Risk Table - FRANKLIN FEDERAL TAX-FREE INCOME FUND
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Risk [Text Block] |
| Principal Risks |
Principal Risks You could lose money by investing in the Fund. Mutual fund
shares are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed or endorsed by, any bank, and are not insured
by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, or any other agency of the U.S.
government.
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| Risk Lose Money [Member] |
You could lose money by investing in the Fund.
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| Risk Not Insured [Member] |
Mutual fund
shares are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed or endorsed by, any bank, and are not insured
by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, or any other agency of the U.S.
government.
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| Interest Rate |
Interest
Rate:
When interest rates rise, debt security prices generally fall. The opposite is also generally true:
debt security prices rise when interest rates fall. Interest rate changes are influenced by a number
of factors, including government policy, monetary policy, inflation expectations, perceptions of risk,
and supply of and demand for bonds. In general, securities with longer maturities or durations are more
sensitive to interest rate changes.
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| Credit |
Credit: An issuer of debt securities may fail
to make interest payments or repay principal when due, in whole or in part. Changes in an issuer's financial
strength or in a security's or government's credit rating may affect a security's value. A change in
the credit rating of a municipal bond insurer that insures securities in the Fund’s portfolio may affect
the value of the securities it insures, the Fund’s share price and Fund performance. The Fund might
also be adversely impacted by the inability of an insurer to meet its insurance obligations.
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| Liquidity |
Liquidity:
The trading market for a particular security or type of security or other investments in which the Fund
invests may become less liquid or even illiquid. Reduced liquidity will have an adverse impact on the
Fund’s ability to sell such securities or other investments when necessary to meet the Fund’s liquidity
needs, which may arise or increase in response to a specific economic event or because the investment
manager wishes to purchase particular investments or believes that a higher level of liquidity would
be advantageous. Reduced liquidity will also generally lower the value of such securities or other investments.
Market prices for such securities or other investments may be relatively volatile.
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| Tax Legislative and Political Changes |
Tax Legislative
and Political Changes: The municipal securities market could be significantly affected by adverse political
and legislative changes or litigation at the federal or state level. The value of municipal bonds is
closely tied to the benefits of tax-exempt income to investors. Significant revisions of federal income
tax laws or regulations revising income tax rates or the tax-exempt character of municipal bonds, or
even proposed changes and deliberations on this topic by the federal government, could cause municipal
bond prices to fall. For example, lower federal income tax rates would reduce certain relative advantages
of owning municipal bonds, and lower state income tax rates could have similar effects. In addition,
the application of corporate minimum tax rates to financial statement income may have the effect of reducing
demand for municipal bonds among corporate investors, which may in turn impact municipal bond prices.
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| Tax-Exempt Securities |
Tax-Exempt
Securities: Failure of a municipal security issuer to comply with applicable tax requirements
may make income paid thereon taxable, resulting in a decline in the security’s value. In addition,
there could be changes in applicable tax laws or tax treatments that reduce or eliminate the current
federal income tax exemption on municipal securities or otherwise adversely affect the current federal
or state tax status of municipal securities.
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| Market |
Market: The market values of
securities or other investments owned by the Fund will go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably.
The market value of a security or other investment may be reduced by market activity or other results
of supply and demand unrelated to the issuer. This is a basic risk associated with all investments. When
there are more sellers than buyers, prices tend to fall. Likewise, when there are more buyers than sellers,
prices tend to rise. In addition, the value of the Fund’s investments may go up or down due to general
market or other conditions that are not specifically related to a particular issuer, such as: real or
perceived adverse economic changes, including widespread liquidity issues and defaults in one or more
industries; changes in interest, inflation or exchange rates; unexpected natural and man-made world events,
such as diseases or disasters; financial, political or social disruptions, including terrorism and war;
and U.S. trade disputes or other disputes with specific countries that could result in additional tariffs,
trade barriers and/or investment restrictions in certain securities in those countries.
Any of these conditions can adversely affect the economic prospects of many companies, sectors, nations,
regions and the market in general, in ways that cannot necessarily be foreseen. Ongoing or threatened
armed conflicts throughout the world have caused and could continue to cause significant market disruptions
and volatility. The hostilities and sanctions resulting from those hostilities could have a significant
adverse impact on certain investments of the Fund as well as the Fund’s performance and liquidity.
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| States |
States:
The Fund’s portfolio is generally widely diversified among issuers of municipal securities. However,
to the extent that the Fund has exposure from time to time to the municipal securities of a particular
state, events in that state may affect the Fund’s investments and performance. These events may include
economic or political policy changes, tax base erosion, unfunded pension and healthcare liabilities,
constitutional limits on tax increases, budget deficits and other financial difficulties, and changes
in the credit ratings assigned to municipal issuers of the state. The same is true of events in U.S.
territories, to the extent that the Fund has exposure to any particular territory at any given time.
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| Focus |
Focus:
The Fund may invest more than 25% of its assets in municipal securities that finance similar types of
projects, such as utilities, hospitals, higher education and transportation. A change that affects one
project, such as proposed legislation on the financing of the project, a shortage of the materials needed
for the project, or a declining need for the project, would likely affect all similar projects, thereby
increasing market risk.
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| Income |
Income: The Fund's distributions to shareholders
may decline when prevailing interest rates fall, when the Fund experiences defaults on debt securities
it holds or when the Fund realizes a loss upon the sale of a debt security.
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| Prepayment |
Prepayment:
Prepayment risk occurs when a debt security can be repaid in whole or in part prior to the security's
maturity and the Fund must reinvest the proceeds it receives, during periods of declining interest rates,
in securities that pay a lower rate of interest. Also, if a security has been purchased at a premium,
the value of the premium would be lost in the event of prepayment. Prepayments generally increase when
interest rates fall.
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| Inflation |
Inflation: The market price of debt securities generally
falls as inflation increases because the purchasing power of the future income and repaid principal is
expected to be worth less when received by the Fund. Debt securities that pay a fixed rather than variable
interest rate are especially vulnerable to inflation risk because variable-rate debt securities may be
able to participate, over the long term, in rising interest rates which have historically corresponded
with long-term inflationary trends.
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| Bond Insurers |
Bond
Insurers: Market conditions or changes to ratings criteria could adversely impact the
ratings of municipal bond insurance companies. Downgrades and withdrawal of ratings from municipal bond
insurers have substantially limited the availability of insurance sought by municipal bond issuers thereby
reducing the supply of insured municipal securities. Because of the consolidation among municipal
bond insurers the Fund is subject to additional risks including the risk that credit risk may be concentrated
among fewer insurers and the risk that events involving one or more municipal bond insurers could have
a significant adverse effect on the value of the securities insured by an insurer and on the municipal
markets as a whole.
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| Unrated Debt Securities |
Unrated Debt Securities: Certain unrated debt
securities determined by the investment manager to be of comparable credit quality to rated securities
which the Fund may purchase may pay a higher interest rate than such rated debt securities and be subject
to a greater risk of illiquidity or price changes. Less public information and independent credit analysis
are typically available about unrated securities or issuers, and therefore they may be subject to greater
risk of default.
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| Management |
Management: The Fund is subject to management risk
because it is an actively managed investment portfolio. The Fund's investment manager applies investment
techniques and risk analyses in making investment decisions for the Fund, but there can be no guarantee
that these decisions will produce the desired results.
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| Cybersecurity |
Cybersecurity:
Cybersecurity incidents, both intentional and unintentional, may allow an unauthorized party to gain
access to Fund assets, Fund or customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary
information, cause the Fund, the investment manager, and/or their service providers (including, but not
limited to, Fund accountants, custodians, sub-custodians, transfer agents and financial intermediaries)
to suffer data breaches, data corruption or loss of operational functionality or prevent Fund investors
from purchasing, redeeming or exchanging shares or receiving distributions. The investment manager has
limited ability to prevent or mitigate cybersecurity incidents affecting third party service providers,
and such third party service providers may have limited indemnification obligations to the Fund or the
investment manager. Cybersecurity incidents may result in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders,
and substantial costs may be incurred in an effort to prevent or mitigate future cybersecurity incidents.
Issuers of securities in which the Fund invests are also subject to cybersecurity risks, and the value
of these securities could decline if the issuers experience cybersecurity incidents. Because
technology is frequently changing (including the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning),
new ways to carry out cyber attacks are always developing. Therefore, there is a chance that some risks
have not been identified or prepared for, or that an attack may not be detected, which puts limitations
on the
Fund's
ability to plan for or respond to a cyber attack. Like other funds and business enterprises, the Fund,
the investment manager, and their service providers are subject to the risk of cyber incidents occurring
from time to time. The rapid development and increasingly widespread use of artificial intelligence technologies
could increase the effectiveness of cyber attacks and exacerbate the risks.
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