Loomis Sayles Global Allocation Strategy Celebrates 30th Anniversary
This year, we celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the Loomis Sayles Global Allocation strategy, marking three decades of disciplined multi-asset investing.
Since its inception in 1996, Global Allocation has taken a flexible, unconstrained approach, dynamically allocating capital across global equities, US fixed income, and non‑US fixed income, guided by forward-looking, bottom-up fundamental research.
To pursue equity-like returns with less volatility, the Global Allocation strategy takes a best-ideas approach, evaluating opportunities across the full global capital structure, helping to avoid artificial constraints by sector, style, or geography to identify securities supported by multiple return levers.
Deep collaboration lies at the heart of the Global Allocation strategy. The portfolio is co‑managed by four senior investment professionals representing multiple investment disciplines: equities are led by Eileen Riley, CFA, and Lee Rosenbaum (Co‑Heads of Global Equity Opportunities), and Matt Eagan, CFA (Head of the Full Discretion Team), David Rolley, CFA(Co‑Head of Global Fixed Income) bring fixed income expertise from two of the firm’s longest-tenured bond teams . This team-based approach reflects the belief that lasting results are best achieved through the integration of diverse perspectives and investment expertise.
The Alpha Engines Powering Global Allocation
Global Equities: A Research-Driven Global Equity Approach
Led by portfolio managers Eileen Riley, CFA, and Lee Rosenbaum, whose partnership spans more than a decade, the approach in global equities leverages deep industry knowledge and experience to help identify compelling investment opportunities across a global opportunity set.
The team focuses on generating strong long‑term investment performance through a disciplined, bottom‑up investment philosophy and process unconstrained by style, sector or geography. Deep fundamental research and collaborative debate help identify high‑quality businesses with durable growth characteristics and attractive valuations.
Non-US Fixed Income: Integrated Fixed Income Expertise
The Global Fixed Income asset class plays an essential role in the Global Allocation strategy, bringing decades of experience investing across global bond markets. The investment approach, honed over about four decades, is rooted in fundamental research, complemented by valuation and technical analysis, with a focus on identifying opportunities that can offer compelling compensation for risk.
Within Global Allocation, this expertise supports the strategy’s differentiated use of fixed income as an active potential return contributor, rather than solely a defensive allocation. Fixed income ideas are reinforced by the depth of Loomis Sayles’ research capabilities, drawing on insights generated by sovereign and credit research professionals across the firm.
US Fixed Income: A Contrarian, Go-Anywhere Approach
The US Fixed Income asset class also plays a key role in the architecture of this investment strategy. Its investment approach is rooted in the belief that mispricings tend to emerge when markets become short-term focused, illiquid, or driven by fear and greed. The multisector, go-anywhere investment style, pioneered by Dan Fuss, CFA, Vice Chairman of Loomis Sayles in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is anchored by core philosophies intended to identify these dislocations and convert them into excess return potential over time.
The approach to security selection is driven by a repeatable, deep-value, equity-like research process that emphasizes an assessment of enterprise value and building convexity into positions. The team also relies heavily on top-down macro and credit cycle analysis as well as a risk premium framework to assess where the market may be over or underestimating expected defaults and losses.
Dan Fuss, who marks his 50th year with Loomis Sayles in March 2026 and served as one of the original portfolio managers on the Global Allocation strategy recalls: “When we launched Global Allocation in 1996, the goal was simple: give investors the freedom to follow their best ideas in pursuit of generating attractive long-term risk-adjusted returns for clients. That commitment to fundamental research and a no-constraints approach has endured and it’s what has allowed the strategy to evolve through decades of very different market environments.”