CORE PLUS BOND

Investment Process

Disciplined. Research-based. Focused on finding value while managing risk.

AAM’s Core Plus Bond Strategy is actively managed by a committee of investment professionals striving to offer investors an above-average stream of income, capital preservation, attractive risk-adjusted total returns and ballast against equity market volatility.

This core fixed income solution is designed for all types of interest rate environments, and operates within a framework of return of capital versus return on capital. We have the unique ability to review and potentially accept in-kind, fixed income holdings.

AAM’s disciplined investment process is consistently applied over an entire interest rate cycle with the management team actively seeking opportunities for improving both income and risk-adjusted returns through fundamental analysis, rigorous security selection, portfolio diversification and credit monitoring.

1. Conduct robust top-down analysis to determine the current phase of the economic cycle, forming the foundation of our investment process.
2. Combine the economic cycle analysis with our interest rate outlook to determine the Strategy’s duration, yield curve positioning and credit risk profile.
3. Bottom-up security selection seeks to exploit relative value opportunities within the context of sector, duration, coupon, and maturity structure. Holdings will typically be rated investment grade by at least one NRSRO.*
4. Portfolio construction process emphasizes balance through diversification across maturity, bond structure and position size.
5. Ongoing credit review and risk management.

Under normal conditions, AAM will seek to invest strategy assets in accordance with the investment objectives as stated above. Unusual market conditions, special instructions and/or account restrictions may cause individual accounts to exhibit characteristics outside of the stated objectives and may impact our ability to achieve stated objectives.

The Core Plus Bond Strategy is different than AAM’s Core Plus Strategy. The Core Plus Bond Strategy invests predominantly in fixed income securities and generally does not invest in alternative income producing assets whereas the Core Plus Strategy includes investments in alternative income producing assets.

* Nationally recognized statistical ratings organization.