Muni Bonds...then and now

Once upon a time we recommended individual tax free municipal bonds to clients. We gradually ceased doing so for several reasons. First, as this article points out, it is nearly impossible to obtain any reasonably accurate or timely financial statements from most of these entities. On top of that, the tendency over the past decade or more to "insure" bonds so that everything has the highest rating (even though the insurance has now mostly disappeared ). Finally, the lack of transparency on commissions/mark-ups make for a difficult trading environment tilted in favor of the brokers.