Investment Strategies

We tailor Fixed Income portfolios to meet a client’s specific investment goals

Traditional Fixed Income

NIS manages traditional, investment-grade portfolios in short duration, intermediate, and core mandates. We offer separate account vehicles for each approach at $20MM or above. We also offer commingled vehicles for our intermediate and core fixed mandates at $5MM and above.

These commingled vehicles provide twice a month liquidity and use Comerica Bank as custodian of the assets. Our approach across our traditional strategies strives to produce index-similar volatility with outperformance over time.

Enhanced Yield Strategies

NIS offers enhanced yield strategies through commingled vehicles, including High Yield, Total Absolute Return, and Preferred Stock. Each strategy does not utilize leverage and aims to provide higher yields than our traditional investment-grade mandates.

Clients can gain exposure individually to each approach or to all via Dynamic Fixed Income. This approach couples traditional fixed income with our enhanced yield strategies at maximum levels specified by the client.

The enhanced yield strategies are offered through a commingled vehicle that affords twice a month liquidity. The commingled vehicles are all independently audited by Baker Tilly and assets are in custody at Comerica Bank. These vehicles focus on specific areas within the fixed income marketplace with an objective to offer higher yields than the traditional investment grade market.

Disclaimer: All investments are subject to the risk of loss. No assurance can be given that any of the investment objectives will be achieved, or that substantial losses will be avoided. Market conditions can vary widely over time and can result in the loss of portfolio value.

Investment Policies

Portfolio Integrity

Maturity and Duration Management Software
Monitors portfolio holdings relative to the benchmark and similar accounts

Guideline Compliance Software
Mitigates trade errors and is flexible to adhere to unique client guidelines

Sector Allocation

Investment Strategy Committee
Sets the sector allocation ranges that the portfolio management team adheres to based on fundamentals, supply and volatility outlook, relative value

Inventory Database
Maintains sector distribution uniformity by weighting and duration

Security Monitoring

Risk Scoring System
Based on a numeric scale of 1 (best) to 5 (worst)

Pro Rata
Trades are allocated proportionately

Inventory Database
Mitigates account performance dispersion within similar mandates