Symetra Variable Investment Trust plans launch of 20 funds

By Toni Weeks

San Diego, Jan. 12 - Symetra Variable Investment Trust announced in an N-1A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission its plans to launch 20 funds.

Five of the funds will reflect the subadviser's name once one has been selected. The portfolio management team has not been selected for any of the funds yet. Likewise, fees for the funds have not yet been established.

Symetra [Subadviser] Total Return Fund will seek total return through both income and capital appreciation and will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of borrowings for investment purposes, in debt securities. Under normal market conditions, the fund will invest more than half of its assets in mortgage-backed government securities, mortgage-backed securities collateralized by government securities and privately issued high-grade mortgage-backed securities. It may also invest up to 35% of its assets in lower-rated bonds, bank loans and assignments and credit default swap agreements.

Symetra [Subadviser] Emerging Markets Income Fund will seek total return through both income and capital appreciation. Under normal market conditions, the fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of borrowings for investment purposes, in debt securities of foreign issuers that are located in at least four emerging market countries or whose securities are traded in emerging markets.

Symetra [Subadviser] Focused Fund will seek long-term capital appreciation and, to a lesser extent, income. It will invest a majority of its assets in common stock of U.S. issuers, some of which may pay dividends. The subadviser will seek to purchase growth-oriented issuers at low prices relative to value. The fund may invest up to 20% of its assets in equity securities of foreign issuers, though investments in the form of American Depositary Receipts are exempt from this limit.

Symetra [Subadviser] U.S. Core Equity Fund will seek long-term capital appreciation by investing at least 80% of its net assets in a broad and diverse group of exchange-traded equity securities of U.S. issuers, with an emphasis on value stocks and small-capitalization securities.

Symetra [Subadviser] International Core Equity Fund will seek long-term capital appreciation and will invest at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities. It will invest in a broad and diverse group of equity securities of foreign issuers with an emphasis on value stocks and small-capitalization securities. Under normal market conditions, the fund will maintain at least 40% of its assets in securities of issuers representing at least three foreign countries.

Pension Reserve funds planned

Symetra will also be launching 14 Pension Reserve funds, all with the investment objective of seeking investment returns that would provide an amount on each fund's termination date equal to the then-present value of specified lifetime annuity payments made to investors born in the year range identified in the fund's name.

These 14 funds will invest primarily in government securities and dollar-denominated corporate debt securities rated, at the time of purchase, in the three highest categories by a nationally recognized securities rating organization or unrated securities that the subadviser determines are of comparable quality. The funds may also invest in other types of dollar-denominated investment-grade securities, including money market instruments and securities of foreign issuers. Most securities held by the funds will be zero-coupon debt securities.

The pension-based funds include

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2016 (b. 1942-1947);

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2020 (b. 1942-1947);

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2024 (b. 1942-1947);

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2016 (b. 1948-1952);

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2020 (b. 1948-1952);

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2024 (b. 1948-1952);

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2028 (b. 1948-1952);

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2016 (b. 1953-1957);

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2020 (b. 1953-1957);

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2024 (b. 1953-1957);

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2028 (b. 1953-1957);

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2020 (b. 1958-1962);

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2024 (b. 1958-1962); and

• The Symetra Pension Reserve Fund - 2028 (b. 1958-1962).

Beta Reduction Fund planned

The final fund, the Symetra Beta Reduction Fund, will seek to provide investment results that match the opposite of the performance of a specific benchmark on a daily basis, a result that is opposite of most mutual funds. The fund's current benchmark is the inverse of the performance of the S&P 500 index. Because the fund seeks daily inverse investment results, the return of the fund for a period longer than a single trading day will be the result of each day's compounded returns over the period, which will likely differ from the inverse return of the fund's underlying index for that period.

Because the fund's objective is to perform opposite the underlying index, it will not generally own the securities included in the index. Instead it will engage in short sales of securities included in the index and invest significantly in derivative instruments, which primarily consist of equity index swaps and futures contracts as well as options on securities, futures contracts and stock indexes. Under normal market conditions, the fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets in financial instruments with economic characteristics that influence it to perform opposite the securities of companies in the index.

The funds' investment adviser is Bellevue, Wash.-based Symetra Investment Management, Inc.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.