My FA did offer the 13 month letter of intent option.  At the time I was so disgusted with MM rates that I opted to go all in short term.  We talked about the effect of interest rates increases and duration of the fund and decided that total return of the bond fund would probably beat MM return even if rates increased 1%. Nevertheless, if the NAV gets real close to 9.98, I will move 2/3 to MM. 

As to the intermediate fund, I have no intention to DCA into it any time soon.  When I do begin to move into it, I have decided to leave 1/3 of my bond investments in the short term fund for a time until things settle down.

I am puzzled by the performance of ABNDX.  It looks to me like the NAV has declined much more than I would have predicted based on past performance.  I wonder if it has anything to do with mortgage-backed securities or high yield bonds.  Speaking of mortgage-backed securities, there was an interesting artice yesterday from a Blackrock senior exec who said their bond funds have purchased as much non-agency mortgage-backed stuff that they could afford to buy. He thought it was an unprecedented opportunity because the securities had been discounted well below their fair value.  I talked with a senior rep from American earlier this month and he said American had made major purchases in ABNDX fund as well that he thought would pay off handsomely.  He did not elaborate on what they had purchased.

I computed my performance YTD based on M* returns for the funds through 6/24.  I called my FA and had him do it using  American Funds' website tools that I cannot access.  He got the same answer.  It is based on NAV,  and reinvestment of dividends.