Brown Advisory, an independent investment management firm with approximately USD25 billion in client assets, has added a new mutual fund, the Brown Advisory Tactical Bond Fund, to its established family of funds.
The new Tactical Bond Fund officially launched on 30 September, 2011, and is now available through Brown Advisory and other financial advisors.
Focused on total return, Brown Advisory’s newest Fund will seek to make investments in fixed income instruments including tax-exempt municipal bonds, corporate bonds, US Treasury bonds, Treasury Inflation Protected Securities and cash equivalents. The Fund may also utilise derivative securities to gain exposure to these asset classes either on a long or short basis.
"Investors look to the fixed income component of their portfolios for income, return generation and diversification from equities," says Brown Advisory’s Head of Investments, Paul J Chew. "With yields in the bond market historically low, Brown Advisory believes the return potential of funds with a traditional fixed income approach is limited. Our strategy, however, seeks to generate returns without relying on income generation or declining interest rates. We believe this is a solid solution in today’s market environment and a value-added product for our clients."
The Tactical Bond Fund uses a quantitative modelling process to make purchase and sale decisions. While this model is designed to capture macro movements in bond sectors, the Fund will not attempt to match or conform to any index or to the broader market.
Thomas DD Graff, CFA, a portfolio manager on the Fixed Income team at Brown Advisory, is responsible for managing the Fund and leads all buy and sell decisions. Graff brings over 12 years of experience in the bond markets and has extensive knowledge of the management, trading and analysis of taxable bonds.
"We have taken quantitative trading models developed over several years and utilised in our traditional fixed income strategies, and combined them into a single, focused investment strategy," says Graff. "The result, we believe, is an approach with a great opportunity for success and a relatively low correlation to both the stock and bond markets."
