A Chat with TDAM's Newest Fixed Income Gatekeeper

MA: I've been in the business for over 30 years, and during that time, have seen the business from many different perspectives. Funny enough, academically, I was trained as an actuary, so I'm fully qualified! At the same time, I'm also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder and have spent most of my career as a portfolio manager but also spent some time on the academic side. 

If I think about my TDAM story that began almost 11 years ago when I joined the firm as an active fixed income portfolio manager, I really had two mandates. The first one was to be an active fixed income portfolio manager for institutional mandates. The second was to grow the firm's ALM capabilities. Over that time these responsibilities grew. In this new role, or maybe I'd refer to it more as an expanded role, what I'm really looking forward to is to continue to work with that same team - the team that I've been working with for over a decade.

MA: While we have been managing active fixed income at TDAM utilizing the same three guiding principles since 1994, we have grown and evolved as a firm. The group of internal partners we can now draw on as we construct and position portfolios, has greatly expanded. So, whether it's our ability to collaborate with the asset allocation team on macroeconomic views, leverage private market research and investments or incorporating more global exposures – we are uniquely positioned with a breadth and depth of investment experience that is truly unique amongst asset managers.

MA: Interest rates repriced last year and as a result, bonds are looking quite different than they have for some time. I think in some ways it's sort of "back to the future". Fixed income can once again resume its role of adding incremental income and providing capital preservation within a multi-asset class portfolio. If we look at our last asset allocation positioning, we are maximum overweight fixed income. So, we see a key role within asset allocation accounts for those with a retirement focus. 

MA: Credit's interesting. We are now in late cycle, and normally what we would be doing is increasing the quality of credit that would set us up to take advantage should there be more recessionary conditions later in the year to redeploy into securities where we're better compensated for risk. Eight weeks into the year it started off gangbusters, risk on we saw a credit spread compression that as active managers, we looked at and questioned, are we still getting paid for it? And recently we made a minor modification to bring down the credit allocation from modest overweight to neutral. So that really expresses where we think we are right now.

MA: If I think about what I'm looking forward to watching, you know, I grew up in the seventies, Star Wars generation, so the New Mandalorian on Netflix is what I'd like to watch. However, I have three kids under eight, so what I'll probably be watching is anything they want to watch. As of now its Shrek's follow up movie "Puss in Boots."

For more insights from Michael, check out our most recent TDAM Talks Podcast hosted by Ingrid Macintosh, VP, TD Wealth and Head of Sales Enablement, Content Marketing & Communications, Data Analytics & Digital Strategy, TDAM. On the podcast, Ingrid's guests also included Elaine Lindhorst, Vice President & Director, Senior Portfolio Manager, TDAM.

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