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 rated below investment grade (commonly referred to as “junk bonds”), the Portfolio will seek to maintain a minimum weighted 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 (including credit default swaps, interest rate swaps and total return 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 seeks to balance 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.
Bank Instruments: Bank instruments include certificates of deposit, fixed time deposits, bankers’ acceptances, and
other debt and deposit-type obligations issued by banks. Changes in economic, regulatory or political conditions, or other events that affect the banking industry may have an adverse effect on bank instruments or banking institutions that serve as
counterparties in transactions with the Portfolio.
Company: The price of a company’s stock could decline or underperform for many reasons including, among
others, poor management, financial problems, reduced demand for company goods or services, regulatory fines and judgments, or business challenges. If a company declares bankruptcy or becomes insolvent, its stock could become worthless.
Credit: The price of a bond or other debt instrument is likely to 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 its financial obligations altogether.
Credit Default Swaps: The Portfolio may enter into credit default swaps, either as a buyer or a seller of the swap. A buyer of
a swap pays a fee to buy protection against the risk that a security will default. If no default occurs, the Portfolio will have paid the fee, but typically will recover nothing under the swap. A seller of a swap receives payment(s) in return for an
obligation to pay the counterparty the full notional value of a security in the event of a default of the security issuer. As a seller of a swap, the Portfolio would effectively add leverage to its portfolio because, in addition to its total net
assets, the Portfolio would be subject to investment exposure on the full notional value of the swap. Credit default swaps are particularly subject to counterparty, credit, valuation, liquidity and leveraging risks and the risk that the swap may not
correlate as expected.