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Our Team

Our team has spent their careers challenging the status quo with first-to-market products and insights on how to use them — and we continue to be driven by the same passion to create new opportunities for investors.

We’re here to partner with you — reach us at 800.896.5089 or info@BondBloxxETF.com.

Katie Abbott

JoAnne Bianco

Leland Clemons

Sarah Concklin

Kathleen Cordrey

Isabela De Souza

Robert Eaton

Nick Fahy

Cole Feinberg

Joanna Gallegos

Dan Goldman​

Jessica Hamrick

Colleen Kapoor

Tony Kelly

Steve McDermott

Thomas McKean

Mark Miller

Ben Morris

Brian O’Donnell

Elya Schwartzman

Ahmed Taha

Katie Abbott

Katie is focused on building and maintaining relationships with Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), asset managers, ETF investment strategists, and family offices.

Prior to joining BondBloxx, Katie spent eight years at BlackRock, where she was responsible for distributing iShares ETFs, mutual funds, separately managed accounts, and alternative investments to the wealth community. Previously, Katie worked at Vanguard in the sales division focused on financial advisors.

Outside of work, Katie can be found chasing around her two little boys, learning to play golf with her husband and always searching for new restaurants.

JoAnne Bianco

JoAnne is a CFA® charterholder who brings deep markets knowledge and analytical expertise across fixed income asset classes to her position as Partner and Client Portfolio Manager at BondBloxx.

Prior to representing BondBloxx’s ETF strategies to clients and driving the company’s distribution efforts, JoAnne was at PPM America for 30 years as a Senior Portfolio Manager, Director of Corporate Bond Research, and Senior Credit Analyst for high yield, investment grade, and crossover portfolios. Previously, JoAnne was a Debt Rating Analyst for S&P Corporation and a Senior Credit Analyst/Department Head and Account Officer for Chemical Banking Corporation, where she was part of a middle market commercial lending unit specializing in highly leveraged transactions. 

JoAnne enjoys running, hiking and traveling during her time outside work, as well as bucket-list adventures with her husband and four daughters.

Leland Clemons
Founder

Among his many accomplishments as a recognized innovator within the capital markets, Leland has led numerous market structure reforms to enhance transparency within the ETF industry, helped architect exchange trading rules that benefit investors, and championed innovations that have made ETFs more accessible to investors globally.

Prior to co-founding BondBloxx, Leland was Head of Fixed Income and Derivatives for Tradeweb Europe where he led accelerated growth in the credit, rates, and automated execution products, including the introduction of portfolio trading in European credit.

From 2005 to 2019, he served as a leader in BlackRock’s iShares ETF business, including Global Head of Markets and Investment Strategy, where he helped grow ETF assets from less than $100 billion to more than $2 trillion.

Leland is named as inventor on a U.S. patent for a system to protect individual investors in a blind trust ETF with a small lot redemption trigger, developed during his time at BlackRock.

Sarah Concklin

Sarah brings more than a decade of experience in growing teams and companies from the ground up to her business development role at BondBloxx, where she focuses on driving the company’s sales and distribution process.

Prior to BondBloxx, she was a member of the founding team at Millennium Advisors, a technology-driven broker-dealer focused on providing liquidity to fixed-income investors. Sarah had many responsibilities across sales, trading, and managing global entitlements, and was also instrumental in launching the firm’s UK entity Millennium Europe.

Sarah is a proud member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and Women in ETFs. Her favorite activities include skiing, SCUBA diving and local adventure-seeking with her two sons throughout Sonoma County.

Kathleen Cordrey

Kathleen focuses on strategic projects to optimize BondBloxx’s operations and investment platform. She works across the organization to identify opportunities to drive the firm’s next phases of growth.

Previously, Kathleen worked at Goldman Sachs on the fixed income desk, in the Office of the Chairman, and in the investment banking division. She has also spent time working at a real estate start-up based in Miami.

Outside of work, Kathleen enjoys spending time outside, reading and woodworking.

Isabela De Souza

Isabela is responsible for driving high impact marketing initiatives at BondBloxx. Combining her expertise with marketing and ETFs, she seeks to deliver a best-in-class experience to investors.

Prior to joining BondBloxx, Isabela held various roles within BlackRock’s ETF and Index Investing Group. As part of the iShares Global Product Marketing team, she helped with content creation, production, distribution, and content performance analytics. Isabela was also a member of the Americas Index Equity Product Strategy team, where she represented BlackRock’s institutional index business as a product expert.

Isabela is an active member of her community as a mentor to 10,000 Degrees and College of Marin students. Her goal is to propel education and career opportunities for the Latinx community. 

Robert Eaton

Robert leads BondBloxx’s strategic relationship efforts, partnering with wealth management firms and their advisors nationwide to navigate bond markets with greater precision and value.

Prior to joining BondBloxx, Robert worked at BlackRock and Merrill Lynch for over twenty years. His roles included leading national accounts, product strategy, retail marketing and wealth-tech business development teams that spanned wealth channels and vehicle types. Robert began his career as a strategy consultant at McKinsey serving financial services clients based in Frankfurt, London, New York and Johannesburg.

Outside of the office, Robert is passionate about serving on the boards of Homefront, a non-profit dedicated to fighting family homelessness in central New Jersey, and the Expect Miracles Foundation, an organization which rallies the financial services industry in support of cancer research and survivors.

Nick Fahy

Nick is a CFA charterholder who brings extensive fixed income experience to his portfolio management role at BondBloxx.

Prior to joining BondBloxx, Nick worked at Garrison Point Capital where he oversaw trading operations, conducted research on the U.S. housing market, and helped drive the construction of portfolio analytics and modeling tools to expand the investment team’s capabilities. Previously, Nick spent three years at Oppenheimer & Co. on the institutional fixed income sales and trading desk.

Outside of work, Nick enjoys staying active, including boxing and cycling.

Cole Feinberg

Cole thrives on building and maintaining strong relationships with people in the industry and beyond, and in his senior business development role at BondBloxx, he leverages the power of those relationships to deliver fixed income investment ETFs and solutions to clients.

Prior to joining BondBloxx, Cole served as Global Head of Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) distribution at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. He also served for 12 years at BlackRock where he held various leadership positions in the iShares ETF business, including Head of Capital Markets, where he oversaw institutional trading relationships and ETF business development. He began his career as an equity trader at Morgan Stanley.  

Cole is an advisory board member of Voices Against Brain Cancer and Head for the Cure, two of the nation’s leading brain cancer foundations, as well as Head of Philanthropy for Lamorinda Gives Back. An avid golfer,  Cole is also on the board of The First Tee and is the Founder of FeinWines, a distribution firm focused on boutique wineries.

Joanna Gallegos
Co-Founder

The architect of more than 175 leading ETFs (and counting), Joanna is the Chief Operating Officer and a Co-Founder of BondBloxx and a recognized global leader in ETF design, distribution, and growth. She serves as President and Board Chair of the BondBloxx ETF Trust.

Before joining BondBloxx, Joanna was instrumental in establishing J.P. Morgan Asset Management as a top provider of ETFs, serving as Head of U.S. ETFs and Head of Global ETF Strategy.

Previously, she played pivotal roles at BlackRock’s iShares Division, including Senior Product Manager and Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives. In addition to planning, building, and launching many of the industry’s largest and most liquid equity, fixed income, and alternatives ETFs, Joanna is listed as an inventor on multiple ETF-related patents. Joanna is an active member of Women in ETFs.

Dan Goldman

Recognized in the industry as a portfolio analytics and data mastermind, Dan is a dedicated ETF leader with deep experience in fixed income markets, ETF fund management, financial operations, and developing and improving processes across back, middle, and front office teams.

Prior to joining BondBloxx’s portfolio management team, where he helps develop and implement the company’s investment strategies and processes, Dan was a portfolio manager at Vanguard. There he served on the Global Bond Index investment management team as the trading desk’s Global ETF head. In this role, Dan helped launch most of Vanguard’s Fixed Income ETFs. He also led Vanguard’s design, implementation, maintenance of ETF valuation, portfolio management technology, and ETF basket construction tools used across Vanguard’s global ETF lineup.

Jessica Hamrick

Jessica provides advisory and administrative assistance to BondBloxx, and helps our office run smoothly.

Prior to BondBloxx, Jessica was with BlackRock for almost 15 years, including her time with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. As a Managing Director in BlackRock’s iShares Division and a member of BlackRock’s Institutional Client Business, she led the effort covering Foundations, Endowments, Consultants, and Outsourced CIOs (OCIO) for the iShares Institutional ETF business. She also built and led the Institutional Client Strategy team and was a senior sales strategist for iShares, responsible for creating ETF-specific materials and research papers for institutional clients. Jessica began her career at Credit Suisse (formerly Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette) where she worked as a sales associate and trader.

Jess was a co-Founder of the San Francisco Chapter for Project Sunshine, whose purpose is to bring the healing power of play to children with medical needs. She has also served as Treasurer for Southern Marin Moms and is an active member of her community. She is a long-standing member of Women in ETFs.

Colleen Kapoor

With more than 20 years of experience marketing ETFs and financial solutions across investor audiences, Colleen leads marketing and brings to every assignment a passion for creating communications that help people better understand how to use ETFs in their portfolios.

Prior to her current marketing role at BondBloxx, Colleen led content strategy and was integral in building product marketing for the iShares ETF business at BlackRock for more than 15 years. Previously, she held client relations and portfolio management roles at Milestone Capital Management, a registered investment advisor focused on short-term liquidity and cash management solutions.

Colleen is an active community member, volunteer, and coach in the New York City public school system and 78 Youth Sports in Brooklyn, NY.

Tony Kelly
Co-Founder

A trailblazer in ETF product design, structure, and trading, Tony leads the product and capital markets teams at BondBloxx responsible for developing new ETF strategies and overseeing relationships with authorized participants, market makers, liquidity providers, and exchanges. Tony is also Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer, and Treasurer of the BondBloxx Trust.

Before joining BondBloxx, Tony served as Global Head of Product and Strategy for the ETF business at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Prior to Goldman Sachs, he served in a variety of roles at Barclays Global Investors and BlackRock where he was responsible for managing the development of more than 150 funds and establishing the capital markets group at iShares. He was also named as inventor on two ETF-specific patents.

Tony is an active board and community member who has served on the Fixed Income Index Advisory Board for the London Stock Exchange Group and on the Leading Disruptive Innovation Advisory Board at Rutgers University. An advocate for the creation of professional opportunities for members of underrepresented communities, he has supported veterans and college students transitioning into the business world via American Corporate Partners and City Tutors in New York, respectively.

Steve McDermott

Steve is a seasoned professional with over 30 years of diverse financial industry experience, making him an exceptional multi-dimensional partner to clients. 

Prior to joining BondBloxx, Steve spent eight years at BlackRock, where he was responsible for distributing active and index investments including iShares ETFs, mutual funds, separately managed accounts, alternative investments, and portfolio consulting services.  Prior to BlackRock, Steve worked for two decades in business development roles, marketing prime brokerage, custody and clearing services to hedge funds, RIAs, and family offices for Charles Schwab, Fidelity Investments and Bear Stearns. During his tenure, he recruited and consulted breakaway advisors in the formation of more than 50 independent registered investment advisory (RIA) firms. Steve’s experience also includes trading OTC equities as a Nasdaq market maker and as a prop trader in equities, futures, and related derivatives. He began his career in 1990 as a financial consultant for Merrill Lynch.

Steve has served on the executive committee and as the chapter head for the Los Angeles chapter of the CAIA (Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst) Association.  A former collegiate soccer player, he has enjoyed coaching several youth teams.  Steve also volunteers at his community church teaching English as a second language to international students.

Thomas McKean

Thomas’ track record as a savvy product engineer and innovator is integral to his roles on the product and capital markets teams at BondBloxx.

Tom has devoted his entire career to fixed income innovation and counts the launch of the Axe Match Tool that connects research trade ideas with live trader axes as his proudest accomplishment. Before coming to BondBloxx, Tom spent four years at Barclays Investment Bank, where in addition to creating the Axe Match Tool, he worked within the credit research franchise writing the Global Portfolio Manager’s Digest and helped launch a new team focused on Product Management and Internal Strategy for the FICC research franchise. He also worked in Credit Sales covering west coast institutions trading cash bonds and CDS. Prior to Barclays, he served for three years at Bloomberg LP as a Fixed Income Product Specialist.

Tom is a fitness enthusiast and is always looking for a new physical challenge. He is actively involved in helping early-stage health and fintech companies as an angel investor and advisor.

Mark Miller
Co-Founder

With extensive experience across fixed income and equities solutions and a deep understanding of the needs of institutional credit investors, Mark has been instrumental in driving growth for some of the largest and most innovative financial products on the market today.

Before co-founding BondBloxx, Mark ran institutional distribution for HSBC in North and South America and was Head of Market Sales across both fixed income and equities. Prior to HSBC, he served in BlackRock’s iShares ETF division where he was responsible for the growth of fixed income ETFs with institutional investors. Previous to BlackRock, Mark served as President at The Seaport Group (now Seaport Global), a fixed income investment banking boutique specializing in high yield debt, distressed debt, emerging markets debt, and high-grade credit products. Prior to Seaport, he served as Head of Global Markets Institutional Sales for both fixed income and equities at Bank of America. Mark began his career at Salomon Brothers/Citigroup, where he spent 20 years in the fixed income division, ending as Head of Global Distribution for all U.S. Credit Products.

Mark serves on the Advisory Council for Cornell and on the Advisory Board for Shatterproof. He is also the Board Chair for P.O.T.S (Part of the Solution) in The Bronx, NY.

Ben Morris

Ben brings to his portfolio management role at BondBloxx extensive experience across the ETF industry, with an emphasis on capital markets and product innovation.

Prior to joining BondBloxx, Ben was Global Head of Product for Bloomberg’s BSKT product, the first-ever consolidated solution for the ETF primary market. In previous roles at State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) and Brown Brothers Harriman, he worked as a Portfolio Manager and Fund Accountant on Fixed Income ETFs.

Outside of work, one of Ben’s greatest passions is spending time on the water, where he enjoys fishing, cruising, and racing. He has sailed more than 10,000 blue water miles, often on boats he has built with his own hands.

Brian O’Donnell
Co-Founder

Combining an innovator’s mindset with distribution expertise, Brian has consistently demonstrated the ability to create best-in-class solutions for clients and deliver excellent business results for the financial organizations he has served in his over 25 years in the industry.

At BondBloxx, Brian is responsible for leading the company’s distribution efforts and engaging with clients.

Before co-founding BondBloxx, Brian was Senior Vice President at Northern Trust Asset Management, where he led sales, business strategy, enablement, and administration for funds and managed accounts. Prior to Northern Trust, he held a variety of roles at BlackRock, where he led sales for BlackRock’s Liquidity solutions, drove iShares ETF Institutional and RIA Distribution, and was instrumental in the launch of iShares ETFs to the Asia Pacific and Australian marketplaces. Before BlackRock, he served as a Financial Advisor for Prudential Securities.

Brian is an active community member with his local church and kids’ school. He is a mentor with American Corporate Partners and a long-standing member and supporter of Women in ETFs.

Elya Schwartzman
Co-Founder

An ETF industry pioneer, Elya Schwartzman combines an unyielding drive with an unwillingness to accept the status quo. His leadership in the management, procedures, and technology behind many of the industry’s leading fixed income ETFs has positioned him at the forefront of financial innovation.

Elya is head of investments at BondBloxx, overseeing portfolio management, trading, and operations, and leading the team responsible for constructing and approving primary market baskets.

Before joining BondBloxx, Elya held key roles at BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors (SSGA). At BlackRock, he led a team of portfolio managers responsible for many of the world’s largest ETFs, and he was named as the inventor on a U.S. patent for a system that processes ETF custom baskets. At SSGA, he played a crucial role in launching their fixed income ETF suite.

Elya is an active philanthropist and disability rights activist who serves as Endowment Chair for the Tam High Foundation, as D&I advisor for the National Stuttering Association, and as Founder and former President of the Boston Speech Foundation.

Ahmed Taha

Ahmed is responsible for building and supporting relationships with Registered Investment Advisor (RIAs), banks, broker-dealers, ETF investment strategists, and family offices in the New York area.

Prior to joining BondBloxx, Ahmed held business development roles at Harding Loevner, Northern Trust, and SEI Investments. Ahmed began his career as a financial advisor at AXA Advisors.

Ahmed is an advocate of financial literacy and ran a program for students in Chicago schools during his time at Northern Trust. Outside of work, he enjoys urban hikes around New York City with his wife and dog and digging through crates at local record shops.

Yield to Worst: The bond yield is computed by using the lower of either the yield to maturity or the yield to call on every possible call date. Yield to worst is shown for all securities with the exception of agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS), commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), and asset-backed securities (ABS). Agency MBS are priced based on zero volatility yield. CMBS and ABS are priced based on effective maturity.

Option Adjusted Duration is a measure of the potential responsiveness of a bond or portfolio price to parallel shifts in interest rates.

After Tax Post-Liq.(%): After-Tax Post-Liquidation Returns measure the performance of the fund after accounting for both taxes on distributions and the taxes incurred from selling the fund shares. This metric provides a comprehensive view of the investment’s tax impact, including the realization of capital gains or losses upon the sale. The highest marginal Federal tax rate is assumed.

After Tax Pre-Liq.(%): After-Tax Pre-Liquidation Returns refer to the performance of the fund after considering the impact of taxes on distributions, but before any action to sell the fund shares is taken. This measure provides investors with insight into how taxes affect their returns without factoring in the potential taxes from selling the investment, thus focusing solely on the tax implications of the fund’s income and capital gains distributions. The highest marginal Federal tax rate is assumed.

After-tax yield: The after-tax yield is the return that investors can expect to receive after accounting for taxes owed on the interest income generated by the bond. This yield is particularly important when comparing the returns on municipal bonds, which are often exempt from federal income tax (and sometimes state and local taxes if the bond is issued within the investor’s state of residence), with those on taxable bonds, like corporate or government bonds.

Tax Equivalent Yield: The tax-equivalent yield (TEY) is the yield that a taxable bond would need to equal the yield on a comparable tax-exempt municipal bond, taking into account the impact of taxes. The calculation is a tool that investors can use to fairly compare the yield between a tax-free investment and a taxable alternative. TEY assumes the highest marginal Federal tax rate, is measured at the individual bond level, and aggregated to the portfolio level.

Tax Equivalent Yield = Tax Free Municipal Bond Yield / (1-Tax Rate)

Effective duration: Effective duration is a way to measure interest-rate sensitivity for bonds that have embedded options, such as callable or puttable features. Effective duration captures the potential variations in cash flows due to these options, and can be measured using modified duration for option-free bonds. The calculation is measured at the individual bond level and then aggregated to the portfolio level.

The 30-Day SEC Yield represents net investment income earned by the fund over the 30-Day period, expressed as an annual percent age rate based on the fund’s share price at the end of the 30-Day period.

Option Adjusted Duration is a measure of the potential responsiveness of a bond or portfolio price to parallel shifts in interest rates.

The values shown are based off of a price provided by the Fund’s third-party index provider, using the bid price for each security (the “index price”). Because the Fund values its securities at the midpoint between the bid and ask prices for most securities, the index price is not necessarily the price at which the Fund values the portfolio holding for the purposes of determining its net asset value (the “valuation price”). The values shown may have been different if the valuation price were to have been used to calculate such values. The index price is as of the most recent date for which a price is available, and may not necessarily be as of the date shown above.

Market Price: Inception date for Market Price Calculation is as of 9/13/22. Market Returns are based on the midpoint of the bid/ask spread at 4 p.m. ET and do not represent the returns an investor would receive if shares were traded at other times.

NAV: Inception date for NAV calculation is as of 9/13/22.

Number of Countries: The number of unique countries that have issued bonds represented in the fund.

Spread to Worst: Spread to worst is a bond’s yield to worst minus the yield at a point on the fair value government yield curve that corresponds to the bond’s expected redemption date.

NAV: Inception date for NAV calculation is as of 2/15/22.

Premium Discount disclosure to be added here.

Index disclosure to be added here.

Market Price: Inception date for Market Price Calculation is as of 2/17/22. Market Returns are based on the midpoint of the bid/ask spread at 4 p.m. ET and do not represent the returns an investor would receive if shares were traded at other times.

Total return disclosure to be added here.

The Growth of $10,000 chart reflects a hypothetical $10,000 investment and assumes reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. Fund expenses, including management fees and other expenses were deducted.

Index Market Cap represents aggregate market value of bonds in the underlying index.

The yield an investor would have received if they had held the fund over the last twelve months assuming the most recent NAV. The 12-Month yield is calculated by assuming any income distributions over the past twelve months and dividing by the sum of the most recent NAV and any capital gain distributions made per the past twelve months.

30 Day SEC Yield: A standard calculation of yield introduced by the SEC in order to provide fairer comparison among funds. It is based on the most recent 30-day period. This yield figure reflects the interest earned during the period after deducting the Fund’s expenses for the period. It does not reflect the yield an investor would have received if they had held the Fund over the last twelve months assuming the most recent NAV. Distributions may vary from time to time.

Spread Duration is a measure of the potential responsiveness of a bond or portfolio price to changes in credit spread.

The values shown are based off of a price provided by the Fund’s third-party index provider, using the bid price for each security (the “index price”). Because the Fund values its securities at the midpoint between the bid and ask prices for most securities, the index price is not necessarily the price at which the Fund values the portfolio holding for the purposes of determining its net asset value (the “valuation price”). The values shown may have been different if the valuation price were to have been used to calculate such values. The index price is as of the most recent date for which a price is available, and may not necessarily be as of the date shown above.

Option Adjusted Spread (OAS): For a bond, the option-adjusted spread is the measurement of the spread between the bond and the underlying government yield curve. For an Index, the average of its constituent security government option-adjusted spreads, weighted by full market value. 

The values shown are based off of a price provided by the Fund’s third-party index provider, using the bid price for each security (the “index price”). Because the Fund values its securities at the midpoint between the bid and ask prices for most securities, the index price is not necessarily the price at which the Fund values the portfolio holding for the purposes of determining its net asset value (the “valuation price”). The values shown may have been different if the valuation price were to have been used to calculate such values. The index price is as of the most recent date for which a price is available, and may not necessarily be as of the date shown above.

Yield to Worst: The bond yield is computed by using the lower of either the yield to maturity or the yield to call on every possible call date.

The values shown are based off of a price provided by the Fund’s third-party index provider, using the bid price for each security (the “index price”). Because the Fund values its securities at the midpoint between the bid and ask prices for most securities, the index price is not necessarily the price at which the Fund values the portfolio holding for the purposes of determining its net asset value (the “valuation price”). The values shown may have been different if the valuation price were to have been used to calculate such values. The index price is as of the most recent date for which a price is available, and may not necessarily be as of the date shown above.

Yield to Maturity: The discount rate that equates the present value of a bond’s cash flows with its market price (including accrued interest). The Fund Average Yield to Maturity is the weighted average of the fund’s individual bond holding yields based on Net Asset Value (‘NAV’). The measure does not include fees and expenses. For callable bonds, this yield is the yield-to-worst.

The values shown are based off of a price provided by the Fund’s third-party index provider, using the bid price for each security (the “index price”). Because the Fund values its securities at the midpoint between the bid and ask prices for most securities, the index price is not necessarily the price at which the Fund values the portfolio holding for the purposes of determining its net asset value (the “valuation price”). The values shown may have been different if the valuation price were to have been used to calculate such values. The index price is as of the most recent date for which a price is available, and may not necessarily be as of the date shown above.

Average Maturity: The average length of time to the repayment of principal for the securities in the fund. This metric considers the likelihood that bonds will be called or prepaid before the scheduled maturity date.

Average Coupon: The average coupon rate of the underlying bonds in the fund, weighted by each bond’s face value.

Number of Issuers: The number of unique companies that have issued bonds represented in the fund (distinct from the number of issues from a company).

Expense Ratio: As stated in the Fund’s current prospectus.

Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses (“AFFE”) reflect the Fund’s pro rata share of the indirect fees and expenses incurred by investing in one or more acquired funds, such as mutual funds, business development companies, or other pooled investment vehicles. AFFE are reflected in the prices of the acquired funds and thus included in the total returns of the Fund.

NAIC Rating: Property of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and are redistributed here under License. An NAIC Designation is a proprietary symbol used by the NAIC Securities Valuation Office (SVO) to denote a category or band of credit risk (i.e., the likelihood of repayment in accordance with a written contract) for an issuer or for a security. NAIC Designations may be notched up or down to reflect the position of a specific liability in the issuer’s capital structure and/or the existence of other non-payment risk in the specific security. Under NAIC reporting rules, shares of an ETF are presumed to be reportable as common stock. The SVO may classify an ETF as a bond or preferred stock and assign it an NAIC Designation if it meets defined criteria. For a discussion of these criteria please call the SVO or refer to the Purposes and Procedures Manual of the NAIC Investment Analysis Office. The assignment of an NAIC Designation is not a recommendation to purchase the ETF and is not intended to convey approval or endorsement of the ETF Sponsor or the ETF by the NAIC.

The Securities Valuation Office (“SVO”) of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”) assesses the credit quality of fixed income securities owned by state-regulated insurance companies and assigns appropriate NAIC designations, ranging from the highest quality of “1” to the lowest of “6.”  For more information visit https://content.naic.org/