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Municipal bonds

US municipal bonds at Insight

Key facts

1933

origins of Insight’s municipal bond team

22

investment professionals dedicated to municipal bonds1

$38bn

Insight’s US municipal bond AUM2

70,000+

number of bonds in the municipal opportunity set1

Compelling yields and high credit quality

Municipal bonds can offer comparable yields to investment grade corporate credit, while typically exhibiting higher credit ratings and lower historical default rates. They can therefore offer attractive diversification benefits alongside potential for returns.

Access to higher credit quality with comparable yields to corporate bonds

Aggregate credit rating of AA and a long-term average default rate of just 0.09% versus 2.2% for global investment grade credit, with higher recovery rates3.

Ratings distributions: US municipal bonds versus global corporates4

 

Greater credit resilience

The quasi-public nature of municipal bonds has resulted in significantly lower historical default rates5 and higher recovery rates than global corporate bonds.6

Opportunities for higher risk-adjusted returns: Taxable munis provide diversification benefits in a fixed income portfolio based on correlations.7

What are municipal bonds?

US municipal bonds are issued by US state and local governments, and non-profit entities to fund public infrastructure initiatives.

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General obligation (GO) bonds

General obligation (GO) bonds

General obligation bonds are funded by a municipality’s full faith and creditworthiness. The GO market is around $500bn in size and is the most popular segment of the municipal bond market. We believe an active approach can add value if an investor can access large, dedicated municipal bond credit analyst teams.

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Revenue bonds

Revenue bonds

The revenue bond market is harder to analyze results and is less efficient, potentially providing opportunities for active managers. In our view, around ~80% of a municipal bond allocation should be tilted toward revenue bonds. We believe investors need to partner with a skilled and well-resourced active municipal bond manager capable of analyzing diverse municipal credits across the large universe of revenue bonds.

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Taxable municipal bonds

Taxable municipal bonds

A smaller but rapidly growing sub-set of the overall municipal bond market, provide income and yields which are often greater than similarly rated corporate bonds in the US and globally. This is particularly attractive to non-US investors. Given inefficiencies in market pricing, this at times opens up potential relative value opportunities across the taxable and tax-exempt markets.

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Tax-exempt municipal bonds

Tax-exempt municipal bonds

Can be an attractive tax-efficient investment vehicle for US individual and corporate investors as the coupon interest income paid by these bonds is exempt from federal, and in many cases, state income taxes. While non-US investors would not benefit from the tax relief, these bonds can offer diversification benefits.

Why Insight for munis?

Our investment strategy is driven by a disciplined bottom-up approach. The team evaluates a diverse range of infrastructure assets through a rigorous active, fundamental process to uncover market inefficiencies. The team covers both primary and secondary market deals, developing independent proprietary ratings and forward-looking outlooks. Our analysts, traders, and portfolio managers jointly assess value, set targets and manage risk budgets.

We believe our large, resourced, and skilled team offer a strategic advantage in the revenue bond market. These issues offer potential advantages over general obligation (GO) bonds, including credit fundamentals, insulation from political risk, and higher yields.

Capability overview

Our investment strategy is driven by a disciplined bottom-up approach. We believe our large, resourced, and skilled team offer a strategic advantage, particularly in the revenue bond market.

Team description

Insight’s employs a large team of dedicated municipal bond portfolio managers and research analysts. The groups work closely together to uncover structural inefficiencies and exploit potential mispricings.

We manage municipal bond assets across ETFs, mutual funds and separately managed accounts (SMAs). Our team also draws on the expertise of Insight’s broader global fixed income group, specializing across areas including rates, credit, high yield, structured credit.

Strategies

We manage municipal bond assets across ETFs, mutual funds and separately managed accounts (SMAs). We present some of our investment strategies below.

Meet some of the team

The senior members of Insight’s municipal bond portfolio management team have, on average, over two decades of experience8 in municipal bond markets.

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Brendan Murphy, CFA

Head of Fixed Income, North America

Brendan Murphy, CFA

Head of Fixed Income, North America

Brendan joined Insight in September 2021 following the transition of Mellon Investments’ fixed income strategies to Insight. He has worked in the investment industry since 1996. Brendan is Head of Core Fixed Income, North America. In this role, he responsible for all core US Fixed Income including the US Core and Multi Sector, US Rates and Mortgages, US Insurance and US Investment Grade teams. He will continue his responsibilities as the lead portfolio manager for the global and opportunistic fixed income strategies in North America and oversee our associated team. He previously served as senior portfolio manager for non-US, global and opportunistic bond portfolios at Mellon Investments. Before managing portfolios, he was a senior trader responsible for non-US-dollar developed and
emerging market securities as well as foreign exchange. Prior to joining Mellon Investments, Brendan was a senior trader responsible for investment grade corporate bonds at State Street Research. Brendan received a BA from Trinity College. He is a CFA charterholder and is a member of the CFA Institute.

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Jeffrey Burger, CFA

Senior Portfolio Manager, Municipal Bonds

Jeffrey Burger, CFA

Senior Portfolio Manager, Municipal Bonds

Jeffrey joined Insight in September 2021 following the transition of Mellon Investments’ fixed income strategies to Insight. He has been in the investment industry since 1998 and joined Mellon Investments in 2009 as a senior analyst specializing in land-secured and special tax bonds. He is now a senior portfolio manager for US municipal bond strategies. He is responsible for managing US municipal bond strategies for institutional, high net worth and mutual fund clients.

Previously, Jeffrey worked at Columbia Management as a portfolio manager and senior research analyst and at Fitch Ratings as a senior-level analyst. Jeff was elected to the Society of Municipal Analysts in 2019 and is a former chairman and member of the executive committee and board of governors for the National Federation of Municipal Analysts. He is also a former president of the Boston Municipal Analysts Forum.

Jeffrey earned an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a BA degree, cum laude, in policy studies and public relations from Syracuse University. He is a CFA charterholder and is a member of the CFA Institute.

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Thomas Casey

Senior Portfolio Manager, Municipal Bonds

Thomas Casey

Senior Portfolio Manager, Municipal Bonds

Tom joined Insight in September 2021 following the transition of Mellon Investments’ fixed income strategies to Insight. He has been in the investment industry since 1988 and joined Mellon Investments in 1993 as a trader and portfolio analyst on the US Municipal Team. He is now a senior portfolio manager for US municipal bond strategies responsible for managing US Municipal Bond portfolios for institutional, insurance and high net worth clients. Tom worked as an analyst at State Street Bank & Trust Company before joining Mellon Investments. He earned an MBA and a BA from Boston College.

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Gregory Conant

Senior Portfolio Manager, Municipal Bonds

Gregory Conant

Senior Portfolio Manager, Municipal Bonds

Greg is a Senior Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Insight, where he oversees state-specific and general market tax-exempt fixed income portfolios, including the Municipal Opportunities ETF and Municipal Short Duration ETF. With more than 25 years of investment experience—all with BNY—Greg joined Insight in 2025 as part of the BNY Wealth Team acquisition. Throughout his career, Greg has held roles focused on quantitative analysis and investment communications, including responsibility for the fixed income group’s performance and risk reporting. Greg brings extensive expertise in performance measurement, attribution analysis, and composite reporting. Greg earned a BS from Babson College and is a CFA charterholder.

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Daniel Marques, CFA

Senior Portfolio Manager, Municipal Bonds

Daniel Marques, CFA

Senior Portfolio Manager, Municipal Bonds

Dan joined Insight in September 2021 following the transition of Mellon Investments’ fixed income strategies to Insight. He has been in the investment industry since 1992 and joined Mellon Investments in 2000. He is a senior portfolio manager for US municipal bond strategies. He is responsible for managing US Municipal Bond portfolios for institutional, high net worth and mutual fund clients. Dan is also a leader of sustainability and ESG integration for US Municipal Bond portfolios and a lead portfolio manager for the US Municipal ESG strategy. He also provides municipal market analysis and performance attribution commentary for the team.

Dan served as an investment research manager at Citizens Bank before joining Mellon Investments. He earned an MBA from Nichols College and a BS from the University of Massachusetts. He is a CFA charterholder and is a member of the CFA Institute.

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Collette O’Brien

Senior Portfolio Manager, Municipal Bonds

Collette O’Brien

Senior Portfolio Manager, Municipal Bonds

Collette is a Senior Portfolio Manager at Insight, specializing in tax-exempt fixedincome portfolios and mutual funds. Her primary responsibilities include managing sensitive SMAs and state-specific and general market tax-exempt fixed-income portfolios. Additionally, she co-manages several mutual funds, including the National Bond, National Short, and Massachusetts Intermediate Fund. She also oversees several tax-exempt portfolio managers, focusing on implementation and risk management. Collette joined Insight in 2025 as part of the BNY Wealth Team acquisition. With over 38 years of investment experience - including 30 years at BNY - Collette has held key roles such as portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman and Marinvest Inc., a division of Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank. Collette earned a BS from Fairfield University and is a CFA charterholder.

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Insight’s dedicated municipal bond team applies deep research and portfolio expertise to uncover value across the $4.3 trillion muni market9, with client objectives at the core. Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

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Insight’s dedicated municipal bond team applies deep research and portfolio expertise to uncover value across the $4.3 trillion muni market7, with client objectives at the core. Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

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Jeffrey Burger, Senior Portfolio Manager, Municipal Bonds
Municipal bonds can potentially offer
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To discuss how municipal bonds can potentially enhance your portfolio, please contact us.

GET IN TOUCH

To discuss how municipal bonds can potentially enhance your portfolio, please contact us.

GET IN TOUCH
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