I am more focused on the short term fund and I did a little comparing already. Vanguard has three short-ish muni funds: VMLUX, VTES, and VWSUX.
Vanguard comparison page
New funds' prospectus (draft)
VTES is passively managed. VSDM (Short Duration Tax-Exempt ETF) is actively managed.
VWSUX was until a year ago named Short-Term; it's now Ultra-Short-Term. I haven't checked whether the fund actually changed its portfolio then or just its name. It's a bit higher grade than VDSM. At least 75% in A range, at most 20% Baa and 5% junk. In comparison, VDSM can invest up to 20% in junk. Maturities are different. VWSUX shoots for 1-2 year average. VDSM is longer at 2-7 years. VDSM doesn't yet say what its expected duration will be.
VMLUX invests the same way as VWSUX (higher quality), just with longer maturities: 2-6 years. So in comparison, VDSM is lower quality and perhaps slightly longer maturities (2-7 years).
That makes VDSM higher risk, both credit risk and interest rate risk, than existing Vanguard actively managed muni funds. It's also slightly more expensive, with a 0.12% expense ratio compared to 0.09% for the existing funds' Admiral shares and 0.07 to VTES's cost.
Benefits? That's for you to decide, whether you want to go out a little further on the risk spectrum.
Likewise VCRM (Core Tax-Exempt ETF) looks to be more junky than existing funds, though its average maturity will be in the 3-10 year range.
Vanguard comparison page for VTEI, VWIUX
Same comments apply. VTEI is passively managed, and both existing funds are cheaper than VCRM's 0.12% ER.
What you get with these new funds is active management in an ETF wrapper. That's new for Vanguard.
If one wants to go even shorter, Fidelity offers FMNDX with an average maturity of 1 year or less, same quality as Vanguard's existing funds (up to 20% junk), higher ER (0.25%), and no frequent trading restrictions.

Happened upon IGIB. Eyeing it as replacement for the bulk of my junk bonds.

Ha, @Crash, I started buying this ETF a few weeks ago. So far so good, but it is kind of on the volatile side. At least more than my other bond funds.

Oh, poopies. More volatile than the usual fare? Don't like that. But I'll be bird-dogging it. Appreciate the response. As for the junk, falling rates are supposed to be a GOOD thing for such vehicles, no? I'm always comparing spreads between IG and HY. The talking heads for many moons have already been telling us that the spread does not warrant the extra risk with HY. But I've stuck it out now, for a couple of YEARS, and have had tasty results.

Maybe I shouldn't be, but I'm just surprised that 'sophisticated' folks like Fido would go into this investment given the mercurial and moronic impulses of its cosplaying CEO business jenius with MY money, let alone anyone else's.
Ye reap what ye sow --- just glad those markdowns aren't my problem!

The only problem is that other sites have played politics very deliberately for years.

IOW, undo the Boeing/McDonnell Douglas merger.
The European Commission in reviewing the merger considered " potential spillover of benefits from the McDonnell Douglas defense business to the Boeing commercial airplane business"
https://boeing.mediaroom.com/1997-07-23-Boeing-McDonnell-Douglas-Merger-Gains-a-Positive-Opinion-from-the-European-Commission
Up through1996, " McDonnell Douglas [had been] the leader in defense aircraft for many years", while "Boeing had not received lead military program contracts for over 40 years."
" McDonnell Douglas' commercial aircraft division, Douglas Aircraft Company (DAC), no longer exerted a competitive influence in the worldwide market for commercial aircraft. [FTC conclusion regarding merger]"
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/56358984.pdf
You can spin off MD, but can you take 25 years of culture out of BA? It's been pervasive.
--------------
From the NPR article: " NASA has decided to reconfigure things so that this capsule has two seats free and available for Williams and Wilmore to catch a ride home."
What the NPR piece didn't mention was that they'll be sending up spare spacesuits since Starliner's aren't compatible with SpaceX's.
"NASA and SpaceX currently are working several items before launch, including reconfiguring seats on the Crew-9 Dragon, and adjusting the manifest to carry additional cargo, personal effects, and Dragon-specific spacesuits for Wilmore and Williams."
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-decides-to-bring-starliner-spacecraft-back-to-earth-without-crew/

It's beautiful country up there. I visited a few years ago.
Unfortunately, this is what kept running through my mind:

I looked into the Monument Annuity years ago. It looked like an interesting idea. Then it was sold to Nationwide and as I recall it became difficult to buy without an advisor. Glad to see one can buy it direct again.
All in costs are comparable to other low cost VAs. When one invests in DFA or Vanguard funds with Monument, there's an extra 0.35%/year. (look for Low Cost Platform in the prospectus.) The share class of Fidelity funds that are available include a 0.25% 12b-1 fee. For example, here's the Monument page for Fidelity VIP Balanced (0.69% net), and the page for Fidelity VIP Balanced through Fidelity (0.51% net).
The tickers I gave, despite their cryptic look, work on M*. You can add them to a portfolio. You can use them in a chart (pull up another fund and add the VA fund in the compare box). You can even do a search on these tickers in the "new" Morningstar.
What you can't do is pull up a page on most of these funds. The search box will find the fund and translate the name to English; it won't give you a link to a fund page.

These are two of the least expensive and most flexible VAs around. Fidelity charges 0.25% and 0.10% for over $1M in the VA. TIAA charges anywhere from 0.50% (under $100K) to 0.35% (up to $500K) and 0.25% (over $500K). But all those go down to 0.10% independent of value after ten years.
Fidelity tends to include the second cheapest share class of VA portfolios (think "retail") while TIAA tends to include the cheapest share class (think "institutional"). All in, the two have similar costs for the first ten years, then TIAA becomes much cheaper.
The real question, though, is how their underlying portfolios perform. I've looked up (via Financial Times search) all the portfolios open to new investors. Below is the table I built for myself (slightly edited for formatting here). Note: the M* ratings are for the portfolios themselves.
On the VAs' websites you'll find different ratings. That's because what you're seeing are there the ratings of the funds including the annuity fees. Since the annuity fees of both of these VAs are so low, those star ratings tend to be mostly 4s and 5s. The ratings of the funds themselves, included here, give a better picture of the funds' performance.
Since there are so many funds, I've split the table into two posts - broad equity in the first, sectors and fixed income in the second.

Fund					Class	ER	Ticker		M* 	Lipper	Annuity
Allocation Portfolios
Conservative Allocation
Fidelity VIP FundsManager 20		Inv.	0.55%	0P00003EYS	4	3/2/5/5	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP FundsManager 30		Inv.	0.57%	0P0001Q617	-	-	Fidelity
Moderately Conservative Allocation
Fidelity VIP FundsManager 40		Inv.	0.62%	0P0001Q618	-	-	Fidelity
Franklin Income VIP			Cl 1	0.46%	0P00003BNK	5	4/3/4/5	TIAA
Nuveen Life Funds Balanced			0.51%	TLBAX		5	4/4/4/5	TIAA
Vanguard VIF Conservative Alloc.		0.13%	0P0000TNLX	4	5/5/5/5	TIAA
Moderate Allocation
Fidelity VIP Asset Manager		Inv.	0.61%	0P00003ESQ	2	3/3/4/4	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Balanced			Inv.	0.51%	0P00003ESS	5	5/5/2/5	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP FundsManager 50		Inv.	0.70%	0P00003EYT	3	4/3/4/4	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP FundsManager 60		Inv.	0.71%	0P00008YBH	3	2/2/3/4	Fidelity
Vanguard VIF Balanced Portfolio			0.21%	0P00003BRZ	4	5/5/3/5	TIAA
Vanguard VIF Moderate Alloc.			0.13%	0P0000TNLY	3	4/4/3/5	TIAA
Moderately Aggressive Allocation
Fidelity VIP Asset Manager: Growth	Inv.	0.72%	0P00003ESP	3	3/3/2/4	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP FundsManager 70		Inv.	0.74%	0P00003EYU	3	4/4/2/4	Fidelity
Aggressive Allocation
Fidelity VIP FundsManager 85		Inv.	0.78%	0P00003EYW	4	4/4/1/4	Fidelity
Target Date
Fidelity VIP Investor Freedom 2010		0.44%	0P00003ET2	3	x/x/5/x	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Investor Freedom 2015		0.48%	0P00003ET4	4	x/x/5/x	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Investor Freedom 2020		0.51%	0P00003ET3	5	4/4/4/4	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Investor Freedom 2025		0.54%	0P00003ET5	5	5/5/3/4	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Investor Freedom 2030		0.58%	0P00003ET6	5	5/5/2/4	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Investor Freedom 2035		0.63%	0P0001OWHR	-	-	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Investor Freedom 2040		0.68%	0P0001OWHT	-	-	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Investor Freedom 2045		0.69%	0P0001OWHU	-	-	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Investor Freedom 2050		0.69%	0P0001OWHV	-	-	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Investor Freedom Inc.		0.40%	0P00003ET8	3	2/2/5/5	Fidelity
Tactical Allocation
Morgan Stanley VIF Global Strat.	Cl. I	0.90%	MIMPX		3	2/2/2/3	Fidelity
PIMCO VIT All Asset Portfolio		Inst.	2.04%	0P00003EXR	3	3/4/4/1	TIAA
Global Allocation
BlackRock Global Allocation VI 		Cl. 2	0.92%	0P00003E89	4	3/3/3/3	Fidelity
DFA VA Global Moderate Allocation	Inst.	0.28%	0P0000XY87	5	5/5/4/5	TIAA
US Equity Portfolios
Large Cap Blend					
ClearBridge Variable Growth Port.	Cl. I	0.85%	QLMGOX		1	1/2/2/3	TIAA
DFA Equity Allocation			Inst.	0.32%	0P00019RXP	2	5/5/4/5	TIAA
Fidelity VIP Growth & Income		Inv.	0.57%	0P00003ES4	4	5/5/5/4	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Index 500			Init.	0.09%	0P00003BWH	4	5/5/5/5	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Total Market Index		Init.	0.11%	FVIDX		3	4/4/4/5	Fidelity
Nuveen Life Core Equity Fund			0.52%	TLGWX		4	5/5/4/5	TIAA
Nuveen Life Large Cap Resp. Equity		0.22%	TLCHX		3	3/3/4/5	TIAA
Nuveen Life Stock Index Fund			0.08%	TLSTX		3	4/5/4/5	TIAA
Vanguard VIF Capital Growth Port.		0.34%	0P00003DVM	4	4/4/5/5	TIAA
Vanguard VIF Equity Index			0.14%	0P00003BS4	4	5/5/5/5	TIAA
Vanguard VIF Total Stock Mkt Index		0.13%	0P00003DVK	3	4/4/4/5	TIAA
Large Cap Growth
Fidelity VIP Contrafund			Inv.	0.64%	0P00003ESR	4	4/4/4/4	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Dynamic Cap Apprec.	Inv.	0.70%	0P00003ESX	4	4/4/4/4	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Growth			Inv.	0.65%	0P00003ES7	5	5/5/4/5	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Growth Opportunities	Inv.	0.67%	0P00003ES3	4	5/5/1/5	Fidelity
Janus Henderson VIT Forty Port.		Inst.	0.55%	JACAX		3	3/4/3/5	TIAA
MFS VIT Mass. Inv. Growth Stock Port.	Init.	0.73%	0P00003CPY	3	3/3/4/4	TIAA
Nuveen Life Growth Equity Fund			0.52%	TLGQX		3	2/3/3/5	TIAA
PSF PGIM Jennison Blend Portfolio	Cl. II	0.86%	0P00003CBD	3	2/1/4/2	TIAA
Large Cap Value
DFA VA Large Value Portfolio		Inst.	0.21%	0P00003CUU	2	2/2/3/5	TIAA
Fidelity VIP Equity-Income		Inv.	0.55%	0P00003ESO	4	4/5/5/5	Fidelity
Franklin Mutual Shares VIP		Cl. 1	0.68%	0P00003CBB	1	1/1/4/4	TIAA
Nuveen Life Large Cap Value Fund		0.52%	TLLVX		4	4/4/4/5	TIAA
PSF PGIM Jennison Value Portfolio	Cl. II	0.82%	0P00003DP6	3	3/4/5/2	TIAA
PVC Equity Income Account		Cl. 1	0.49%	0P00003CN9	3	3/2/4/5	TIAA
Mid Cap Blend
Fidelity VIP Mid Cap			Inv.	0.65%	0P00003ESF	4	5/5/3/5	Fidelity
Vanguard VIF Mid-Cap Index			0.17%	0P00003C89	3	3/2/3/5	TIAA
Mid Cap Growth
Franklin Small-Mid Cap Growth VIP	Cl. 1	0.83%	0P00003DB4	3	2/3/1/4	TIAA
PVC MidCap Account			Cl. 1	0.55%	0P00003BO4	5	5/3/3/5	TIAA
Wanger Acorn					0.95%	WUSAX		2	1/1/1/3	TIAA
Mid Cap Value
Fidelity VIP Value			Inv.	0.68%	0P00003ESN	4	5/5/3/4	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Value Strategies		Inv.	0.67%	0P00003ESM	4	5/5/2/4	Fidelity
Janus Henderson VIT Mid-Cap Value	Inst.	0.68%	JAMVX		3	3/2/4/5	TIAA
Matson Money U.S. Equity VI Port.		0.98%	FMVUX		4	4/4/3/1	TIAA
N-B AMT Mid Cap Intrinsic Value		Cl. I	1.02%	0P00003CPW	1	1/1/2/3	TIAA
Small Cap Blend
Fidelity VIP Disciplined  Small Cap 	Inv.	0.40%	0P00003EWG	3	5/5/2/5	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Extended Market Index	Init.	0.12%	FVIJX		3	3/3/1/5	Fidelity
Nuveen Life Small Cap Equity Fund		0.53%	TLEQX		4	5/5/2/5	TIAA
Small Cap Growth
ClearBridge Variable Small Cap Gr	Cl. I	0.80%	QLMSIX		2	1/1/1/5	TIAA
Small Cap Value
DFA VA U.S. Targeted Value Port.	Inst.	0.29%	0P00003D0Y	4	5/5/1/5	TIAA
Macquarie VIP Small Cap Value Ser.	Std.	0.78%	0P00003C1W	3	3/2/1/4	TIAA
Royce Capital Fund - Sm Cap Port.	Inv.	1.15%	RCPFX		3	3/3/1/1	TIAA
International Equity
Diversified Emerging Markets						
Fidelity VIP Emerging Markets		Inv.	0.97%	0P0000A9FS	4	5/5/2/4	Fidelity
John Hancock Emerg Mkts Val Trust	NAV	1.03%	JHVTX		3	4/4/4/4	TIAA
Lazard Retir. Emerging Markets Port.	Inv.	1.15%	0P00005XR9	3	4/2/3/3	Fidelity
Morgan Stanley VIF Emerg. Mkts Eq.	Cl. I	1.25%	MEMEX		3	4/4/2/2	Fidelity
Templeton Developing Mkts VIP Fund	Cl. 1	1.10%	0P00003CRI	3	4/4/2/3	TIAA
Foreign Large Blend	
Fidelity VIP International Index	Init.	0.16%	FVIGX		3	3/4/4/5	Fidelity
Nuveen Life International Equity		0.60%	TLINX		3	4/3/3/4	TIAA
Vanguard VIF Total Intl Stk Mkt Indx		0.11%	0P0001ANO3	3	3/3/4/5	TIAA
Foreign Large Growth
Fidelity VIP International Cap Ap	Inv.	0.86%	0P00003ESC	5	5/5/3/3	Fidelity
Fidelity VIP Overseas			Inv.	0.81%	0P00003ESH	4	5/5/3/5	Fidelity
Vanguard VIF International Port.		0.33%	0P00003CRA	3	4/2/1/5	TIAA
Foreign Large Value
DFA VA International Value Port.	Inst.	0.27%	0P00003CY8	4	5/5/3/5	TIAA
Foreign Small/Mid Blend
DFA VA International Small Port.	Inst.	0.40%	0P00003CN3	4	x/x/2/x	TIAA
Foreign Small/Mid Growth
Wanger International				1.14%	WSCAX		2	x/x/1/x	TIAA
Foreign Small/Mid Value
Matson Money Int'l Equity VI Port.		1.14%	FMVIX		3	3/3/3/1	TIAA
Global Large Cap Blend
Invesco V.I. Global Core Equity		Ser. I	0.98%	0P00003CZL	2	2/2/3/2	Fidelity
MFS VIT Global Equities Series		Init.	0.92%	0P00003D4V	2	2/2/3/3	TIAA

In general I like the primecap funds; we've owned POAGX - Primecap Odyssey Aggressive Growth since 7/2013. It has underperformed for the last few years, but we're continuing to hold it. (By 'underperform' I mean it has still made money, just not as much as if we had instead invested in a broad-based market index fund, such as VTSAX or VRTTX.)
I have to disagree with the statement that VPMCX has underperformed since 2006. According to my analysis it has underperformed since 6/2018, but it outperformed prior to that.

I found the site about a week ago. Seemed reasonably good. Was planning to poke around a bit more before mentioning it.
Regarding VPM[AC]X - Finormal says "The suggested benchmark for VPMAX is the Russell 3000." That's reasonable since Primecap is more of an all cap fund. Its median market cap (per M*) is $188B, while R3K's is around $190B.
Here's Finominal's comparison of VPMAX and VRTTX (institutional R3K index fund) since the latter's inception in 2010. (Finominal says it is comparing the past 14.1 years which is quite a trick since VRTTX's inception was Nov 1, 2010 per prospectus.)
https://finominal.com/securities-analyzer-analyze/US/VPMAX/VRTTX
VPMAX looks a little better - 1.5% better annualized return, similar (slightly worse) std dev (17.91 vs. 17.43), slightly smaller max drawdown, slightly better Sharpe ratio (0.83 vs. 0.77).
And it has done that with a healthy dose of foreign equity. 13% per Finominal (11% + 2% EM).

He emphasized inflation "expectations" several times - it's monitoring or anchoring.
I see 2 common quantitative measures for "expectations":
1. Inflation-"expectation" = Nominal Treasury yield - TIPS yield.
FRED has data for 1, 2, 5, 10, 20+ years; chart below is for 5 years.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1t0dr
2. Fed fund futures rate "expectations" that are based on trader's expectations as indicated by futures quoted around future FOMC Meetings. In the link below, click on Probabilities on the side panel.
https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html
Then there are lots of opinions floating around - I don't pay much attention to those.

FWIW, in our IL 529 plan, I relied mostly on balanced option thinking that I couldn't tweak things myself (1-2 trade per year rule; but can redirect new contributions). Basically untouched for 20+ years, it does add up.

I have done more than that and never lost more than 1% from any last top since retiring in 2018.
The "secrets" are 1) Mostly owning 2-3 bond funds at a huge % 2) switching bond fund = good timing 3) avoiding market losses.
There's no easy way to do it with low volatility. It took me over 20 years to master my system.
See how I did it at (link).

tyvm

Hi @larryB
One item that tempers folks from getting crazy with flipping monies in a 529 is the first set of 'rules' established by the gov't. regarding 529's. ONLY 1 change/exchange per calendar year to investment sectors. A few years ago, this was expanded to 2 portfolio changes/exchanges of holdings per calendar year. And of course, the investment style choices are the more standard choices. No exotic stuff.
If you're curious, a LIST of investment styles/choices at the Utah 529. Mostly Vanguard, some DFA and some state choices.
They're almost 'free' with some .02 ER's. There are also small, periodic administrative charges ($15), which is common with 529's.

Hi @yogibearbull
I probably should have clarified a bit more.
--- The Utah 529 Educational Saving Plan LINK
--- We didn't care for the vendor of the Michigan 529 plan at the time (2006). We missed the state tax deduction that would have been available; but we are very pleased with the Utah 529. A very well operated program with a lot of investment choices. One may choose established mixes by age; or as we did, and we built our own choices.
--- The annual re-balance is a feature of the Utah 529 contract. I don't really care for this aspect; as we would prefer to let the gains remain for the equity and bond portions. We've not asked, but suspect the program wants to temper the portfolio from becoming lopsided. But, this has worked out okay over the long time frame.
--- We did NOT need to use an advisor
--- And yes about Secure Act 2.0. As everything stands at this time, monies will move to the beneficiary Roth IRA (per the $35k total and the annual maximum at this time). The Roth has been active for more than 5 years. Even with the possibility of a costly Master's program, the return on the investments currently is running ahead far enough for such an expense.
NOTE: the symbols shown previous have changed (per Vanguard) two times during our investment period in these holdings. But, the fund descriptions have NOT changed. VITPX and VBMPX are still valid symbols.

@catch22: the 50/50 equity/bond portfolio is reset to 50/50 each September, per the contract
Unclear what kind of "contract"? Did you use one of the 2 annual exchanges allowed to rebalance, or a 529 advisor did it for you?
Was 529 all used up? SECURE 2.0 allows some residual funds (in 15+ year old 529 for funds in account for 5+ years) to be transferred to beneficiary's Roth IRA.

Catch. I like that a lot. At the end of the 18 years it probably beats chasing the fund of the hour every month. Less work, less stress , less second guessing yourself. My old man used to say, “you can second guess yourself to death Sonny boy !” Of course that plan would be highly regarded over at bogleheads and not be part of the MFO lifestyle. After all isn’t MFO all about finding “the best” funds and perpetually moving from one to the next as things inevitably change? Just sayin.

A real world example of a very lazy portfolio using two index funds.
Criteria:
--- 529 education account, open for 18 years
--- inception, May 2006
--- self directed with self choice(s) of investment sectors
--- 13 years of contributions (1st and 15th of each month) = $ cost averaging
--- 5 years to date; no additional contributions
--- the 50/50 equity/bond portfolio is reset to 50/50 each September, per the Utah 529 contract
The institutional funds (for 529 accounts) are VITPX (U.S. Total stock market) and VBMPX (U.S. Total IG bond market). All distributions reinvested in the fund(s).
The annualized returns data are from Vanguard, M* and the 529 account.
--- annualized 15 year combined return = 8.125%
--- YTD return = 10.47%
Remain curious,
Catch

I sold out of GQGIX after a 20% run up since a 4Q23 purchase. It feels a bit rich, and certainly has gotten quite big for an EM fund at ~$23B AUM. An 11% allocation to NVDA/AVGO certainly provided a boost over the past 2 years, but could also serve as a boat anchor if/when NVDA orders start to slow.

...also interesting that no one has mentioned bitcoin...are we just a bunch of older dudes fighting the last war or are we going to open our minds and skate to where the puck is headed not where it is and has been?
Looking forward for this exercise, I am considering "continuity of fund managers", what are their ages and what is the bench strength and financial soundness of the fund company?

What is this "bitcoin" you speak of?
As regards fund managers, I keep looking at AQR funds. They stunk it up a few years back, and then changed out a bunch of their managers. Since then, they have been performing very well. Can they be trusted?
HMEZX - a super steady merger-arb fund, but the Fund Manager (Dondero) has a checkered past. Is there hidden risk there?

I have done more than that and never lost more than 1% from any last top since retiring in 2018.
The "secrets" are 1) Mostly owning 2-3 bond funds at a huge % 2) switching bond fund = good timing 3) avoiding market losses.
There's no easy way to do it with low volatility. It took me over 20 years to master my system.
See how I did it at (link).