Strategic Allocation Series

Doug Foreman is chief investment officer and a portfolio manager at Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management. He is also a member of the executive management committee.

Before joining Kayne Anderson Rudnick in 2011, Mr. Foreman was director of equities at HighMark Capital Management, and before that, group managing director and chief investment officer of U.S. equities at Trust Company of the West (TCW) in Los Angeles. He began his investment career at Putnam Investments as an equity research analyst and portfolio manager.

Mr. Foreman earned a B.S. in marine engineering from The U.S. Naval Academy and an M.B.A. from Harvard University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst^® (CFA^®) charter holder. He began working in the investment industry in 1986.

Frederick Brimberg is a senior managing director at Duff & Phelps Investment Management, an affiliate of Virtus Investment Partners, where he serves as senior portfolio manager of the International Equity strategy. Mr. Brimberg and the International Equity team joined Duff & Phelps in 2016 from Euclid Advisors LLC, another Virtus affiliate.

Mr. Brimberg’s career spans 30-plus years in investment management, trading, and capital markets. Prior to joining Euclid in 2012, he was a senior vice president and international equity portfolio manager at Avatar Associates where he started the international equity strategy in 2006. Earlier, he was vice president and portfolio manager for ING Investment Management with a focus on the international separately managed account product.

From 1990 to 2000, Mr. Brimberg held several positions at Lexington Management, including as a research analyst specializing in cyclical sectors within the developed international and emerging markets. Earlier in his financial career, he was a partner at Brimberg & Co., a New York Stock Exchange member firm, and he worked in institutional equity sales at Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb Inc.

Mr. Brimberg earned a B.A. in psychology from Washington & Lee University and an M.B.A. in finance from New York University. He is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and sits on the Bank of New York ADR committee. He has been working in the investment industry since 1979.

David Albrycht is president and chief investment officer of Newfleet Asset Management. Prior to joining Newfleet in 2011, Mr. Albrycht was executive managing director and senior portfolio manager with Goodwin Capital Advisers, a former Virtus investment management subsidiary. He joined the Goodwin multi-sector fixed income team in 1985 as a credit analyst and has managed fixed income portfolios since 1991.

Mr. Albrycht is portfolio manager of Virtus Newfleet Multi-Sector Short Term Bond Fund since 1993 and Virtus Newfleet Multi-Sector Intermediate Bond Fund since 1994; and co-manager of Virtus Newfleet Senior Floating Rate Fund since 2008, Virtus Tactical Allocation Fund and Virtus Newfleet High Yield Fund since 2011; Virtus Newfleet Bond Fund, Virtus Strategic Allocation Fund, and Virtus Newfleet Low Duration Income Fund since 2012; and Virtus Newfleet Credit Opportunities Fund since 2015. He also manages several variable investment options and is co-manager of three closed-end funds, Virtus Total Return Fund Inc. (NYSE: ZF), Virtus Global Multi-Sector Income Fund (NYSE: VGI), and Virtus Global Dividend & Income Fund Inc. (NYSE: ZTR), and two exchange-traded funds, Virtus Newfleet Multi-Sector Unconstrained Bond ETF (NFLT) and Virtus Newfleet Dynamic Credit ETF (BLHY).

In February 2013, Virtus Investment Partners was named Barron’s “Best Taxable Bond Fund Family” for 2012, an honor also received in 2010, due in large part both years to the expert management of the firm’s multi-sector fixed income strategies by Mr. Albrycht and the Newfleet team.¹ Mr. Albrycht has been a recipient of several Lipper analytical certificates and recognized by industry groups as a leading multi-sector fixed income strategist. He has appeared on CNBC and Bloomberg Television and been quoted or featured in numerous publications, including Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Dow Jones, and InvestmentNews.

Mr. Albrycht previously was Goodwin’s director of credit research. In addition, he managed the Phoenix MISTIC CDO, a $1 billion multi-sector collateralized debt obligation, where he was responsible for credit analysis and deal structure.

Mr. Albrycht earned a B.A., cum laude, from Central Connecticut State University and an M.B.A., with honors, from the University of Connecticut. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. He has been working in the investment industry since 1985.

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¹Best Taxable Bond Fund Family ranked 1 of 62 Fund Families, on a one-year basis, in the 2012 Barron’s/Lipper 2012 Fund Survey, published in the February 11, 2013 issue of Barron’s. Ranked 42 of 58 in 2011 and 1 of 57 in 2010.



Barron’s explanation of how it ranks fund families: To qualify for the Barron’s/Lipper fund survey, a group must have at least three funds in Lipper’s general U.S.-stock category, as well as one in world equity, which combines global and international funds. Also required is at least one mixed-asset (or balanced) fund, which holds stocks and bonds. Fund shops also must have at least two taxable-bond funds and one tax-exempt offering.

For the first time this year, the performance of emerging-market funds was included in the world equity category. Each fund’s returns are adjusted for 12b-1 fees, which are used for marketing and distribution expenses. The funds usually add these fees back into returns. The aim is to measure the manager’s skill. Fund loads, or sales charges, aren’t included in the calculation of returns, either. Each fund’s return is measured against those of all funds in its Lipper category. That leads to a percentile ranking, with 100 the highest and 1 the lowest, which is then weighted by asset size relative to the fund family’s other assets in its general classification. If a family’s biggest funds do well, that boosts its overall ranking. Poor performance in a big fund can have a big effect on the ranking.

Finally, the score is multiplied by the weighting of its general classification, as determined by the entire Lipper universe of funds. 2012 category weightings for one-year results: general equity, 34.9%; world equity, 16.3%; mixed-asset, 17.3%; taxable bonds, 27.2%; and tax-exempt bonds, 4.3%. 2010 category weightings for one-year results: general equity, 40.52%; world equity, 14.32%; mixed equity, 16.46%; taxable bonds, 24.52%; tax-exempt bonds, 4.18%.

The scoring: Say a company has a fund in the general U.S. equity category that has $50 million in assets and that it accounts for half of the company’s assets in that category. Its ranking is the 75th percentile. The first calculation would be 75 times 0.50, which comes to 37.5. That score is then multiplied by 38.04, general equity’s overall weighting in Lipper’s universe. So it would be 37.5 times 0.3804, which totals 14.265. Similar calculations are done for each fund in our study. Then, all the numbers are added up for a total score. The fund shop with the highest score wins, both for every category and overall.

Strong ratings may not be indicative of positive fund performance. Performance for some funds may be negative.

Barron’s is a registered trademark of Dow Jones & Company; all rights reserved.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Stephen Hooker is a managing director and portfolio manager at Newfleet Asset Management, an investment management affiliate of Virtus Investment Partners.

Mr. Hooker joined Newfleet in 2011 to serve as sector manager for emerging markets. He is responsible for researching issuers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

From 2005 until 2011, Mr. Hooker was vice president, senior credit analyst at Aladdin Capital Management and Global Plus Investment Management, respectively, both of which specialize in high yield and structured credit products. Prior to 2005, he was at Goodwin Capital Advisers, an investment management company that previously was a subsidiary of Virtus, for 12 years, serving in various capacities, including as a senior credit analyst and emerging markets sector manager on its fixed income team.

Mr. Hooker earned a B.A. in psychology from Trinity College. He has held the Chartered Financial Analyst^® (CFA^®) designation since 1999. He began his career in the investment industry in 1993.