Strategy. Under normal circumstances, the Portfolio invests at least 65% of its total assets in a diversified portfolio of Fixed Income Instruments of varying maturities, which may be represented by forwards or derivatives such as options, futures contracts, or swap agreements. Fixed Income Instruments include bonds (including 144A bonds), debt securities and other similar instruments issued by various U.S. and non-U.S. public- or private-sector entities. The Portfolio will not invest in the securities of any non-governmental issuer determined by the Sub-Adviser to be engaged principally in the manufacture of alcoholic beverages, tobacco products or military equipment, the operation of gambling casinos, the production or trade of pornographic materials, or in the oil industry, including extraction, production, and refining or the production … Show more… Under normal circumstances, the Portfolio invests at least 65% of its total assets in a diversified portfolio of Fixed Income Instruments of varying maturities, which may be represented by forwards or derivatives such as options, futures contracts, or swap agreements. Fixed Income Instruments include bonds (including 144A bonds), debt securities and other similar instruments issued by various U.S. and non-U.S. public- or private-sector entities. The Portfolio will not invest in the securities of any non-governmental issuer determined by the Sub-Adviser to be engaged principally in the manufacture of alcoholic beverages, tobacco products or military equipment, the operation of gambling casinos, the production or trade of pornographic materials, or in the oil industry, including extraction, production, and refining or the production or distribution of coal and coal fired generation. The Portfolio can invest in the securities of any issuer determined by the Sub-Adviser to be engaged principally in biofuel production, natural gas generation and sales and trading activities. Green/sustainable bonds from issuers involved in fossil fuel-related sectors may also be permitted. Labeled green bonds are those issues with proceeds specifically earmarked to be used for climate and environmental projects. Labeled green bonds are often verified by a third party, which certifies that the bond will fund projects that include environmental benefits. To the extent possible on the basis of information available to the Sub-Adviser, an issuer will be deemed to be principally engaged in an activity if it derives more than 10% of its gross revenues from such activities. In analyzing whether an issuer meets any of the criteria described above, the Sub-Adviser may rely upon, among other things, information provided by an independent third party. The Portfolio may avoid investment in the securities of issuers whose business practices with respect to the environment, social responsibility, and governance (ESG practices) are not to the Sub-Advisers satisfaction. In determining the efficacy of an issuers ESG practices, the Sub-Adviser will use its own proprietary assessments of material ESG issues and may also utilize standards as set forth by recognized global organizations, such as entities sponsored by the United Nations. For example, the Sub-Adviser may exclude issuers with histories of human rights violations or that receive low responsibility scores according to recognized international rights organizations. The Sub-Adviser also considers external data from issuers as aggregated by third party providers, including providers that specialize in certain types of data such as carbon, controversies, climate municipal securities, and sovereigns. Generally, the Sub-Advisers proprietary assessments involve assigning proprietary ESG scores to each issuer or issuance based on separate environmental-, social- and governance-related factors, which are customized based on the type of issuer or issuance. As examples, (i) the Sub-Advisers ESG framework for corporate issuers includes the evaluation of material environmental, social and governance factors reflective for each sector and a relative weighting of such factors based on differences in industry dynamics; (ii) the Sub-Advisers ESG framework for fixed-income securities issued by U.S. and non-U.S. governments includes an evaluation of whether the issuers of such securities align with the Portfolios government-specific ESG criteria; and (iii) the Sub-Advisers ESG framework for mortgage-related securities includes an evaluation of the underlying pools, which are scored on a proprietary scoring model that seeks to prioritize mortgage-related securities with underlying pools with stronger social and governance characteristics. In general, the Portfolio will seek to avoid investments in issuers that score materially below the average issuer according to the Sub-Advisers ESG research and assessment. ESG scores are updated regularly. The factors and processes used to determine ESG scores are expected to develop over time and involve the considerations of criteria deemed relevant by the Sub-Adviser. Additionally, the Sub-Adviser may engage proactively with issuers to encourage them to improve their business practices with respect to ESG practices and to help drive deeper sustainability commitments from issuers, including supporting their transition to become best-in-class. The Sub-Advisers activities in this respect may include, but are not limited to, direct dialogue with company management, such as through in-person meetings, phone calls, electronic communications, and letters. Through these engagement activities, the Sub-Adviser seeks to identify opportunities for a company to improve its ESG practices, and will endeavor to work collaboratively with company management to establish concrete objectives and to develop a plan for meeting these objectives. The Portfolio may invest in securities of issuers whose ESG practices are currently suboptimal, with the expectation that these practices may improve over time either as a result of the Sub-Advisers engagement efforts or through the companys own initiatives. There can be no assurance that these engagement efforts will be successful. The Sub-Adviser may also exclude those issuers that are not receptive to the Sub-Advisers engagement efforts, as determined in the Sub-Advisers sole discretion. In addition, because the Portfolio invests primarily in Fixed Income Instruments, which are typically non-voting securities, the Portfolio does not generally have standing to engage companies in all the ways that an investor in an issuers equity voting securities does. The Portfolio invests primarily in investment-grade debt securities, but may invest up to 20% of its total assets in high yield securities, also known as junk bonds, as rated by Moodys Investors Service, Inc. (Moodys), Standard & Poors Global Rating (S&P) or Fitch, Inc. (Fitch), or, if unrated, as determined by the Adviser or the Sub-Adviser. The Portfolio also may invest up to 30% of its total assets in securities denominated in foreign currencies and may invest beyond this limit in U.S. dollar-denominated securities of foreign issuers. The Portfolio may invest up to 15% of its total assets in securities and instruments that are economically tied to emerging market countries (this limitation does not apply to investment grade sovereign debt denominated in the local currency with less than one year remaining to maturity, which means the Portfolio may invest, together with any other investments denominated in foreign currencies, up to 30% of its total assets in such instruments). The Portfolio will normally limit its foreign currency exposure (from non-U.S. dollar-denominated securities or currencies) to 20% of its total assets. Subject to applicable law and any other restrictions described in the Portfolios Prospectus or Statement of Additional Information, the Portfolio may invest without limitation in derivative instruments, such as options, futures contracts or swap agreements, or in mortgage- or asset-backed securities. The Portfolio may invest in derivatives, such as credit default swaps, on securities indexes that may include exposure to issuers that the Portfolio is not permitted to invest in directly. The Portfolios investments in derivatives may be deemed to involve the use of leverage because the Portfolio is not required to invest the full market value of the contract upon entering into the contract but participates in gains and losses on the full contract price. The use of derivatives also may be deemed to involve the use of leverage because the heightened price sensitivity of some derivatives to market changes may magnify the Portfolios gain or loss. It is not expected, however, that the Portfolio will be leveraged by borrowing money for investment purposes. The Portfolios investments in derivatives may require it to maintain a percentage of its assets in cash, cash equivalent instruments or other liquid assets to serve as margin or collateral for the Portfolios obligations under derivative transactions. The Portfolio may, without limitation, seek to obtain market exposure to the securities in which it primarily invests by entering into a series of purchase and sale contracts or by using other investment techniques (such as sale-buyback or dollar roll transactions). In sale-buyback and dollar roll transactions, the Portfolio sells a security to another party and simultaneously agrees to repurchase the same security (in the case of a sale-buyback) or a similar, but not the same, security (in the case of a dollar roll) on a specified date and pre-determined price. The Portfolio may purchase or sell securities on a when-issued, delayed delivery or forward commitment basis (including on a TBA (to be announced) basis) and may engage in short sales. With TBA transactions, the particular securities to be delivered are not identified at the trade date, but the delivered securities must meet specified terms and standards (such as yield, duration, and credit quality). The Portfolio may also invest up to 10% of its total assets in preferred securities, convertible securities and other equity-related securities. The total return sought by the Portfolio consists of income earned on the Portfolios investments, plus capital appreciation, if any, which generally arises from decreases in interest rates, foreign currency appreciation, or improving credit fundamentals for a particular sector or security. Duration is a measure used to determine the sensitivity of a securitys price to changes in interest rates. The longer a securitys duration, the more sensitive it will be to changes in interest rates, which may increase the volatility of the securitys value and may lead to losses. The average portfolio duration of the Portfolio normally varies within two years (plus or minus) of the portfolio duration of the securities comprising the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, as calculated by the Sub-Adviser, which as of December 31, 2024, was 6.08 years. Show less