan Joyce, CFA Head—Fixed Income Market Structure; Senior Trader—Municipals Trading Susan Joyce is Head of Fixed Income Market Structure and a Senior Trader for Municipals Trading. She is responsible for managing the impact of regulations, technology innovation and market behavior changes on AB Fixed Income Trading. Joyce trades high-grade, high-yield and taxable municipal bonds and leads the automation effort for Municipals Trading. She joined AB in 2013. Prior to leading the market structure effort, Joyce was an inaugural member of the Portfolio Innovations team as co-creator of the Abbie virtual assistant. She holds a BA in economics-mathematics with a minor in English from Columbia University and is a CFA charterholder. Location: New York