During the most recent fiscal year, the Portfolio's portfolio
turnover rate was 428% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
Under normal market conditions, the Portfolio invests at
least 80% of its net assets (plus borrowings for investment purposes) in a portfolio of bonds, including but not limited to corporate, government and mortgage bonds, which, at the time of purchase, are rated investment-grade (e.g., rated at least BBB- by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services or Baa3 by Moody's Investors Service, Inc.) or have an equivalent rating by a nationally recognized statistical rating organization
(“NRSRO”), or are of comparable quality if unrated. The Portfolio will provide shareholders with at least 60 days' prior notice of any change in this investment policy.
Although the Portfolio may invest a portion of its assets
in high-yield (high risk) debt instruments, commonly referred to as “junk bonds,” rated below investment-grade, the Portfolio will seek to maintain a minimum average portfolio quality rating of at least investment-grade. Generally, the
sub-adviser (“Sub-Adviser”) maintains a dollar-weighted average duration between three and ten years. Duration is the most commonly used measure of risk in debt instruments as it incorporates multiple features of the debt instruments (e.g., yield, coupon, maturity, etc.) into one number. Duration is a measure of sensitivity of the price of a debt security to a change in interest rates. Duration is a weighted average of the times that interest
payments and the final return of principal are received. The weights are the amounts of the payments discounted by the yield-to-maturity of the debt instrument. Duration is expressed as a number of years. The bigger the duration number, the greater
the interest-rate risk or reward for the debt instrument prices. For example, the price of a bond with an average duration of five years would be expected to fall approximately 5% if interest rates rose by 1%. Conversely, the price of a bond with an
average duration of five years would be expected to rise approximately 5% if interest rates drop by 1%.
The Portfolio may also invest in: preferred stocks; high
quality money market instruments; municipal bonds; debt instruments of foreign issuers (including those located in emerging market countries); securities denominated in foreign currencies; foreign currencies; mortgage-backed and asset-backed
securities; bank loans and floating rate secured loans (“Senior Loans”); and derivatives including futures, options, and swaps involving securities, securities indices and interest rates, which may be denominated in the U.S. dollar or
foreign currencies. The Portfolio typically uses derivatives to reduce exposure to other risks, such as interest rate or currency risk, to substitute for taking a position in the underlying asset, and/or to enhance returns in the Portfolio.
The Portfolio may seek to obtain exposure to the securities
in which it invests by entering into a series of purchase and sale contracts or through other investment techniques such as buy backs and dollar rolls.
The Portfolio may invest in other investment companies,
including exchange-traded funds, to the extent permitted under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and the rules, regulations, and exemptive orders thereunder (“1940 Act”).
The Sub-Adviser believes that relationships between the
drivers of debt instrument returns change over time and that recognizing this is key to managing debt instrument assets. Therefore, the Sub-Adviser employs a dynamic investment process that balances top-down macro economic considerations and
fundamental bottom-up analysis during the steps of its investment process - sector allocation, security selection, duration and yield curve management. This includes leveraging proprietary qualitative analysis along with quantitative tools
throughout the portfolio construction process.
The
Sub-Adviser may sell securities for a variety of reasons, such as to secure gains, limit losses, or redeploy assets into opportunities believed to be more promising, among others.
The Portfolio may lend portfolio securities on a
short-term or long-term basis, up to 33 1⁄3% of its total assets.
Principal Risks
You could lose money on an investment in the Portfolio. Any
of the following risks, among others, could affect Portfolio performance or cause the Portfolio to lose money or to underperform market averages of other funds.
Call During periods of falling interest rates, a bond issuer may “call” or repay its high-yielding bond before the bond's maturity date. If
forced to invest the unanticipated proceeds at lower interest rates, the Portfolio would experience a decline in income.
Company The price of a given company's stock could decline or underperform for many reasons including, among others, poor management, financial problems, or
business challenges. If a company declares bankruptcy or becomes insolvent, its stock could become worthless.
Credit Prices of bonds and other debt instruments can fall if the issuer's actual or perceived financial health deteriorates, whether because of broad
economic or issuer-specific reasons. In certain cases, the issuer could be late in paying interest or principal, or could fail to pay altogether. Lower quality securities (including securities that have fallen below investment-grade and are
classified as “junk bonds”) have greater credit risk and liquidity risk than higher quality (investment-grade) securities, and their issuers' long-term ability to make payments is considered speculative. Prices of lower quality bonds or
other debt instruments are also more volatile, are more sensitive to negative news about the economy or the issuer, and have greater liquidity and price volatility risk.
Currency To the extent that the Portfolio invests directly in foreign (non-U.S.) currencies or in securities denominated in, or that trade in, foreign
(non-U.S.) currencies, it is subject to the risk that those foreign (non-U.S.) currencies will decline