Playing the Long(er Duration) Game

March 2024

PNC Capital Advisors Short Duration 1-3 Year Strategy Awarded PSN Top Guns Manager of the Decade

PNC Capital Advisors was awarded PSN’s Manager of the Decade for its Short Duration 1-3 Year Strategy. The award is based on the 10-year period ending December 31, 2023.

While institutional investors view liquidity through a variety of business and investment lenses, there is a core emphasis on capital preservation and stability. Our goal is to optimize portfolios to balance their unique needs and objectives with appropriate return and volatility expectations.

As rapid normalization of monetary policy over the past two years drew extra attention to the short end of the yield curve, we have remained steadfast in our approach to liquidity investing. Since early 2023, higher yields on traditional cash allocations have been alluring. We have consistently highlighted the ability to capture more balanced risk-return opportunities further out the yield curve. The Short Duration 1-3 Year strategy is representative of that opportunity set.

Amid market volatility, the three pillars of our investment process — Fundamentals, Valuations and Technicals — help us both avoid investment pitfalls and identify opportunities. We continuously assess our market outlook against historical valuations in pursuit of sectors and securities with attractive risk-return characteristics.

Our focus on the balance between risk and return — what we refer to as return symmetry — is a natural extension of our investment process. The concept of symmetry considers the relationship between risk and the potential compensation for that risk. Is it balanced, or is it skewed in one direction? Being on the wrong side of an asymmetrical return-risk relationship usually leads to an undesirable outcome.

We believe the PSN award is a direct reflection of our risk-focused approach.

PSN Awards

The PSN Top Guns award list, published by Zephyr, highlights top-performing separately managed account strategies, distilled through rigorous performance-based selection criteria.

maintained an r-squared of 0.80 or greater relative to the style benchmark;
exhibited returns greater than the style benchmark; and
exhibited a standard deviation less than the style benchmark.

PSN Awards

In addition to the Manager of the Decade award for the Short Duration 1-3 Year Strategy, PNC Capital Advisors’ Core and Core Plus strategies were awarded PSN’s Six Star Top Guns award for fourth quarter 2023.

This is the fifth consecutive Six Star award for Core Plus, and the fourth Six Star award for Core.

Important Disclosures

PSN Manager of the Decade Criteria: The PSN universes were created using the information collected through the PSN investment manager questionnaire and use only gross of fee returns. Mutual fund and commingled fund products are not included in the universe. PSN Top Guns investment managers must claim that they are GIPS compliant. Products must have an r-squared of 0.80 or greater relative to the style benchmark for the ten-year period ending December 31, 2023. Moreover, products must have returns greater than the style benchmark for the ten-year period ending December 31, 2023 and also standard deviation less than the style benchmark for the ten-year period ending December 31, 2023. At this point, the top ten performers for the latest ten-year period ending December 31, 2023 become the PSN Top Guns Manager of the Decade. The PSN Short Maturity Universe is composed of 139 firms and 247 products.

PSN Six Star Top Guns Criteria: The PSN universes were created using the information collected through the PSN investment manager questionnaire and use only gross of fee returns. Mutual fund and commingled fund products are not included in the universe. PSN Top Guns investment managers must claim that they are GIPS compliant. Products must have an r-squared of 0.80 or greater relative to the style benchmark for the five- year period ending December 31, 2023. Moreover, products must have returns greater than the style benchmark for the three latest three-year rolling periods ending December 31, 2023. Products are then selected which have a standard deviation for the five-year period equal or less than the median standard deviation for the peer group. The top ten information ratios for the latest five-year period become the 6 STAR TOP GUNS. The PSN Core Fixed Income Universe is composed of 170 firms and 365 products. The PSN Core Plus Fixed Income Universe is composed of 96 firms and 133 products.

The content of PSN Top Guns is intended for use by qualified investment professionals. Please consult with an investment professional before making any investment decisions using content or implied content from PSN Top Guns.

All Rights Reserved. PSN Top Guns is powered by PSN. PSN is an investment manager database and is a division of Informa Financial Intelligence. No part of PSN Top Guns may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise without the prior written permission of Informa Financial Intelligence.

Because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by Informa Financial Intelligence (IFI) sources or others, IFI does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, completeness or availability of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information. THERE ARE NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE. In no event shall IFI be liable for any indirect, special or consequential damages in connection with use of any information or derived using information based on PSN Top Guns results.

This publication is for informational purposes only. Information contained herein is believed to be accurate, but has not been verified and cannot be guaranteed. Opinions represented are not intended as an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase or sale of any security and are subject to change without notice. Statements in this material should not be considered investment advice or a forecast or guarantee of future results. To the extent specific securities are referenced herein, they have been selected on an objective basis to illustrate the views expressed in the commentary. Such references do not include all material information about such securities, including risks, and are not intended to be recommendations to take any action with respect to such securities. The securities identified do not represent all of the securities purchased, sold or recommended and it should not be assumed that any listed securities were or will prove to be profitable. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

PNC Capital Advisors, LLC claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®). A list of composite descriptions for PNC Capital Advisors, LLC and/or a presentation that complies with the GIPS® standards are available upon request.

PNC Capital Advisors, LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PNC Bank N.A. and an indirect subsidiary of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. serving institutional clients. PNC Capital Advisors’ strategies and the investment risks and advisory fees associated with each strategy can be found within Part 2A of the firm’s Form ADV, which is available at https://pnccapitaladvisors.com.

FOR INSTITUTIONAL USE ONLY

INVESTMENTS: NOT FDIC INSURED-NO BANK GUARANTEE – MAY LOSE VALUE

Back to Insights