Fund Evaluator:

Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI Overview

Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI (WACIX) is an actively managed Taxable Bond Intermediate Core-Plus Bond fund. Franklin Templeton Investments launched the fund in 2002.

The investment seeks to maximize total return, consistent with prudent investment management and liquidity needs. The fund invests in a portfolio of fixed income securities of various maturities and, under normal market conditions, will invest at least 80% of its net assets in debt and fixed income securities. Although the fund may invest in securities of any maturity, it will normally maintain a dollar-weighted average effective duration within 30% of the average duration of the domestic bond market as a whole as estimated by the fund's subadvisers. The fund may invest up to 20% of its total assets in non-U.S. dollar denominated securities.

About Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI (WACIX)

There are 7 members of the management team with an average tenure of 5.97 years: Julien Scholnick (2016), Amit Chopra (2026), Nicholas Mastroianni (2026), Rafael Zielonka (2026), Mark Lindbloom (2006), Michael Buchanan (2024), Frederick Marki (2018). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 1 primary benchmark: Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI has 1211 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 10.3% 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.

Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond fund group. Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI has 17.3% 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 0.9% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 104.4% (87.1% domestic bond, 17.3% foreign bond and 0.1% convertible bond). Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI has -5.3% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $32 million in total assets, which is below the $1 billion average for the Intermediate Core-Plus 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.

WACIX 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 Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Intermediate Core-Plus Bond category. Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI has an expense ratio of 0.81%, which is 4% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a D. 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. Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI has a portfolio turnover rate of 83%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 181% for the Intermediate Core-Plus Bond category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI returned -1.5%, which earned it a grade of F, as the Intermediate Core-Plus Bond category had an average return of -1.3%. 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.

Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI has a trailing yield of 4.58%, which is above the 4.36% 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.

Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned -1.0%, 0.4 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of F. The fund has returned 2.4% over the past year (grade of D), 2.8% over the past three years (grade of F) and -2.2% per year over the past five years (grade of F) and 1.0% per year over the past 10 years (grade of F).

For more mutual fund grades, analysis and screening tools to help your investment discovery, join AAII for a $2, full-access trial. Learn more here: https://invest.aaii.com/membership.

Otherwise, for more information about Western Asset Core Plus Bond FI, including its riskiness, submit your email to unlock the rest of the article.