PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 12

cover story
INVESTING
AGAINST
COVIDThe
varying routes three fund managers
take to fight the pandemic for investors
T
he disappointment started in earnest when Italy was shuttered, and then was aggravated
by the U.S. ban on inbound travel from Europe. Now, roughly five months later,
the COVID-19 pandemic and its push and pull on the financial markets rank No. 1-or
nearly so-on the agenda of every adviser, plan sponsor and participant. Accordingly, we
thought advisers might value a review of the thought processes and priorities of a few
widely held target-date fund (TDF)s' managers.
Confronting the Virus
With the wind at their backs from the start of the year, some managers arrived at the
COVID-19 outbreak with bullish views on the equity markets. " Coming into the crisis, we
were 3% or 4% above the midpoint of our TDF glide path allocation, " recalls Dan Oldroyd,
portfolio manager and head of target-date strategies at J.P. Morgan Asset Management in
New York City. " We got ourselves back to neutral at the end of February, and through March
down to an underweight of 3% to 4%. Our biggest concern at that point was how bad things
might get, so it wasn't until mid-April that we started to put money back to work and return
to an overweight. "
But managers are not unanimous on whether it is safe to go back in the water. " We were
slightly overweight on equities in our TDFs at the start of the year, but when equities took
their precipitous fall in March, we added to our exposure to stocks-4% over our neutral
weighting for stocks at one point, " says Mark Vaselkiv, fixed income chief investment officer
(CIO) at T. Rowe Price Group in Baltimore and a specialist in high-yield bonds. " We find
ourselves neutral again today, at about 65% equity. We largely see the markets as ahead of
themselves, as they are forecasting a lot of good things-economic recovery and a vaccine.
But there's still way too much uncertainty. "
12 | planadviser.com July-August 2020
Art by Celia Jacobs
19
C

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PLANADVISER - July/August 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PLANADVISER - July/August 2020

Investing Against COVID-19
2020 PLANADVISER Recordkeeper Services Survey
Three Who Lead the Way
Prospecting in Turbulent Times
Retirement Savings Optimization
DOL Gives Private-Equity Guidance
Investment Advice Revisited
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - C1
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - FC1
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - FC2
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - C2
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 1
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 2
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 3
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 4
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 5
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 6
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 7
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 8
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 9
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 10
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 11
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - Investing Against COVID-19
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 13
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 14
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 15
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 2020 PLANADVISER Recordkeeper Services Survey
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 17
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 18
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 19
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 20
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 21
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 22
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 23
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 24
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 25
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 26
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 27
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - Three Who Lead the Way
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 29
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 30
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - Prospecting in Turbulent Times
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 32
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 33
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - Retirement Savings Optimization
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 35
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 36
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 37
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - DOL Gives Private-Equity Guidance
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - Investment Advice Revisited
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - 40
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - C3
PLANADVISER - July/August 2020 - C4
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