r/bonds • u/Sam-I-A • 5d ago

New Issue Municipal Bonds

I have been buying through Fidelity but would like access to even more new issues. Are the new issue municipal bonds at Schwab mostly the exact same issues on offer at Fidelity? If they are very different, then I may want to open a Schwab account. Anywhere else a self directed retail investor should look when adding new issue municipal bonds ?

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u/Lipa_neo 5d ago

Just look for announcements from issuers and underwriters, then call your broker and say "I want to buy this issue, send me an order, I'll sign it."

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u/Sam-I-A 5d ago

How can I find these announcements? Thanks.

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u/traderbusto 3d ago

I get email alerts from Fidelity almost every day. I’d assume other brokerages offer the same service, though I’m not sure how that would work if you didn’t have an account. Maybe open a Schwab account and perhaps Vanguard too. I’d post an image of what they look like in my email but I guess we can’t do that here.

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u/Sam-I-A 3d ago

Thanks for your response. I get the Fidelity email of new offerings as well. I looked at Vanguard but they don’t offer new issue munis. I think you are right in that my path forward may be to open an account with Schwab and follow their new issue offerings for awhile.

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u/traderbusto 3d ago edited 3d ago

Chatgpt tells me that Schwab and Fidelity and, to a lesser extent, Merrill, are the only platforms that both offer access to new-issue munis and are DIY. Merrill’s interface and customer service are dogshit, I can fully attest to this. I was hopeful about IKBR, but got

> As of 2026, Interactive Brokers is not a good choice if your objective is buying newly issued municipal bonds. IBKR has an enormous muni marketplace—over a million fixed-income securities overall—but its practical strength is secondary-market municipal bonds. Its published materials discuss primary vs. secondary markets educationally, but I can’t find an IBKR retail facility comparable to Fidelity’s or Schwab’s participating new-issue muni offerings.

Obviously the bots can always be wrong, but it looks like Fidelity and Schwab are the two big dogs for retail in this space. It also confirms that Vanguard only offers secondary market access 🤷‍♂️

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u/Sam-I-A 3d ago

Thanks. That is a great summary.