Manning and Napier have rolled out the Strategic Income Conservative Series and Strategic Income Moderate Series, which will target income-producing securities.
The funds both invest in four underlying, proprietary mutual funds that provide diversified exposure to dividend-paying equities, fixed income and real estate. The Conservative Series has a 15% to 45% equity range, and the Moderate Series has a 44% to 75% equity range.
The firm uses a team approach to manage the portfolios, where asset class-specific teams work on the underlying holdings and the leaders of the teams and managing directors of research determine the weighting of each sector, said Patrick Cunningham, CEO.
The underlying funds include the Manning & Napier Fund Dividend Focused Series; The Real Estate Series, which invests in REITs and real estate management companies; the Core Bond Series, which invests in corporate and mortgage-backed bonds with ratings of triple B or higher, and the High Yield Bond Series.
For S class investors, the expense ratio is 1.02% for the Conservative Series and 1.01% for the moderate series.
“In today’s market environment, yields on traditional ‘safe’ income-producing securities like U.S. Treasuries are very low, and negative in some bases on an inflation-adjusted basis,” Cunningham said. “Not only does this provide challenges for generating income, but it also exposes investors to potential capital risk. We have developed a strategy that provides greater income potential and helps to mitigate risk through an active security selection and asset allocation approach.”
