Overview

In our separately managed fixed income accounts, clients own a portfolio of fixed income securities. For these accounts we are able to customize each portfolio based on individual needs such as legacy positions, target maturity date, cash flow or income needs, etc. that may not be met by a mutual fund.

Philosophy

We believe that by avoiding the “style box” trap and having the flexibility to invest in multiple classes of bonds, we can manage each portfolio in such a way as to emphasize the most attractive sector at any given time. By strategically shifting out of overvalued assets, we believe we can minimize potential risk and produce better returns over time.

Furthermore, our research has shown that the various sectors of the bond market behave differently under different economic conditions. For instance, during periods of economic expansion, high yield and convertible bonds tend to perform well as rising corporate profits lead to improved credit profiles. Conversely, they tend to perform very poorly during periods of economic contraction as credit profiles deteriorate. During such recessionary periods, investment grade bonds generally prove to be better performers because of their responsiveness to declining interest rates.

Within particular sectors we choose individual securities based on rigorous fundamental and credit analysis. We emphasize a thorough understanding of each company’s balance sheet by determining the company’s ability to generate recurring free cash flow from its operations. As a result, we do a significant amount of work to determine the company’s business prospects as well as the positive and negative levers in its financial model, which influence the company’s ability to generate cash flow. We believe that we find our best investments in companies that have great products, a competitive advantage that gives them pricing power in the market, a consistent operating history, and management that operate the company as if they own it. Finally, we determine what we believe to be the appreciation potential versus the downside risk to gauge the attractiveness of the security versus other available investment opportunities.

Over time, we expect the maturity structure, credit quality, and sector concentration of the portfolio will differ during periods of economic contraction versus economic expansion. In short, we will employ a strategy based on the belief that over the long term positive returns can be achieved, and losses minimized, through careful security selection and by shifting the allocation among fixed income sectors.

Click here to read our most recent Fixed Income Outlook