The bank's Multidimensional Alpha Strategy takes a more aggressive approach. BNY Mellon Wealth Management is out with new fixed-income strategy designed to thrive in topsy-turvy markets. The firm's Multidimensional Alpha Strategy, which invests predominately in investment-grade municipal bonds, aims for higher tax-free yields and total return than the firm's core strategy -- but it also carries more volatility than BNY Mellon Wealth Management's usual approach to munis.

Reward potential

"The dislocation in the fixed-income market presents a unique opportunity for our fixed-income team to pursue a more aggressive investment approach that takes advantage of market inefficiencies during these volatile market conditions," says John Flahive, head of BNY Mellon Wealth Management's fixed-income group and co-manager of the strategy.

Intended for high-net-worth investors who can afford to take additional risk in a portion of their fixed-income allotment for the sake of a more tax-efficient approach to fixed income, the Multidimensional Alpha Strategy invests in a range of instruments including lower credit-quality vehicles such as high-yield bonds in contrast with BNY Mellon Wealth Management's core muni strategy.

Leo Grohowski, BNY Mellon Wealth Management's CIO, says today's difficult market conditions, though unsettling, hold out "opportunities for potential reward in the years ahead."

BNY Mellon Wealth Management hopes to raise $100 million for Multidimensional Alpha Strategy in its first year, and plans to put a cap on it at $500 million.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management, a division of Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, had approximately $158 billion in assets under management at the end of September 2008. -FWR

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