It’s one of the oldest mutual funds at Thrivent. What accounts for its exceptional longevity? Coming up, we have the details. 

From Thrivent Asset Management, welcome to Advisor’s Market360™, a podcast for you, the driven financial advisor. 

In today's market, characterized by uncertainty and volatility, fixed income investors are seeking stability and reliable income. A time-tested approach may provide flexibility in fixed income investing during these turbulent markets.

Launched in 1972, Thrivent Income Fund has grown to $1.2 billion in total fund assets. What accounts for this longevity and popularity? To answer these questions and many others, we turned to Kent White, vice president of fixed Income Mutual Funds, who co-manages the Fund with Cortney Swenson. 

Let’s get into it… 

Let’s start with the basics. We asked White give us an overview: 

White: Thrivent Income Fund, ticker symbol LBIIX, is actually one of the first and oldest mutual funds at Thrivent Asset Management. Its original share class was launched in 1972. Well, that's a bit before my time. It's currently co-managed by myself since 2017, and Courtney Swensen, who joined me on the Fund in 2023. The Fund's primary objectives are to seek a high level of income while preserving principal, and secondarily, to obtain long term growth of capital in order to maintain our investors’ purchasing power. The Fund invests primarily in investment-grade corporate bonds, but also in U.S. government bonds, mortgage-backed securities, other securitized debt, high-yield bonds and emerging market debt. 

Next, we wanted to find out what type of investor might be a good fit for this Fund.  

White: Thrivent Income Fund is a good fit for investors with a medium- to long-term investment horizon and are seeking a higher level of income than that provided by higher quality government bond funds or shorter duration funds. 

The success of Thrivent Income Fund is driven by a thoughtful process for selecting investments. White explains: 

White: Within our corporate bond peer group, we've got a little bit more of a flexible or tactical approach to investing than some of our peers. We're able to move in and out of different fixed income asset classes based on where we see the most value. At any point, we may have varying levels of exposure to U.S. Teasuries, securitized debt, high yield debt, emerging market debt, or even preferreds.

So, what may set us apart is this ability to tactically allocate to these different asset classes. And we have great teams right here at Thrivent Asset Management that are experts in all of these areas. And we're all here on the same floor. So, it's easy to leverage their expertise every single day. One of Thrivent Income Fund’s primary goals is to outperform through superior credit selection. We view this as our core competency, and we have a long history of adding value to our investors in this manner. 

When talking about a fund’s philosophy, we are not referring to writings by Socrates or Aristotle. A mutual fund’s philosophy is a set of core beliefs and principles that guide a fund's investment decisions and management. It's essentially a blueprint that outlines the fund's approach to investing, helping it achieve specific objectives, manage risk and align with investor’s expectations. With that as a background, we asked White about the philosophy of Thrivent Income Fund: 

White: The foundation of our investment philosophy is a team-oriented, disciplined fundamental credit research process. Our process starts with a top-down assessment of our current macroeconomic views and where we currently are in the credit cycle. This macro strategy then drives the Fund's risk profile, sector allocations and duration targets. We have ongoing discussions with the experts in Thrivent's various fixed income teams to determine where we see the most value and how we want to be positioned within those sectors. Our top-down views then meet the bottoms-up fundamental research process, which is supported by teams of very experienced research analysts. These analysts are tasked with identifying securities with the strongest risk-reward profiles. Our portfolio teams also seek to add value through active management while monitoring risk to build well-diversified portfolios.  

The actual selection of securities to include in Thrivent Income Fund is driven by the characteristics of those securities. We asked White what he and his team are looking for: 

White: When choosing securities to include in Thrivent Income Fund, Courtney and I work very closely with our analyst teams to fully understand the companies we decide to invest in. We look at the company's growth trajectory, what threats there may be to that growth, look at their margins, and how all of this impacts the company's free cash flow. Which ultimately determines how likely they are to repay their debt obligations.

Within the industry sector, we also want to consider the company's position within that sector and the viability of their business model within the sector. There are almost always relative winners and losers within a sector, and we try very hard to avoid the losers.

Finally, within the credit market, we're going to have some strong sectors and weak sectors. Depending on our outlook, it's then our decision on whether we want to go for potential outsize returns in a weaker sector or focus on stronger sectors and get closer to benchmark-like returns. We view this as our core competency, and we have a long history of adding value to our investors in this manner. 

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We hope this fixed income opportunity can provide you and your clients with flexibility to navigate the turbulent markets of 2025. Once again, we would like to thank Kent White for his insights. What did you think of this episode? Email us at podcast@thriventfunds.com with your feedback or questions for our experts. Want more episodes of Advisors Market360™ and other market and investing insights? Visit us at thriventfunds.com, where you can learn how we can partner with you, the driven financial advisor. Bye for now. 

[Disclosures]

All information and representations herein are as of 8/8/2025 unless otherwise noted. 

Investing involves risks, including the possible loss of principal. Thrivent Income Fund is subject to risks including interest rate, credit, and market risk. Exposure to high yield debt increases volatility and liquidity risk. 

The prospectus contains more complete information on the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the fund, and other information, which investors should read and consider carefully before investing. Available at thriventfunds.com. 

This information should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or product. Investment decisions should always be made based on an investor's specific financial needs, objectives, goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance. 

Thrivent Distributors, LLC, a registered broker-dealer and member FINRA, is the distributor for Thrivent Mutual Funds. Asset management services are provided by Thrivent Asset Management, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Thrivent Distributors, LLC, and Thrivent Asset Management, LLC are subsidiaries of Thrivent, the marketing name for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.