Wellington Credit Total Return

This fund is a global credit total return strategy that invests across corporate bonds, high-yield bonds, emerging market bonds and Treasuries. The team takes an entirely unconstrained approach, free from benchmark considerations, allowing them to focus solely on the best opportunities for long-term total returns.

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Our Opinion
Fund Managers
Key Facts
Fund Performance
Risk
Company Description
Investment process
ESG

Our Opinion

We like this fund for its truly active and flexible approach. This means they can adjust allocations dynamically as market conditions change, aiming to capture value and protect capital across a wide range of economic environments. They also don’t have an imposed top-down company view, which gives the managers the freedom to think and invest how they want. We believe this approach is well-suited to today’s fast-moving credit markets.

Fund Managers

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Fund Managers

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Connor Fitzgerald, Lead portfolio manager Connor Fitzgerald has been the lead portfolio manager for the Credit Total Return strategy since its inception in March 2018. In addition, Connor is the lead portfolio manager of Wellington’s Intermediate Credit strategy and the co-portfolio manager on the Core Bond, Core Bond Plus and Intermediate Bond strategies. Prior to joining Wellington in 2015, he was a portfolio manager at BlackRock, where he was responsible for investment-grade credit sleeves within multisector bond portfolios, as well as absolute return sleeves in unconstrained non-benchmark-oriented portfolios. He is a CFA charterholder.

Schuyler Reece, Deputy portfolio manager Schuyler Reece is the deputy portfolio manager on the Credit Total Return strategy. He also serves as deputy portfolio manager for the Credit Total Return strategy and the lead manager on the Emerging Market Corporate strategy. Prior to joining Wellington in 2014, Schuyler was a portfolio manager at GW&K Investment Management in the taxable fixed income group. He is a CFA charterholder.

Connor Fitzgerald, Lead portfolio manager Connor Fitzgerald has been the lead portfolio manager for the Credit Total Return strategy since its inception in March 2018. In addition, Connor is the lead portfolio manager of Wellington’s Intermediate Credit strategy and the co-portfolio manager on the Core Bond, Core Bond Plus and Intermediate Bond strategies. Prior to joining Wellington in 2015, he was a portfolio manager at BlackRock, where he was responsible for investment-grade credit sleeves within multisector bond portfolios, as well as absolute return sleeves in unconstrained non-benchmark-oriented portfolios. He is a CFA charterholder.

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Schuyler Reece, Deputy portfolio manager Schuyler Reece is the deputy portfolio manager on the Credit Total Return strategy. He also serves as deputy portfolio manager for the Credit Total Return strategy and the lead manager on the Emerging Market Corporate strategy. Prior to joining Wellington in 2014, Schuyler was a portfolio manager at GW&K Investment Management in the taxable fixed income group. He is a CFA charterholder.

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Key Facts

Annual Income (Historic) -

Gearing-

Fund Size-

Fund Manager Start Date 31 January 2024

Ongoing Charges Figure (OCF) -

Annual Management Charge (AMC) -

Fund Performance

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Risk

Portfolio risk is assessed using both relative metrics - such as tracking error, standard deviation, sharpe ratio, and information ratio - and absolute tools like Bloomberg PORT and Yield Book. Risk is continuously monitored using various stress-testing models and scenario analyses, including prepayment stress on individual securities and simulations of historical market events. Responsibility for managing risk ultimately lies with portfolio managers, who are supported by dedicated tools and teams. The team view risk primarily as owning investments with a negative expected value, emphasising the importance of first quantifying expected returns to assess risk properly.

Oversight is reinforced by several independent functions, including the investment risk & performance strategy team, product management, and the investment risk review group, all of which offer checks and insights from different risk perspectives. Together, these elements create a risk management ecosystem, balancing quantitative tools with experienced judgment to help ensure risk-aligned portfolio construction.

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Company Description

Wellington Management is one of the world’s largest independent investment managers, overseeing more than $1 trillion for over 2,400 clients in more than 60 countries. With a history spanning nearly a century, its global team of over 900 investment professionals delivers expertise across virtually all asset classes - including equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities, alternatives, and private markets.

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Fund Performance

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Risk

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Portfolio risk is assessed using both relative metrics - such as tracking error, standard deviation, sharpe ratio, and information ratio - and absolute tools like Bloomberg PORT and Yield Book. Risk is continuously monitored using various stress-testing models and scenario analyses, including prepayment stress on individual securities and simulations of historical market events. Responsibility for managing risk ultimately lies with portfolio managers, who are supported by dedicated tools and teams. The team view risk primarily as owning investments with a negative expected value, emphasising the importance of first quantifying expected returns to assess risk properly.

Oversight is reinforced by several independent functions, including the investment risk & performance strategy team, product management, and the investment risk review group, all of which offer checks and insights from different risk perspectives. Together, these elements create a risk management ecosystem, balancing quantitative tools with experienced judgment to help ensure risk-aligned portfolio construction.

Company Description

Close

Wellington Management is one of the world’s largest independent investment managers, overseeing more than $1 trillion for over 2,400 clients in more than 60 countries. With a history spanning nearly a century, its global team of over 900 investment professionals delivers expertise across virtually all asset classes - including equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities, alternatives, and private markets.

Investment process

The Weelingto Credit Total Return investment process aims to construct a benchmark-agnostic portfolio designed to maximise risk-adjusted total returns through a disciplined, valuation-driven framework. Portfolio construction focuses on identifying issuers with stable or improving credit fundamentals where market pricing diverges from forward-looking expectations for the distribution of yields, interest rates, and credit spreads.

The research and security selection process are structured into two key stages. It begins with securities screening, where the team evaluates an investment universe of approximately 1,500 securities spanning investment-grade corporate bonds, high-yield bonds, and emerging market debt. The team aims to layer positively-skewed return opportunities by first identifying asset classes with favourable total return potential, based on a broad assessment of interest rate and credit spread scenarios. Using a series of systematic screens, the portfolio manager narrows the focus to specific market segments that show positive asymmetry in return expectations.

Once such a segment is identified, attention shifts to evaluating individual securities within that segment, targeting those with strong credit fundamentals and a similarly favourable return profile. In environments where attractive opportunities are limited, the team may meaningfully allocate capital to cash or Treasuries while awaiting better conditions in the credit markets. This process typically results in a shortlist of 150 to 300 securities for deeper analysis.

The second stage involves fundamental research, supported by an extensive global platform of over 100 professionals. Their research is grounded in regular, direct engagement with government officials, central bankers, corporate executives, and other key stakeholders, amounting to around 10,000 such interactions annually. These contacts, along with frequent in-country visits - especially in emerging markets - enable a deep understanding of local conditions and policy dynamics.

The final portfolio is narrowed down to consist of between 125-250 securities

Risk

Portfolio risk is assessed using both relative metrics - such as tracking error, standard deviation, sharpe ratio, and information ratio - and absolute tools like Bloomberg PORT and Yield Book. Risk is continuously monitored using various stress-testing models and scenario analyses, including prepayment stress on individual securities and simulations of historical market events. Responsibility for managing risk ultimately lies with portfolio managers, who are supported by dedicated tools and teams. The team view risk primarily as owning investments with a negative expected value, emphasising the importance of first quantifying expected returns to assess risk properly.

Oversight is reinforced by several independent functions, including the investment risk & performance strategy team, product management, and the investment risk review group, all of which offer checks and insights from different risk perspectives. Together, these elements create a risk management ecosystem, balancing quantitative tools with experienced judgment to help ensure risk-aligned portfolio construction.

ESG

The Wellington Credit Total Return fund aims to deliver a total return profile while incorporating responsible investment values, though it does not have a specific sustainable investment objective. ESG factors and sustainability risks are considered in the investment process, but this does not automatically lead to the exclusion of a security. Investment decisions are based on the full range of characteristics. The fund applies issuer restrictions under Wellington Management’s funds exclusion policy, limiting exposure to sectors such as tobacco, nuclear and controversial weapons, as well as fossil fuels tied to thermal coal extraction or power generation, and oil sands production or generation.

Related Insights

The information, data, analyses, and opinions contained herein (1) include the proprietary information of FundCalibre, (2) may not be copied or redistributed without prior permission, (3) do not constitute investment advice offered by FundCalibre, (4) are provided solely for informational purposes and therefore are not an offer to buy or sell a fund, and (5) are not warranted to be correct, complete, or accurate. FundCalibre shall not be responsible for any trading decisions, damages, or other losses resulting from, or related to, this information, data, analyses, or opinions or their use. The Elite Fund rating is subjective in nature and reflects FundCalibre’s current expectations of future events/behaviour as they relate to a particular fund. Because such events/behaviour may turn out to be different than expected, FundCalibre does not guarantee that a fund will perform in line with its FundCalibre benchmark. Likewise, the Elite Fund rating should not be seen as any sort of guarantee or assessment of the creditworthiness of a fund nor of its underlying securities and should not be used as the sole basis for making any investment decision. FundCalibre disclaims any responsibility for trading decisions, damages or other losses resulting from any use of the Elite Fund rating. All performance data, as well as fund size, OCF, AMC, annual income (historic), share price discount or premium, is sourced directly from FE Analytics, and will change periodically.