Over 50 years, we built and expanded our bond offerings, while relying on research and collaboration, to help investors achieve their long-term goals.
Five decades of experience
In 1973, after establishing a strong presence in equity investing, we expanded into fixed income to better serve our clients. Over time, amid enormous changes and challenges in markets, we built a robust platform to help enable investors to pursue any goal.
Began managing our first fixed income portfolio, seeking to bring the Capital System to bonds in pursuit of strong long-term client outcomes.
Launched our first municipal bond fund, a year prior to the inception of the sector’s benchmark, the Bloomberg Municipal Bond Index.
Launched our first global bond fund, the same year as the inception of the sector’s benchmark, the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index.
Began managing our first dedicated emerging markets debt portfolio, in the early years of the sector’s indices becoming established.
Major investment in expansion began, hiring additional fixed income professionals, introducing new processes and broadening risk management.
Mike Gitlin joined to lead fixed income after holding a similar position at T. Rowe Price. He will become Capital Group CEO in October 2023.
50th anniversary of investing in fixed income with the world-class business and robust fund offerings fully built out.
These fixed income funds received a Morningstar Analyst RatingTM of Gold: The Bond Fund of America® for F-2 share class as of 11/16/22. The Tax-Exempt Bond Fund of America® and the Tax-Exempt Fund of California® for F-3 and F-2/F-3 share classes, respectively, as of 5/26/22.1
Recognized as best fixed income group among large U.S. investment managers by Refinitiv Lipper for outstanding overall performance†.
Our pursuit of excellence produced strong results overall
Whether your goal is diversification from equities, income, capital preservation or inflation protection, we have funds to help build balanced portfolios — both amid volatility and over the longer term.
Morningstar percentile rankings (based on total return) (updated quarterly)
-
-
Core/Core-plus
-
Short-term
-
Income/Credit
-
Municipal
-
Diverse perspectives and high-conviction investing can produce better results.
Our commitment to this simple belief has seen us become a leader in fixed income investing.
2nd
in active taxable fixed income inflows (2022)
4th
largest fund manager by fixed income AUM
Source: Morningstar. Year-to-date inflows based on month-end data through 12/31/22. Fixed income assets under management as of 12/31/22. Both rankings reflect American Funds bond funds in comparison to other mutual fund and ETF managers; the AUM ranking is based solely on U.S. bond fund categories.
Extensive bond sector reach and capabilities
Our research spans global fixed income markets, in coordination with our equity and macro analyst teams. Resulting diverse perspectives and high-conviction investing inform our active approach.
1
Research guides all our investment decisions
Our analysts don’t just write reports: they also invest alongside managers in some funds via a research portfolio. Learn all about our experienced fixed income team.
2
We are active investors across global bond markets
Assets under management by Capital Fixed Income Investors as of December 31, 2022, and is preliminary. All values in USD. Totals may not reconcile due to rounding.
3
We offer funds with low fees
Sources: Lipper. Based on Class F-2 mutual fund share data as of 12/31/2022. Eighteen out of 18 American Funds fixed income funds had expense ratios below the average for their respective Lipper categories, based on institutional load funds, excluding funds of funds, for the most recent fiscal year-ends available.
4
Our managers are investors, too
Portfolio managers invest in their own funds — 100% manager ownership in each fixed income mutual fund (excluding state-specific municipal funds).
Source: Capital Group. As of 12/31/22.
5
Long-term results really count for us
Manager compensation puts an emphasis on long-term results — not AUM.
Compensation paid to our investment professionals is heavily influenced by investment results over one-, three-, five- and eight-year periods. Increasing weight is placed on each successive measurement period to encourage a long-term investment approach.
Investments are not FDIC-insured, nor are they deposits of or guaranteed by a bank or any other entity, so they may lose value.
Investors should carefully consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other important information is contained in the fund prospectuses and summary prospectuses, which can be obtained from a financial professional and should be read carefully before investing.
Statements attributed to an individual represent the opinions of that individual as of the date published and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Capital Group or its affiliates. This information is intended to highlight issues and should not be considered advice, an endorsement or a recommendation.
Capital Group manages equity assets through three investment groups. These groups make investment and proxy voting decisions independently. Fixed income investment professionals provide fixed income research and investment management across the Capital organization; however, for securities with equity characteristics, they act solely on behalf of one of the three equity investment groups.
All Capital Group trademarks mentioned are owned by The Capital Group Companies, Inc., an affiliated company or fund. All other company and product names mentioned are the property of their respective companies.
Use of this website is intended for U.S. residents only. Use of this website and materials is also subject to approval by your home office.
American Funds Distributors, Inc.
This content, developed by Capital Group, home of American Funds, should not be used as a primary basis for investment decisions and is not intended to serve as impartial investment or fiduciary advice.
©2023 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Some of the information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar, its content providers nor Capital Group are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Information is calculated by Morningstar. Due to differing calculation methods, the figures shown here may differ from those calculated by Capital Group.
The Morningstar rankings do not reflect the effects of sales charges, account fees or taxes. When applicable, results reflect fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements, without which they would have been lower.
1The Morningstar Analyst RatingTM is not a credit or risk rating. It is a subjective evaluation performed by Morningstar's manager research group, which consists of various Morningstar, Inc. subsidiaries (“Manager Research Group”). In the United States, that subsidiary is Morningstar Research Services LLC, which is registered with and governed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Manager Research Group evaluates funds based on five key pillars, which are process, performance, people, parent, and price. The Manager Research Group uses this five-pillar evaluation to determine how they believe funds are likely to perform relative to a benchmark over the long term on a risk adjusted basis. They consider quantitative and qualitative factors in their research. For actively managed strategies, people and process each receive a 45% weighting in their analysis, while parent receives a 10% weighting. For passive strategies, process receives an 80% weighting, while people and parent each receive a 10% weighting. For both active and passive strategies, performance has no explicit weight as it is incorporated into the analysis of people and process; price at the share-class level (where applicable) is directly subtracted from an expected gross alpha estimate derived from the analysis of the other pillars. The impact of the weighted pillar scores for people, process and parent on the final Analyst Rating is further modified by a measure of the dispersion of historical alphas among relevant peers. For certain peer groups where standard benchmarking is not applicable, primarily peer groups of funds using alternative investment strategies, the modification by alpha dispersion is not used. The Analyst Rating scale is Gold, Silver, Bronze, Neutral, and Negative. For active funds, a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Gold, Silver, or Bronze reflects the Manager Research Group's expectation that an active fund will be able to deliver positive alpha net of fees relative to the standard benchmark index assigned to the Morningstar category. The level of the rating relates to the level of expected positive net alpha relative to Morningstar category peers for active funds. For passive funds, a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Gold, Silver, or Bronze reflects the Manager Research Group's expectation that a fund will be able to deliver a higher alpha net of fees than the lesser of the relevant Morningstar category median or 0. The level of the rating relates to the level of expected net alpha relative to Morningstar category | Morningstar Analyst and Quantitative Rating Morningstar Essentials 31 peers for passive funds. For certain peer groups where standard benchmarking is not applicable, primarily peer groups of funds using alternative investment strategies, a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Gold, Silver, or Bronze reflects the Manager Research Group's expectation that a fund will deliver a weighted pillar score above a predetermined threshold within its peer group. Analyst Ratings ultimately reflect the Manager Research Group's overall assessment, are overseen by an Analyst Rating Committee, and are continuously monitored and reevaluated at least every 14 months. For more detailed information about Morningstar's Analyst Rating, including its methodology, please go to shareholders.morningstar.com/investor-relations/governance/Compliance--Disclosure/default.aspx. As of May 2, 2023, the Morningstar Analyst RatingTM and the Morningstar Quantitative RatingTM were unified into a single rating, the Morningstar Medalist RatingTM.
†Source: Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards. © 2023 Refinitiv. All rights reserved. Used under license. The Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards, granted annually, highlight funds and fund companies that have excelled in delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. For more information, see lipperfundawards.com. Although Refinitiv Lipper makes reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data contained herein, the accuracy is not guaranteed by Refinitiv Lipper.