The folks at a pair of Gotham firms are teaming up to offer an active municipal bond fund that is also powered by an income-generating options strategy.

Paul Sang Jin Kim Simplify Asset Management Inc. CEO, Co-Founder

This morning, David Berns, chief investment officer and co-founder of Simplify Asset Management Inc. (SAMI) [profile], unveiled the launch of the Simplify National Muni Bond ETF (NMB on the NYSE Arca). MFWire reported last month that the Simplify team was preparing to launch NMB.

NMB's inception date was yesterday. By the end of the day, the new, actively managed fund had more than $20 million in AUM.

As previously reported, NMB comes with an expense ratio of 52 basis points, and Simplify serves as investment advisor while FCO Advisors LP (Foundation Credit, also based in New York City) serves as subadvisor.

"Rather than simply allowing muni investors to clip coupons, NMB is built to combine three sources of potential return: the yields from the muni bonds themselves, opportunistic investments in securities overlooked by the traditional passive indices, and the income generated by the option-writing strategy," Berns states. "It's a capital efficient means for investors to stack a number of different return sources without requiring additional investment outlay."

The people and firms powering NMB, as previously reported include: Berns, Foundation CEO Hector Negroni, Foundation partner Sudar Purushothaman, and Simplify SVP Jeff Uenishi as PMs; Bank of New York Mellon as administrator, custodian, dividend disbursing agent, fund accountant, and transfer agent; Cohen & Company, Ltd. as independent accounting firm; ACA's Foreside Financial Services, LLC as distributor; Foreside Fund Officer Services, LLC as chief compliance officer provider; and Thompson Hine as counsel. 

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