In addition to its advantages, a bond fund also has some potential disadvantages. First, the dividend income paid by a bond fund is not fixed, as it is with an individual bond. As a result, the actual dividend the investor receives may go up or down slightly as the fund buys and sells individual bonds. Second, a bond fund has no fixed maturity date. Instead, a fund maintains an average “rolling”maturity by selling off aging bonds and buying newer ones—which could create taxable capital gains for the fund’s shareholders. After five years, a 5-year bond fund will still have a 5-year average maturity, but a 5-year bond would have matured.
