Fund Evaluator:

Fidelity Tax-Free Bond Overview

Fidelity Tax-Free Bond (FTABX) is an actively managed Municipal Bond Muni National Long fund. Fidelity Investments launched the fund in 2001.

The investment seeks to provide a high current yield exempt from federal income tax. The fund normally invests at least 80% of assets in municipal securities whose interest is exempt from federal income tax. It potentially invests more than 25% of total assets in municipal securities that finance similar types of projects. The fund does not invest in municipal securities whose interest is subject to federal income tax or in municipal securities whose interest is subject to the federal alternative minimum tax.

About Fidelity Tax-Free Bond (FTABX)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 8.08 years: Cormac Cullen (2016), Elizah McLaughlin (2018), Michael Maka (2020). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: Bloomberg Municipal TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Bloomberg Municipal 3+ Yr NonAmt TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Fidelity Tax-Free Bond has 1293 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 11.8% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Fidelity Tax-Free Bond is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Municipal Bond fund group. Fidelity Tax-Free Bond has 0.7% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 0.0%. There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 96.1% (95.4% domestic bond, 0.7% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Fidelity Tax-Free Bond has -0.6% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $3 billion in total assets, which is above the $1 billion average for the Muni National Long category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

FTABX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The Fidelity Tax-Free Bond expense ratio is below average compared to funds in the Muni National Long category. Fidelity Tax-Free Bond has an expense ratio of 0.25%, which is 68% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a A. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. Fidelity Tax-Free Bond has a portfolio turnover rate of 20%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.1 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 37% for the Muni National Long category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, Fidelity Tax-Free Bond returned 0.8%, which earned it a grade of F, as the Muni National Long category had an average return of 1.0%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

Fidelity Tax-Free Bond has a trailing yield of 3.20%, which is below the 3.62% category average. The fund normally distributes its income monthly and its capital gains semi-annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

Fidelity Tax-Free Bond Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 2.3%, 0.5 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of F. The fund has returned 7.2% over the past year (grade of C), 4.2% over the past three years (grade of B) and 1.1% per year over the past five years (grade of A) and 2.3% per year over the past 10 years (grade of A).

Additional Fund Information

Fidelity Tax-Free Bond is open to new investors. Fidelity Tax-Free Bond is part of the No Load share class. The minimum initial purchase is $25,000 if purchased directly from Fidelity Investments.

The fund has a maximum front-end load of 0.00% and maximum deferred sales charge of 0.00%.

Redemption fees are paid to the fund for selling your shares or switching funds and often are reduced or eliminated over time. Fidelity Tax-Free Bond has a maximum redemption charge of 0.00%.

Fidelity Tax-Free Bond does not have a 12b-1 fee. This fee is paid out of assets to cover the costs of marketing and selling fund shares as well as to cover the costs of providing shareholder services. The 12b-1 fee is reflected in the expense ratio.

The fund meets the classification of being considered a True No-Load fund.

Fidelity Tax-Free Bond Risk

A basic investment concept is that risk should be rewarded. Standard deviation measures the degree of variation in return experienced relative to the average return for a fund. It notes the recent volatility of the fund but does not explain the elements impacting the volatility. For example, portfolio concentration or exposure to foreign investments can impact the volatility and should be examined to gain an understanding of the fund.

The total risk index relates the volatility of the fund to the volatility of all funds. It can help you understand the volatility of a fund across all categories. Ratios above 1.00 indicate higher risk than average. Fidelity Tax-Free Bond has a below average total risk index of 0.48 because of its standard deviation of 5.8%.

The category risk index relates the volatility of a fund to the average volatility for funds in the same investment category. Fidelity Tax-Free Bond has below average category risk of 0.91, giving it a category risk grade of B. Letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon these relative rankings.