Putnam MA Tax Exempt Income APXMAX

Morningstar Rating

Fund Research and Analysis

by Eric Jacobson

Putnam Massachusetts Tax Exempt Income has been doing enough to stay in the game, but not enough to win.

After the crises of 2008 it's notable that, despite a 5.6% loss within its Massachusetts category, this fund kept investors from much worse; a few Bay State rivals lost between 10% and 36%. Read more

Kudos

The fund is less volatile (as measured by standard deviation) than its typical peer. Read more

Risks

Expenses are higher than those of many successful rivals.

Recent manager departures are unsettling.

Putnam has experienced significant executive-level turnover in the last year, which clouds its future. Read more

Strategy

This Massachusetts municipal-bond fund follows a fairly standard strategy. Management avoids making large interest-rate bets. Instead, it tries to add value through issue selection and by rotating the fund's assets among different maturities and sectors. Read more

Management

Paul Drury, Susan McCormack, Thalia Meehan, and Brad Libby manage this fund. Each member is responsible for certain sectors of the municipal-bond market. Meehan and Libby joined the fund in 2006, while McCormack and Drury joined in 2002. Read more

Inside Scoop

This fund has had to deal with some manager changes, with one boss departing in October 2006 and another in January 2007. It remains to be seen whether the current skippers--Putnam veterans who are using the same approach as before--can keep the fund competitive. Read more

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