Fixed Income Strategies
Pursue Excess Return without Changing the Role of Fixed Income
$
280b
Fixed Income Assets Under Management
as of 6/30/2026
Our Approach
While our underlying investment philosophy is grounded in the belief that markets tend to be efficient, we believe fixed income offers meaningful opportunities to capitalize on moderate inefficiencies and deliver risk-adjusted alpha. We manage fixed income portfolios across a broad range of mandates, from broad market benchmarks to highly customized liability-driven structures, with a risk-controlled approach that targets low tracking error and a high information ratio. Our approach often complements more aggressive strategies employed by other managers. Whether the objective is incremental alpha over a standard benchmark, precise alignment with pension liabilities, or a structured match of future cash flow obligations, we build each mandate around the specific goals, risk tolerances and constraints of the asset owner.
From the Expert
Fixed income has a specific role to play in a portfolio—it’s about meeting obligations with confidence. Stability and predictability aren’t preferences, they’re requirements.”
Hear more about our fixed income capabilities.
Director, Client Services
Intermediate and Core
Benchmark-aware active management using security selection, a quantitative credit approach and relative-value trading within a controlled risk profile.
Learn more about Intermediate and Core
We manage intermediate and core fixed income portfolios against broad market benchmarks, using security selection, a quantitative credit approach and relative-value trading to pursue incremental active return within a controlled risk profile. Most active risk is allocated to issuer-level decisions, with sector, duration and yield curve positioning playing a secondary role. Our approach is designed to serve as a stable, high-information-ratio anchor in a variety of portfolio structures.
Long Duration
Liability-oriented bond portfolios designed to improve interest rate alignment between plan assets and liabilities.
Learn more about Long Duration
We specialize in long duration bond portfolio management, and our portfolios are often part of liability-driven investment strategies that emphasize a high degree of interest rate exposure and tight tracking error targets. Benchmark customization is common and frequently incorporates characteristics of the liability being hedged. Our approach translates pension liability characteristics, duration, key-rate profile and credit sensitivity, into portfolio exposures designed to improve funded status stability.
High Yield
Alpha-seeking strategies focusing on structural dislocations observed in certain security types such as fallen angels, high-yield new issues and high-yield credit default swap indices.
Learn more about High Yield
We believe high yield can play a valuable and often overlooked role in institutional portfolios across a range of risk and return objectives. Our approach allocates across fallen angels, new issues, short-duration credit and high-yield credit default swap indices to pursue alpha from recurring market activity rather than relying on a single market segment. Portfolios are designed to be highly responsive to changing market opportunities while maintaining risk characteristics similar to or better than the benchmark.
Cash and Treasury Enhancement
A synthetic lending strategy that seeks incremental yield over T-bill rates by accessing attractive lending levels in the market, with an emphasis on liquidity and limited credit risk.
Learn more about Cash and Treasury Enhancement
We target incremental yield over T-bill rates through structural market opportunities while maintaining liquidity and limiting credit risk, duration and directional interest rate risk. Our approach focuses on relative-value differences among instruments driven by regulation, market structure and varying investor constraints—looking beyond credit risk alone. The strategy is commonly used to seek return enhancement within strategic Treasury bond allocations or strategic allocations to cash.
Completion
Custom portfolios designed to close the gap between a plan’s target liability hedge and the exposures provided by existing fixed income assets.
Learn more about Completion
We design completion portfolios to address the difference between a pension plan’s target liability hedge and the exposures provided by its existing fixed income assets. Portfolios are customized to each plan’s unique characteristics and hedge objectives, monitored daily and adjusted to maintain target interest rate coverage as the liability ages. Completion may also be structured to incorporate spread exposure relative to the plan’s liability discount curve.
Cash Flow Matching
Fixed income portfolios whose coupon and principal payments are aligned with a client-defined schedule of expected obligations.
Learn more about Cash Flow Matching
We build custom fixed income portfolios whose coupon and principal payments are designed around a client-defined schedule of expected obligations. The strategy can reduce dependence on future asset sales while leaving the remaining portfolio available for longer-term objectives. Portfolio design balances cash flow predictability, credit quality and implementation complexity based on the timing, size and certainty of the projected payments.
NISA’s Fixed Income Strategies
Fixed Income Perspectives
Why NISA
Our Distinguished Approach
We partner with clients to build tailored solutions in pursuit of unique goals. Our style seeks consistent outcomes with high-quality, risk-adjusted returns.
Authentic Alpha
Actively managing specialized strategies across asset classes and markets, emphasizing diversification and proven processes that strive to deliver consistently high information ratios.
Beta Optimization
Capturing targeted market exposures efficiently, minimizing uncompensated risks and identifying opportunities created by structural gaps in market conditions.
Strategic Partnership
Cultivating enduring partnerships that reflect a deep understanding of client objectives with portfolios designed to deliver strategic outcomes.
Partner With NISA
Discuss Your Portfolio Objectives with Us
Interest rate risk includes duration differences between the portfolio and liability-based benchmark. Spread or yield curve risk is the difference between performance of the portfolio and the liability-based benchmark associated with changes in credit spreads or the shape of the yield curve. Operational risk includes the calculation and execution of trades required to maintain an LDI hedging objective and requires the coordination of various groups within NISA, as well as external parties including brokers, custodians and potentially other asset managers. There could be a risk associated with incorporating data from various external sources.
Misestimation of the liability’s sensitivity to interest rates, changes to liability valuation assumptions, or differences between assumptions and experience represents potential actuarial risk.
Market-based risks include potential default losses, changes in prevailing spread levels, and interest rate risk. Counterparty risk could include a counterparty default, where a loss on uncollateralized mark-to-market could be incurred by the client and new positions would need to be put in place to maintain exposure. Instrument liquidity risk could impact the ability to implement trades or could increase the transaction costs associated with trades.
There is no assurance that the investment strategies will be successful. Investing involves many risks, including market-based risk, and it is possible to lose money.