For most taxable bond investors, bond mutual funds have a number of advantages over individual bond portfolios in terms of diversification, cash-flow treatment and portfolio characteristics, liquidity, and costs. Individual bonds do provide certain benefits compared with bond mutual funds, and these advantages revolve primarily around a preference for control over security-specific decisions in the portfolio. The cost of this advantage can be thought of as a “control premium” that is reflected in generally higher (or additional) transaction costs, lower liquidity, more limited return opportunities, and higher bond portfolio risk. The cost of the control premium is more pronounced for buyers of corporate bonds and mortgage-backed securities than for buyers.
