Fund Evaluator:

Empower Global Bond Institutional Overview

Empower Global Bond Institutional (MXZMX) is an actively managed Taxable Bond Global Bond fund. Empower Funds launched the fund in 2015.

The investment seeks current income with capital appreciation and growth of income. The fund will normally invest at least 80% of its net assets in bonds issued by companies, governments and government agencies located around the world. It will invest at least 40% of its net assets in foreign securities. The fund focuses on investment grade securities but may invest up to 25% of its total assets in below investment grade securities (commonly known as “high yield securities” or “junk bonds”). It is non-diversified.

About Empower Global Bond Institutional (MXZMX)

There are 5 members of the management team with an average tenure of 4.54 years: Kaspar Hense (2021), Brendan Murphy (2018), Nathaniel Hyde (2022), James Bailey (2026), Mark Dowding (2021). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 1 primary benchmark: Bloomberg Global Aggregate TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Empower Global Bond Institutional has 422 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 23.3% 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.

Empower Global Bond Institutional is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond fund group. Empower Global Bond Institutional has 46.0% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 0.0%. There is 0.2% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 97.6% (51.7% domestic bond, 45.8% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Empower Global Bond Institutional has 2.3% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $723 million in total assets, which is above the $422 million average for the Global 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.

MXZMX 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 Empower Global Bond Institutional expense ratio is above average compared to funds in the Global Bond category. Empower Global Bond Institutional has an expense ratio of 0.64%, which is 33% 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. Empower Global Bond Institutional has a portfolio turnover rate of 153%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 152% for the Global Bond category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Empower Global Bond Institutional returned -0.8%, which earned it a grade of D, as the Global 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.

Empower Global Bond Institutional has a trailing yield of 3.01%, which is below the 4.17% category average. The fund normally distributes its income semi-annually 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.

Empower Global Bond Institutional Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned -2.0%, 1.8 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of F. The fund has returned 0.8% over the past year (grade of F), 2.9% over the past three years (grade of D) and -1.6% per year over the past five years (grade of C) and 0.6% per year over the past 10 years (grade of C).

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