Learn about Fixed Income Investors

Market-tested Fixed Income Leadership¹

As NYL Investors' fixed income asset management division, Fixed Income Investors has a long history of helping our clients successfully navigate the full range of economic cycles and market environments. Today, we manage over $180 billion² for New York Life’s General Account, affiliated Mutual Funds and our strategic third-party clients.

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Focusing on capital preservation and loss avoidance, we tailor our disciplined, fundamental approach to help our clients meet their diverse range of long-term objectives. Our teams manage US dollar-denominated investment strategies across the credit spectrum, employing independent credit analysis and bottom-up security selection as the anchor of this approach.

A Time-tested Approach to Fixed Income

A disciplined, risk-controlled approach positions Fixed Income Investors to deliver customized single-sector and multi-sector strategies for our clients. With capital preservation and loss avoidance as central components of our investment philosophy, our guiding principles are:

Independent credit research
Disciplined focus on valuation and appropriate risk-taking
Independent thinking and standing apart from the crowd
A long-term investment horizon
Using diversification as a risk-mitigating tool

Fixed Income Investors Assets Under Management (by asset class)²

1. Prior to the formation of NYL Investors LLC, in October 2013 it operated as an investment division of New York Life Investment management, LLC which is an affiliated investment advisor that commenced operations in April 2000. Previously, the investment groups of NYL Investors LLC operated within New York Life Insurance Company (New York Life) managing investment program for New York Life’s General Account.

2. Reflects the AUM of Fixed Income Investors, an investment group within NYL Investors LLC. Fixed Income Investors AUM: Book Value: $164.7B; Market Value: $13.2B; Cost + Unfunded Commitments: $1.6B.

Meet our senior team of fixed income experts.

AJ Rzad

Senior Managing Director, Head of Fixed Income Investors

NYL Investors

AJ is a Senior Managing Director and Head of Fixed Income Investors and Portfolio Manager of the MainStay Short Term Bond Fund, MainStay Balanced Fund, MainStay Money Market Fund and MainStay U.S. Government Liquidity Portfolio. He oversees fixed-income investments, including government and mortgage-backed securities, investment-grade corporate bonds, high-yield bonds, leveraged loans and asset-backed securities. He leads a seasoned team of investment professionals who manage fixed-income portfolios for both New York Life’s General Account and third-party accounts.

AJ joined the firm in 2000, previously serving as Head of the Investment Grade Credit team where he oversaw all investment activity related to the public investment-grade asset class. Previously, he held investment related positions at MetLife, Lehman Brothers and PaineWebber. He has worked in the financial services industry since 1988.

AJ earned a B.S. in Biology and an M.B.A from Cornell University.

Affiliations

Chartered Financial Analyst

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Edward Fitzgerald

Managing Director, Head of Structured Finance

Martin King

Managing Director, Head of Investment Grade Credit Team and Impact Investing

Kenneth Sommer

Managing Director, Head of Portfolio Management

Arthur Torrey

Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, Head of the High Yield Credit Group

Fixed Income Investors provides a broad array of investment advisory services to New York Life’s General Account and strategic, third-party partners, such as other insurance companies’ general and separate accounts, institutional clients, investment companies, and other pooled investment vehicles. We also serve as collateral manager to certain special purpose vehicles, including, but not limited to, CLOs. The depth of our experience and investment management expertise in relation to the New York Life General Account can be leveraged across the third-party portfolios of medium to large insurance companies.

The Third-Party Investment Grade Portfolio Management team is responsible for managing all single-sector and multi-sector investment grade third-party fixed income portfolios, including institutional separate accounts and mutual funds and ETFs. The investment decisions for all third-party portfolios are made by the team in conjunction with sector specialists. Sector specialists and credit research analysts have significant input regarding specific issuers and issues as it relates to overall portfolio construction. Ultimately, investment decisions are made by the team in accordance with client-specific investment guidelines. The Third-Party Investment Grade Portfolio Management team manages the following strategies and investment offerings:

Institutional Strategy Offerings

Core Fixed
Investment Grade Bond Index
Investment Grade Corporate

MainStay Mutual Funds

IndexIQ ETFs

IQ Ultra Short Duration ETF >

With approximately $11 billion in assets under management*, the Third-Party Investment Grade Portfolio Management team is the Stable Value manager for our third-party institutional clients. We offer a wide of variety of structures to meet the needs of our clients, including.

Customizing portfolios to a variety of strategies and benchmarks
Employing a sophisticated risk-controlled investment process
Committing to delivering exceptional client service through timely reporting and communications

Our disciplined investment process, embedded in our corporate culture, paired with our active management process is designed to provide our clients with results that exceed their expectations.

To learn more about our Stable Value capabilities, please visit Stable Value Investments.

View Stable Value Investments

With an average of over 20 years of experience, the High Yield Credit team is responsible for managing high yield bonds and floating rate loans. The team’s bottom-up fundamental research capability underpins the development of a highly diversified portfolio with an emphasis on high current income, principal preservation, and credit loss avoidance. Performance consistency and stability are stressed by adding incremental return over time through prudent credit selection and risk management rather than seeking to add an excessive amount of return by taking on disproportionate risk levels.

MainStay Mutual Funds

MainStay Floating Rate Fund >

Fixed Income Investors and some of our affiliates serve as collateral managers for certain special purpose vehicles including, but not limited to, CLOs.

Learn more about our CLO capabilities.

Visit Our CLO Center

The Structured Finance team is responsible for the analysis and trading of structured products. The team is organized by sector with specializations in transportation equipment including aviation, railcar, and container finance, CLOs, RMBS, consumer finance, and specialty finance. The team’s evaluation process relies heavily on a team-managed investment approach with bottom-up fundamental research guiding investment decisions. Analysts are organized by sector and specialize in their respective sectors. First-person analysis is performed on a bond-by-bond basis. Sector specialists are dedicated to specific structured products sectors and perform fundamental and technical analysis to determine value-add investment opportunities.

The team focuses on the following sectors:

CMBS
RMBS
ABS
International RMBS
Credit Cards
Equipment Financing (Aviation, Railcars, and Containers)

The Short-Term Investment team manages cash investments for a variety of clients with different objectives and constraints. The investment process is managed by a team of sector specialists and credit research analysts and is designed with the objective of providing the client with preservation of capital, liquidity, and income within the client’s prescribed objectives and constraints.

MainStay Mutual Funds