MainStay VP Balanced Portfolio
Data updated: 2026-08-24
C000025804 — MainStay VP Balanced Portfolio. Total Return Allocation · $348.07M AUM · 0.72% expense ratio. Holdings, fees, performance and SEC filings.
C000025804 Fund Overview
MainStay VP Balanced Portfolio is a US mutual fund managed by Mainstay Vp Funds Trust, categorised as Total Return Allocation. ABC INVEST provides holdings, performance, costs, cashflows, risk data, prospectus documents and SEC filings, sourced from SEC filings.
- Type: US mutual fund
- Manager: Mainstay Vp Funds Trust
- Category: Total Return Allocation
- Assets under management: $348.07M
- 1-year return: 12.0%
- SEC CIK: 0000887340
- SEC series ID: S000009437
- Share class ID: C000025804
C000025804 Investment Objective and Strategy
MainStay VP Balanced Portfolio describes its objective and strategy as follows, from its latest prospectus filed with the SEC by Mainstay Vp Funds Trust.
Investment objective
The Portfolio seeks total return.
Principal investment strategy
"The Portfolio invests approximately 60% of its assets (net assets plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in stocks and 40% of its assets in fixed-income securities (such as bonds) and cash equivalents. Although this 60/40 ratio may vary, under normal market conditions, the Portfolio will invest at least 25% of its assets in fixed-income securities. Asset allocation decisions are made by New York Life Investment Management LLC, the Portfolios Manager, based on its tactical view of the market. The Portfolio may invest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including ETFs advised by affiliates of the Manager and ETFs advised by unaffiliated advisers, to facilitate rebalancing the Portfolios allocation between equity and fixed-income exposures. The Portfolio may invest up to 20% of its net assets in foreign securities, but only in such securities that NYL Investors LLC (NYL Investors), the Subadvisor for the fixed-income portion of the Portfolio, and Wellington Management Company LLP (Wellington), the Subadvisor for the equity portion of the Portfolio, select in accordance with each Subadvisor's investment process described below.
The Portfolio may also invest in derivatives, such as futures and options, to try to enhance returns or reduce the risk of loss by hedging certain of its holdings. Under normal market conditions, the Subadvisors seek to keep the portfolio fully invested rather than taking temporary cash positions with respect to their portions of the Portfolio's assets. The Subadvisors will sell a security if it becomes relatively overvalued, if better opportunities are identified, or if they determine that the initial investment expectations are not being met. Equity Investment Process : Wellington invests in equity securities issued by companies of any size or market capitalization range. While Wellington does not limit its investments to issuers within a particular capitalization range, it generally invests in large capitalization companies (as represented by the market cap range of the Russell 1000 Index, which ranged from $1.1 billion to $4.3 trillion as of February 28, 2026).
Wellington may invest in securities of foreign issuers, including emerging market securities. An issuer of a security is considered to be a U.S. or foreign issuer based on the issuer's ""country of risk,"" (or similar designation) as determined by a third-party such as Bloomberg. Wellington defines emerging market countries as those countries that are included in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Wellington seeks to identify companies that are financially sound but temporarily out-of-favor, and that provide above-average potential total returns at below average valuations. Wellington employs a bottom-up approach to investment research, and seeks to capitalize on investor behavioral biases by investing in companies with an attractive combination of valuation, quality and capital return, and by taking a long-term view.
Quality can be assessed across metrics including free cash flow margin, return on invested capital and net debt to EBITDA (earning before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). Wellington may sell stocks when Wellingtons target price is achieved, Wellingtons fundamental outlook with respect to the stock has changed, or in the event Wellington believes more attractive investment alternatives exist. To better assess strategic business issues that impact the performance of a company, Wellington may also give consideration to financially material environmental, social and/or governance (ESG) factors. Wellington has discretion to determine the materiality of, as well as the level at which, financially relevant ESG factors are imbedded into its overall fundamental analysis when making an investment decision.
Fixed-Income Investment Process: In pursuing the Portfolios investment strategy, NYL Investors conducts a continuous review of expected returns, yields and other information derived from a database which it maintains in managing fixed income portfolios. Fundamental economic cycle analysis, credit quality and interest rate trends are the principal factors considered by NYL Investors in managing the Portfolio and determining whether to increase or decrease the emphasis placed upon a particular type of security or industry sector within the Portfolio's investment portfolio. NYL Investors investment process includes a risk analysis that gives consideration to a variety of security-specific risks, including but not limited to, environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks that may have a material impact on the performance of a security.
In addition to proprietary research, NYL Investors may use screening tools and, to the extent available, third-party data to identify ESG risk factors that may not have been captured through its own research. NYL Investors consideration of ESG risk is weighed against other criteria and no sectors or industries are explicitly excluded from the Portfolio. Maturity duration shifts adjustments are based on a set of investment decisions that take into account a broad range of economic, fundamental and technical indicators. NYL Investors may sell a security if it no longer believes that the security will contribute to meeting the investment objective of the Portfolio. In considering whether to sell a security, NYL Investors may evaluate, among other things, the condition of the economy, meaningful changes in the issuer's financial condition, and changes in the condition and outlook in the issuer's industry."
C000025804 Holdings
Top 10 holdings of MainStay VP Balanced Portfolio by percentage of net assets, from the fund's latest SEC N-PORT filing.
| Holding | % of net assets |
|---|---|
| iShares Intermediate Government/Credit Bond ETF | 3.88% |
| Vanguard Intermediate-Term Treasury ETF | 3.65% |
| Microsoft Corp. | 3.44% |
| United States of America | 3.27% |
| United States of America | 3.18% |
| JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 2.16% |
| United States of America | 1.89% |
| Johnson & Johnson | 1.78% |
| Merck & Co., Inc. | 1.61% |
| United States of America | 1.53% |
C000025804 Portfolio Allocation
Asset-class allocation of MainStay VP Balanced Portfolio by percentage of net assets, from the latest SEC N-PORT filing.
| Asset class | Allocation |
|---|---|
| Equity | 61.9% |
| Fixed Income | 21.4% |
| Other | 9.0% |
| Securitized | 5.7% |
| Cash & Equivalents | 0.7% |
C000025804 Performance
Total returns for C000025804 (as of 2026-10-01), from SEC filings.
| Period | Total return |
|---|---|
| YTD | 5.1% |
| 1 year | 12.0% |
| 3 years (annualised) | 10.1% |
| 5 years (annualised) | 6.1% |
C000025804 Risk Information
Risk metrics for C000025804, derived from monthly returns in SEC filings.
- 1-year volatility (annualised): 6.5%
C000025804 Costs and Fees
C000025804 costs about $72 per $10,000 invested per year in fund expenses.
- Net expense ratio: 0.72%
- Gross expense ratio: 0.72%
- Portfolio turnover: 180%
- Brokerage commissions: 1.40 bps of average net assets (SEC N-CEN)
C000025804 Cashflows
Over the 12 months to 2026-06, MainStay VP Balanced Portfolio had net outflows of $23.01M, from monthly SEC N-PORT filings.
| Month | Net flow |
|---|---|
| 2026-06 | −$2.40M |
| 2026-05 | −$1.17M |
| 2026-04 | −$3.11M |
| 2026-03 | −$5.06M |
| 2026-02 | −$3.47M |
| 2026-01 | −$3.89M |
C000025804 Debt Constituents
Largest debt holdings of MainStay VP Balanced Portfolio by percentage of net assets, from the latest SEC N-PORT filing.
| Debt holding | % of net assets |
|---|---|
| United States of America | 3.27% |
| United States of America | 3.18% |
| United States of America | 1.89% |
| United States of America | 1.53% |
| United States of America | 1.22% |
| Bank of America Corp. | 0.23% |
| Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) | 0.22% |
| AT&T, Inc. | 0.21% |
| RGA Global Funding | 0.19% |
| Plains All American Pipeline LP | 0.17% |
C000025804 Prospectus and SEC Filings
Official MainStay VP Balanced Portfolio filings on SEC EDGAR — prospectus, portfolio holdings and annual reports.
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2026-04-16
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2025-04-16
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2024-04-19
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-08-24
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-05-26
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-02-26
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2026-03-13
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2025-03-14
Related Funds
Other Total Return Allocation funds tracked on ABC INVEST:
Data Sources
ABC INVEST compiles this page from public filings made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through EDGAR: portfolio holdings and monthly cashflows from Form N-PORT, expenses and returns from fund prospectuses (Form 485BPOS) and the SEC DERA Risk/Return Summary data sets, annual data from Form N-CEN, and shareholder reports from Form N-CSR.