The PIMCO total return fund – institutional (TRF-I) is a managed fixed-income mutual fund
aimed at institutional investors. It opened for investment on 11th May, 1987. Its ticker is
PTTRX. The nominated benchmark index is the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (Eikon
code .BCUSA.) Minimum investment is currently $1mn dollars.
TRF-I has achieved average total returns (capital appreciation plus income) of 7.55% per
annum since inception (calculations from data in Appendix 1). This means that $100
invested in the fund at inception in 1987Q2 with all income reinvested would by 2015Q3
have grown to $795.47, an increase of just over 695%.1
The TRF-I is operated by the asset management company Pacific Investment Management
Company (started by Bill Gross, Jim Podlich and Bill Muzzy, in 1971, as an internal active
asset management unit of the Pacific Life Insurance Company a California based insurance
company).2
PIMCO was a pioneer in active fixed income portfolio management (traditionally
fixed income has been a ‘buy and hold’ portfolio asset). PIMCO was acquired by Allianz the
German insurance company and asset manager in 2000.3
Total net assets of TRF-I as of the 31st October 2015 were $61.1bn (Eikon). The high returns
achieved relative to benchmarks, led to the fund growing to become the largest bond
mutual fund in the world. In May 2013 it reached its peak for total assets under
management of $292.9 billion in April 2013 but withdrawals reduced this to $110.4bn in
April 2015.4