Today Rusty & Robyn are joined by Ricky Schneider, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager at Fort Washington Investment Advisors. He is responsible for the commercial mortgage-backed securities portfolios for both Western & Southern Financial Group and third-party institutional clients. Schneider joined the firm in 2019. Prior to Fort Washington, he was with Mesirow Financial in Chicago where he was a Managing Director responsible for trading CMBS and other structured products. He also has previous experience at Loop Capital Markets, Lehman Brothers Asset Management, and Lincoln Capital Management.

Key Takeaways

• [02:42] - Ricky’s professional background and what led him to the investment industry.
• [03:57] - Fort Washington’s tagline is “uncompromised focus.” What is the significance of this for the firm and what really sets them apart in the industry?
• [05:03] - A simple, functional definition of Securitized Income and Structured Products.
• [06:05] - What are RMBS and CMBS and how do they differ? What about ABS?
• [07:35] - What are CLOs?
• [08:50] - How large are each of the above Fixed Income segments in terms of the overall Bond Market?
• [10:01] - What is the value proposition for each of  these segments and why would investors choose these structured opportunities over treasuries or corporate bonds?
• [11:07] - What are some of the risks when investing in this part of the Fixed Income market? What are some scenarios in which they might underperform the overall bond market?
• [12:35] - How has the Securitized market changed since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008?
• [15:41] - Does Ricky have a favorite idea in the Securitized Income sector?
• [16:46] - What part of an investor’s bond allocation might this sector replace?
• [17:51] - Rules of thumb for sizing a position of Structured opportunities within a Fixed Income allocation?
• [19:08] - Why does Securitized Income work in an ETF structure and what are the advantages of this?
• [20:38] - What to avoid and what to embrace in commercial real estate and CMBS?
• [24:20] - What is Ricky’s favorite investment idea at the moment?

Quotes

[12:20 ] - “..There is also inherently more risk the further you go down the capital structure in any of these sectors we are talking about” ~ Ricky Schneider

Links

• Ricky Schneider on LinkedIn
• Fort Washington Investment Advisors
• “I And Love And You” by The Avett Brothers

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Disclosure(s) - Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC, an Orion Company, is a registered investment advisor.

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