Fund Evaluator:

Hartford Emerging Markets Local Debt Y Overview

Hartford Emerging Markets Local Debt Y (HLDYX) is an actively managed Taxable Bond Emerging-Markets Local-Currency Bond fund. Hartford Mutual Funds launched the fund in 2011.

The investment seeks capital appreciation and income. The fund will normally invest at least 80% of its assets in local currency-denominated emerging markets debt securities, as well as forwards and other derivative instruments that provide market exposure to such securities. It will invest primarily in non-U.S. dollar currencies. The fund will invest in both investment grade and non-investment grade debt securities (also referred to as "junk bonds") from emerging markets. It is non-diversified.

About Hartford Emerging Markets Local Debt Y (HLDYX)

There are 2 members of the management team with an average tenure of 10.42 years: Michael Henry (2015), Kevin Murphy (2017). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: Bloomberg Global Aggregate TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and JPM GBI-EM Global Diversified TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Hartford Emerging Markets Local Debt Y has 301 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 31.7% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a nondiversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Hartford Emerging Markets Local Debt Y is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond fund group. Hartford Emerging Markets Local Debt Y has 95.9% 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 89.3% (-6.6% domestic bond, 95.9% foreign bond and 0.9% convertible bond). Hartford Emerging Markets Local Debt Y has 9.8% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $12 million in total assets, which is below the $141 million average for the Emerging-Markets Local-Currency Bond 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.

HLDYX 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 Hartford Emerging Markets Local Debt Y expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Emerging-Markets Local-Currency Bond category. Hartford Emerging Markets Local Debt Y has an expense ratio of 0.88%, which is 25% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a B. 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. Hartford Emerging Markets Local Debt Y has a portfolio turnover rate of 122%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 93% for the Emerging-Markets Local-Currency Bond category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Hartford Emerging Markets Local Debt Y returned -0.4%, which earned it a grade of F, as the Emerging-Markets Local-Currency Bond category had an average return of 0.1%. 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.

Hartford Emerging Markets Local Debt Y has a trailing yield of 4.97%, which is below the 6.47% category average. The fund normally distributes its income monthly and its capital gains 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.

Hartford Emerging Markets Local Debt Y Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 1.1%, 1.0 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of F. The fund has returned 8.4% over the past year (grade of F), 6.1% over the past three years (grade of C) and 2.8% per year over the past five years (grade of C) and 3.0% per year over the past 10 years (grade of B).

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