- Home
- Investing
- ETFs
A flexible mandate and solid bond-picking have helped the JPMorgan Income ETF deliver above-average returns with low volatility.
By
Nellie S. Huang
published
8 April 2026
in Features
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
- Copy link
- X
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Delivered daily
Kiplinger Today
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more delivered daily. Smart money moves start here.
Signup +
Sent five days a week
Kiplinger A Step Ahead
Get practical help to make better financial decisions in your everyday life, from spending to savings on top deals.
Signup +
Delivered daily
Kiplinger Closing Bell
Get today's biggest financial and investing headlines delivered to your inbox every day the U.S. stock market is open.
Signup +
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Adviser Intel
Financial pros across the country share best practices and fresh tactics to preserve and grow your wealth.
Signup +
Delivered weekly
Kiplinger Tax Tips
Trim your federal and state tax bills with practical tax-planning and tax-cutting strategies.
Signup +
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Retirement Tips
Your twice-a-week guide to planning and enjoying a financially secure and richly rewarding retirement
Signup +
Sent bimonthly.
Kiplinger Adviser Angle
Insights for advisers, wealth managers and other financial professionals.
Signup +
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Investing Weekly
Your twice-a-week roundup of promising stocks, funds, companies and industries you should consider, ones you should avoid, and why.
Signup +
Sent weekly for six weeks
Kiplinger Invest for Retirement
Your step-by-step six-part series on how to invest for retirement, from devising a successful strategy to exactly which investments to choose.
Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter
Stocks, schmocks. Lately, bonds have been a rewarding place to be, too, if the recent performance of Kiplinger ETF 20 member, JPMorgan Income ETF (JPIE), is any guide.
The multisector bond fund, which aims to maximize income for a prudent level of risk, delivered a 6.9% return over the past 12 months, with less than half the volatility of the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. It currently yields 5.6%.
The fund's managers, led by Andrew Norelli, have a flexible mandate. They are free to invest in any sector and any bond they deem attractive, whether it's rated investment grade (triple-A to triple-B) or below, or whether it is short or long in maturity.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues
CLICK FOR FREE ISSUE
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
Sign upThat leeway, along with good bond-picking, has enabled them to deliver above-average returns with below-average volatility since the exchange-traded fund's late-2021 launch.
Over the past three years, "even the Aggregate Bond index has had twice the volatility and returned less," says Norelli.
Lately, the managers have favored short-term securitized loans, which Norelli says offer more income than other bonds, including government and corporate debt, without lowering the quality of the portfolio. At last report, nearly 66% of the portfolio held securitized debt, much of it in government-guaranteed mortgage-backed bonds.
Norelli and his comanagers have an optimistic outlook for 2026, in part because of good economic growth numbers in recent quarters. But certain risks, such as central bank moves and the continued gradual shift away from the dollar as the primary currency for international trade and government reserves, make them cautious about interest rates and bonds with long-term maturities.
The fund's current two-year duration (a measure of interest rate sensitivity) is relatively low for this strategy, which at other points in recent years has been as high as six years. (Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions; a two-year duration implies a 2% drop in net asset value if interest rates rise by one percentage point, and vice versa.) The duration of the Agg index, at last report, was 5.8 years.
Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.
Related content
- A Top Vanguard ETF Pick Outperforms on International Strength
- The Best ETFs to Buy for 2026 and Beyond
- What All Investors Should Know About The Life Cycle of a Bond
Nellie S. HuangSocial Links NavigationSenior Editor, Kiplinger Personal Finance MagazineNellie joined Kiplinger in August 2011 after a seven-year stint in Hong Kong. There, she worked for the Wall Street Journal Asia, where as lifestyle editor, she launched and edited Scene Asia, an online guide to food, wine, entertainment and the arts in Asia. Prior to that, she was an editor at Weekend Journal, the Friday lifestyle section of the Wall Street Journal Asia. Kiplinger isn't Nellie's first foray into personal finance: She has also worked at SmartMoney (rising from fact-checker to senior writer), and she was a senior editor at Money.