A Minneapolis-based financial firm has converted one of its two high-yield bond offerings into an income fund for the baby boomer market.

Thrivent Investment Management officially launched its Thrivent Diversified Income Plus Fund with an announcement Wednesday. Targeted at pre-retirees and those in retirement, the fund combines high-yield bonds with dividend-paying stocks, REITs, and investment-grade bonds to gather income from a range of sources. It's managed by Mark Simenstad, the firm's head of fixed-income mutual funds.

In its February 2006 prospectus, Thrivent unveiled the new investment objectives that accompanied the fund's renaming from Thrivent High Yield Fund II.

Spokesperson Brant Skogrand explained that when Thrivent Financial formed from the merging of Lutheran Brotherhood and Aid Association for Lutherans in 2002, it inherited two high yield bond funds. "The High Yield Fund II had quite a small asset base and didn't look like it was going to grow further," said Skogrand. With demand for income-generating funds increasing, the company decided to convert and re-brand the smaller of the two.

Simenstad added that mixing equity investments into the fund allowed longer term capital gains to counterbalance the old fund's tax loss carryforwards, "a meaningful advantage for shareholders."

The Diversified Income Plus fund has an expense ratio of 97 basis points.  

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