NYLI MacKay California Muni Intermediate ETF

NYLI MacKay California Muni Intermediate ETF (MMCA) is an actively managed fund that buys mostly investment-grade California municipal bonds. It aims to pay income free from federal and California income taxes. Its managers at MacKay Shields pick the bonds instead of tracking an index. That approach costs 0.36% a year after a fee waiver. This is about double the 0.17% average of similar funds and well above the 0.08% charged by iShares California Muni Bond ETF (CMF).

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, MMCA returned -0.3%, 5th of 8 among similar funds.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2022 (-12.2%); its best was 2025 (+5.7%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 16% (Dec 22, 2021 to Oct 27, 2022), recovered by Jan 7, 2026.

As of Jul 31, 2026, the fund held 124 securities; the ten largest made up 19.94% of assets, and 6.99% sat in cash and money-market holdings.

The bonds mature in 12.8 years on average (weighted by size), with an average coupon of 4.23%.

• Over the three months to Jul 31, 2026, investors added a net $8.6M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +0.35%, +0.58%, -1.72%.

MMCA does not track an index. MacKay Shields, the subadvisor for this New York Life fund, chooses what it owns. At least 80% of assets go into municipal bonds whose interest is exempt from federal and California income taxes. Municipal bonds are loans to states, cities and public agencies. The managers mostly buy investment-grade bonds. They may put up to 20% in junk bonds, which are rated below BBB-. Another 20% can go into bonds subject to the alternative minimum tax or to regular income tax. If California bonds are scarce, the fund may buy bonds from other states, and their interest may not be free of California tax.

MacKay Shields picks bonds one at a time through credit research. It looks for bonds it sees as mispriced and compares yields across maturities. It keeps the portfolio's duration to worst between 3 and 8 years. Duration estimates how much a bond's price moves when interest rates change. "To worst" means the estimate assumes each bond is repaid on its earliest possible date. The fund has no fixed weighting or rebalancing schedule. Portfolio turnover was 81%.

As of July 31, 2026, the fund held 125 positions. The top 10 made up about 20% of assets, and 7% was in cash. The largest issuer was the California Community Choice Financing Authority. The fund creates and redeems shares mainly for cash. That can force it to sell bonds, which may produce taxable gains.

• MMCA charges 0.36% a year, versus an average of 0.17% for the similar funds below (8th of 8, cheapest first).
• Of that, 0.45% is the management fee; the rest covers other fund expenses.
• The fee includes a 0.28% waiver from the adviser, which may end.
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $37 in the first year and $456 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

Its main appeal is monthly interest exempt from federal and California income taxes, but its 16% drop shows it is not a substitute for cash.

MMCA could provide tax-exempt monthly income for California residents who hold bonds in a taxable account. Its trailing yield was 3.36% as of October 27, 2026. It moves far less than stocks: its beta was 0.08, meaning it barely followed the stock market over the past year. It is not risk-free, though. The fund launched in December 2021, so it has no record in the 2008 crisis or the 2020 crash. As interest rates rose in the 2022 bear market, it fell 15.3%. Its deepest drop was 16%, and it took about 38 months to recover, until January 7, 2026. Anyone who had to sell in late 2022 would have locked in that loss. Its 0.36% cost is about double the 0.17% peer average, and that eats into income. Past results don't predict the future, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by bond funds with the closest average maturity and issuer mix (N-PORT).