American Funds Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund

C000186457 Fund Overview

American Funds Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund is a US mutual fund managed by American Funds Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund, categorised as Long Municipal - National Bond. ABC INVEST provides holdings, performance, costs, cashflows, risk data, prospectus documents and SEC filings, sourced from SEC filings.

• Type: US mutual fund
• Manager: American Funds Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund
• Category: Long Municipal - National Bond
• Assets under management: $2.36B
• 1-year return: 2.8%
• SEC CIK: 0000845376
• SEC series ID: S000009233
• Share class ID: C000186457

C000186457 Investment Objective and Strategy

American Funds Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund describes its objective and strategy as follows, from its latest prospectus filed with the SEC by American Funds Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund.

Investment objective

The funds investment objective is to provide you with current income exempt from regular federal income tax, consistent with the maturity and quality standards described in this prospectus, and to preserve capital.

Principal investment strategy

Under normal circumstances, the fund will invest at least 80% of its assets in, or derive at least 80% of its income from, securities that are exempt from regular federal income tax and that do not subject you to federal alternative minimum tax. The fund may also invest up to 20% of its assets in securities that may subject you to federal alternative minimum tax. The fund invests primarily in debt securities rated AA- or better or Aa3 or better by Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations designated by the funds investment adviser, or unrated but determined by the funds investment adviser to be of equivalent quality. The fund may also invest in debt securities rated A- or better or A3 or better by Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations designated by the funds investment adviser, or unrated but determined by the funds investment adviser to be of equivalent quality.

Some of the securities in which the fund invests may have credit and liquidity support features, including guarantees and letters of credit. The funds aggregate portfolio will have a dollar-weighted average effective maturity no greater than three years. The investment adviser uses a system of multiple portfolio managers in managing the funds assets. Under this approach, the portfolio of the fund is divided into segments managed by individual managers who decide how their respective segments will be invested. The fund relies on the professional judgment of its investment adviser to make decisions about the funds portfolio investments. The basic investment philosophy of the investment adviser is to seek to invest in attractively priced securities that, in its opinion, represent good, long-term investment opportunities.

The investment adviser believes that an important way to accomplish this is by analyzing various factors, which may include the credit strength of the issuer, prices of similar securities issued by comparable issuers, anticipated changes in interest rates, general market conditions and other factors pertinent to the particular security being evaluated. Securities may be sold when the investment adviser believes that they no longer represent relatively attractive investment opportunities.

C000186457 Holdings

Top 10 holdings of American Funds Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund by percentage of net assets, from the fund's latest SEC N-PORT filing.

View all C000186457 holdings

C000186457 Portfolio Allocation

Asset-class allocation of American Funds Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund by percentage of net assets, from the latest SEC N-PORT filing.

C000186457 Performance

Total returns for C000186457 (as of 2026-10-01), from SEC filings.

C000186457 Risk Information

Risk metrics for C000186457, derived from monthly returns in SEC filings.

• 1-year volatility (annualised): 1.6%

C000186457 Costs and Fees

C000186457 costs about $24 per $10,000 invested per year in fund expenses.

• Net expense ratio: 0.24%
• Gross expense ratio: 0.25%
• Portfolio turnover: 53%
• Brokerage commissions: 0.00 bps of average net assets (SEC N-CEN)

C000186457 Cashflows

Over the 12 months to 2026-07, American Funds Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund had net inflows of $213.42M, from monthly SEC N-PORT filings.

C000186457 Debt Constituents

Largest debt holdings of American Funds Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund by percentage of net assets, from the latest SEC N-PORT filing.

C000186457 Prospectus and SEC Filings

Official American Funds Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund filings on SEC EDGAR — prospectus, portfolio holdings and annual reports.

• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2026-09-30
• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2025-09-30
• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2024-09-30
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-09-28
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-06-26
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-03-30
• Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2025-10-14
• Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2024-10-15

Related Funds

Other Long Municipal - National Bond funds tracked on ABC INVEST:

• Vanguard Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt Fund (VWITX)
• iShares National Muni Bond ETF (MUB)
• Vanguard Limited-Term Tax-Exempt Fund (VMLTX)
• Tax Exempt Bond Fund Of America (AFTEX)
• Bridge Builder Municipal Bond Fund (BBMUX)

Data Sources

ABC INVEST compiles this page from public filings made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through EDGAR: portfolio holdings and monthly cashflows from Form N-PORT, expenses and returns from fund prospectuses (Form 485BPOS) and the SEC DERA Risk/Return Summary data sets, annual data from Form N-CEN, and shareholder reports from Form N-CSR.