- Business
- Dimensional National Municipal Bond ETF (DFNM) is an actively managed exchange-traded fund that seeks to provide current income expected to be exempt from federal income tax by investing primarily in a portfolio of intermediate-term, investment-grade municipal securities issued by states, territories, possessions of the United States, and their political subdivisions, agencies, and instrumentalities; these securities encompass revenue bonds, general obligation bonds, industrial development bonds, municipal lease obligations, commercial paper, variable rate demand obligations, and participation interests therein, with at least 80% of net assets under normal market conditions allocated to bonds whose interest is exempt from regular federal income tax and not subject to the federal alternative minimum tax. The ETF benchmarks its performance against the S&P Intermediate Term National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index and the S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index, employing a rules-based approach to select and weight holdings for optimized risk-adjusted returns, with a weighted average duration of approximately 4.42 years, over 1,000 holdings, and assets under management exceeding $1.6 billion. Launched on November 15, 2021, DFNM is a series of Dimensional ETF Trust, managed by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP (DFA), a global investment firm founded in 1981 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, with operations spanning the U.S., Canada, U.K., Europe, Asia-Pacific, and additional offices worldwide. DFA, which oversees the ETF alongside co-managers DFA Australia Limited and Dimensional Fund Advisors Ltd., applies systematic strategies rooted in academic research across equity, fixed income, and other asset classes. In recent developments, DFA extended its transfer agency agreement with SS&C Global Investor and Distribution Solutions in March 2025 for its U.K. fund range managing GBP 8.7 billion, renewed its U.S. '40 Act mutual funds contract with SS&C in 2023, and partnered with Prudential Financial and Fiduciary Exchange in January 2025 to integrate Dimensional strategies into protected lifetime income products via managed accounts; the firm also pursued strategic equity acquisitions, such as increasing its stake in Vista Outdoor Inc. to 6% in September 2024 and adding shares in Old Market Capital Corp. in December 2024.