The $125 million Oppenheimer Rochester Virginia Municipal Bond Fund (ORVAX) is down more than 15% this year, because of it contains 33% of Puerto Rican bonds, which have underperformed the broad municipal bond market. The S&P Municipal Bond Puerto Rico Index was down 21% year-to-date through Oct. 10, 1,900 basis points worse than the S&P Municipal Bond Index. This caused the Oppenheimer Rochester Virginia Municipal Bond Fund to rank last among single-state municipal bond funds and second-worst among all municipal bond funds. The average single-state municipal bond fund is down 5.58% writes Jason Kephart in a recent article from InvestmentNews.
The Virginia fund having 33% of its assets in Puerto Rican debt as of Aug. 31, is the most of any single-state municipal bond fund. The median single-state municipal bond fund holds approximately 2.38% of assets in Puerto Rican bonds. The Oppenheimer Rochester North Carolina, Arizona, Massachusetts and Maryland funds are the only other single-state municipal bond funds that hold more than 25% of assets in Puerto Rican bonds.
Puerto Rican debt is exempt from state taxes in most states. Puerto Rico bonds carry higher yields because of the risks surrounding the territory's pension deficits and slow economic growth. This leads to higher yields and potentially higher returns.
Currently, Massachusetts regulators are looking into whether or not investors were made aware of the risks in these bond funds. They have also sent letters of inquiry to Fidelity Investments and UBS.
If you purchased Oppenheimer Rochester Virginia Municipal Bond Fund (ORVAX), Oppenheimer Rochester North Carolina, Arizona, Massachusetts and Maryland funds or funds from UBS of Puerto Rico or through Fidelity Investments, please call (888) 760-6552 for a free consultation on how you may be able to recover your investment losses.
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