Fund Evaluator:

Leader Short Term High Yield Bond Ins Overview

Leader Short Term High Yield Bond Ins (LCCIX) is an actively managed Taxable Bond High Yield Bond fund. LEADER launched the fund in 2008.

The investment seeks to deliver a high level of current income, with a secondary objective of capital appreciation. The fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in non-investment grade bonds which the advisor defines as securities rated lower than Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Service BBB- by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Group, Fitch BBB-, or, if unrated, as determined by the Advisor to be of comparable quality. The fund’s effective average duration of its portfolio investments will normally be three years or less.

About Leader Short Term High Yield Bond Ins (LCCIX)

There are 2 members of the management team with an average tenure of 10.57 years: John Lekas (2005), Slavik Kolesnik (2026). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 1 primary benchmark: ICE BofA 1-3Y US Corp&Govt TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Leader Short Term High Yield Bond Ins has 72 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 35.7% 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.

Leader Short Term High Yield Bond Ins is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond fund group. Leader Short Term High Yield Bond Ins has 39.5% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 4.9%. There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.8% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 85.8% (46.3% domestic bond, 39.5% foreign bond and 1.5% convertible bond). Leader Short Term High Yield Bond Ins has 7.1% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $168 million in total assets, which is below the $545 million average for the High Yield 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.

LCCIX 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 Leader Short Term High Yield Bond Ins expense ratio is high compared to funds in the High Yield Bond category. Leader Short Term High Yield Bond Ins has an expense ratio of 1.25%, which is 36% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a F. 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. Leader Short Term High Yield Bond Ins has a portfolio turnover rate of 182%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 72% for the High Yield Bond category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Leader Short Term High Yield Bond Ins returned 0.0%, which earned it a grade of A, as the High Yield Bond category had an average return of -0.3%. 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.

Leader Short Term High Yield Bond Ins has a trailing yield of 9.49%, which is above the 6.28% 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.

Leader Short Term High Yield Bond Ins Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 4.8%, 3.1 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of A. The fund has returned 10.2% over the past year (grade of A), 12.4% over the past three years (grade of A) and 6.1% per year over the past five years (grade of A) and 4.6% per year over the past 10 years (grade of D).

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