Process:
Lead manager Joe Higgins continues the thoughtful relative value approach that has been in place both here and on his other charge, TIAA-CREF Core Bond TIBDX. This strategy earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. Higgins has the ultimate authority in ensuring what holdings go into the portfolio but draws heavily on the strength and expertise offered by the sector managers, analysts, and macroeconomic strategists in identifying relative value opportunities across the fixed-income universe. The strategy can invest in everything from corporate bonds and mortgages to municipal bonds and emerging-markets debt, with the higher-risk sectors like high-yield bonds, bank loans, and emerging-markets debt ranging between 10% and 30% depending on the team’s outlook and risk appetite. The strategy has avoided taking extreme positions in any of those areas and has generated its alpha from a variety of sources instead of relying on any one area. This approach has benefited investors through steady-as-it-goes performance rather than wild swings based on drastic portfolio shifts, and it has worked through a variety of market environments.
Portfolio:
As of December 2021, the portfolio’s largest exposures were to investment-grade corporate bonds (24.2% of assets), agency mortgage-backed securities (18.6%), and emerging-markets debt (10.2%). The emerging markets exposure rarely if ever broke double-digit threshold, but its allocation has been on the upswing since March 2020 given the portfolio managers’ belief in its ability to outperform over the long term. The emerging markets’ relative lack of direct correlation to domestic corporate moves, as well as premium on offer from new issuance, make them attractive. This overweighting also makes sense to the managers in context of a rising rate environment, as they seek refuge in assets that are not hypersensitive to rate increases. That 10.2% stake in emerging-markets debt is almost 4 times the category peer median, though, and about half of it is rated below-investment-grade. Coupled with 5.6% in high-yield corporates, 4.3% in nonagency mortgages, and 2.7% in senior loans, the “plus” sector exposure of this portfolio amounted to 22.7% at the end of December 2021. This edges toward the higher half of the 10%-30% “plus” budget and represents increased credit risk, but the strategy’s yield (a proxy for risk) has hugged quite closely to the peer median in the past couple of years, indicating a reasonable level of risk-taking.
People:
Joe Higgins, who replaced long time lead manager Bill Martin at the end of 2020, is a seasoned and capable manager supported by three experienced comanagers and a robust analyst team. The strategy earns an Above Average People Pillar rating. Higgins had been leading the Core strategy since 2011, has been with the firm since 1995, and was previously sector lead on asset-backed securities and commercial mortgage-backed securities. He is supported by the same trio of comanagers that backed Bill Martin: government specialist John Cerra, high-yield leader Kevin Lorenz, and emerging-markets expert Anupam Damani. They are backed by a robust investment team that continues to expand following the legacy Nuveen and Symphony merger. The organization now boasts considerable firepower, with 43 portfolio managers and 60 analysts spread across the fixed-income platform. Even though Higgins has the ultimate decision-making power for this strategy, he draws on the strength and expertise of the sector managers in allocating capital to portfolios per mandate requirements. As such, the whole team provides input to help with portfolio construction, and often the managers’ portfolios will rhyme with each other. Additionally, the introduction of an investment committee and strategy groups provided more formalized structures for manager discussions and viewpoint sharing.
Performance:
The strategy under Joe Higgins’ tenure has bested almost 70% of distinct peers in the intermediate core-plus bond category, keeping up with the record his predecessor Bill Martin set during his tenure from September 2011 to December 2020. Over that period, the Institutional share class returned 4.5% annualized and outpaced roughly two thirds of peers. While lagging performance punctuated this record at various points, most notably in March 2020, by and large “measured consistency” was the characteristic on display for this strategy’s performance. Following the rough showing in early 2020 when the strategy lost 8%, almost 200 basis points more than the peer group median, the strategy experienced more bumps all throughout 2021 as rate volatility had a negative impact on mortgage holdings. On the plus side, the strategy had an underweighting in agency mortgages relative to the benchmark (18.6% versus 27.4% at year-end) so the hit was less severe, and an overweighting in high-yield corporates relative to the bogy (5.6% versus 0%) proved rewarding given robust economic conditions.
(Source: Morningstar)
Price:
It’s critical to evaluate expenses, as they come directly out of returns. The share class on this report levies a fee that ranks in its Morningstar category’s cheapest quintile. Based on our assessment of the fund’s People, Process and Parent pillars in the context of these fees, we think this share class will be able to deliver positive alpha relative to the category benchmark index, explaining its Morningstar Analyst Rating of Bronze.
(Source : Morningstar)
About Funds:
TIAA-CREF Core Plus Bond has an experienced lead manager and the solid process remains intact, while the expansive supporting cast has only broadened. The strategy’s Institutional and Advisor share classes earn a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Silver, while the more-expensive share classes are rated Bronze. The W share class, which does not charge a fee, is unrated. Veteran manager Joe Higgins, who has led the sibling strategy TIAA-CREF Core Bond TIBDX since 2011, took over this strategy at the end of 2020 when long time lead manager Bill Martin retired. Higgins was a natural replacement given that he had been running a similar, more-conservative mandate. He is supported by the same trio of comanagers that backed Martin: government specialist John Cerra, high-yield leader Kevin Lorenz, and emerging-markets expert Anupam Damani. All told, Nuveen’s robust taxable fixed-income group boasts more than 100 portfolio managers, analysts, and traders that help Higgins fulfil his mandate. The strategy’s solid process remains unchanged and peppered with measured risk-taking. Higgins and team execute a relative value process that incorporates a broad opportunity set, with the bulk of assets in investment-grade securities and a smaller subset in higher-risk “plus” sectors like high-yield bonds, bank loans, and emerging-markets debt that will typically amount to 10%-30% of assets depending on Higgins’ outlook and allocation decisions.
(Source: Morningstar)
General Advice Warning
Any advice/ information provided is general in nature only and does not take into account the personal financial situation, objectives or needs of any particular person.