Guardian Total Return Bond VIP Fund
Data updated: 2026-08-14
C000200220 — Guardian Total Return Bond VIP Fund. Long Total / Aggregate Bond · $187.63M AUM. Holdings, fees, performance and SEC filings.
C000200220 Fund Overview
Guardian Total Return Bond VIP Fund is a US mutual fund managed by Guardian Variable Products Trust, categorised as Long Total / Aggregate Bond. ABC INVEST provides holdings, performance, costs, cashflows, risk data, prospectus documents and SEC filings, sourced from SEC filings.
- Type: US mutual fund
- Manager: Guardian Variable Products Trust
- Category: Long Total / Aggregate Bond
- Assets under management: $187.63M
- 1-year return: 4.0%
- SEC CIK: 0001668512
- SEC series ID: S000061842
- Share class ID: C000200220
C000200220 Investment Objective and Strategy
Guardian Total Return Bond VIP Fund describes its objective and strategy as follows, from its latest prospectus filed with the SEC by Guardian Variable Products Trust.
Investment objective
The Fund seeks total return with an emphasis on high current income as well as capital appreciation.
Principal investment strategy
"The Fund normally invests at least 80% of its net assets plus any borrowings for investment purposes (measured at the time of investment) in fixed income investments. Massachusetts Financial Services Company (""MFS"") (the ""Subadviser"") invests the Fund's assets primarily in a broad range of fixed income investments; corporate debt securities, including below investment-grade or high-yield investments; mortgage-backed and other asset-backed securities, including commercial mortgage-backed securities (""CMBS"") and collateralized loan obligations (""CLOs""); loans; securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government, its agencies, instrumentalities or government-sponsored enterprises; and securities issued or guaranteed by a foreign government, its agencies or instrumentalities, including debt securities issued by emerging market countries.
Emerging market countries are countries whose financial and capital markets are in the development phase and include countries located in Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and developing countries of Europe, primarily Eastern Europe. The Fund's CLO investments may include CLO tranches of any rating. The Fund also may invest in fixed income investments issued by foreign entities, denominated in U.S. dollars and other currencies. The Subadviser allocates the Fund's assets across theses categories with a view towards broad diversification across and within these categories. The Fund may invest in securities of any quality, and may invest up to 35% of its net assets, at the time of purchase, in below investment grade quality debt instruments (commonly referred to as ""high-yield"" or ""junk bonds"").
The Subadviser may purchase or sell securities for the Fund on a when-issued, delayed-delivery, or forward commitment basis where payment and delivery take place at a future settlement date, including mortgage-backed securities purchased or sold in the to-be-announced (""TBA"") market. The Subadviser normally invests the Fund's assets across different industries, sectors, countries, and geographic regions, but the Subadviser may invest a significant percentage of the Fund's assets in issuers in a single industry, sector, country, or region. The Subadviser may invest a significant percentage of the Fund's assets in a single issuer or a small number of issuers. The Subadviser may use derivatives for any investment purpose. The Fund may use derivative instruments including, but not limited to, futures contracts, options, swaps, and forward contracts.
To the extent the Subadviser uses derivatives, the Subadviser expects to use derivatives primarily to increase or decrease exposure to a particular market, segment of the market, or security, to increase or decrease interest rate or currency exposure, or as alternatives to direct investments. The Subadviser uses an active bottom-up approach to buying and selling investments for the Fund. Investments are selected primarily based on fundamental analysis of individual instruments and their issuers in light of the issuers' financial condition and market, economic, political, and regulatory conditions. Factors considered may include the instrument's credit quality and terms, any underlying assets and their credit quality, and the issuers management ability, capital structure, leverage, and ability to meet its current obligations.
Quantitative screening tools that systematically evaluate the structure of a debt instrument and its features may also be considered. In structuring the Fund, the Subadviser also considers top-down factors, including sector allocations, yield curve positioning, duration, macroeconomic factors, and risk management factors."
C000200220 Holdings
Top 10 holdings of Guardian Total Return Bond VIP Fund by percentage of net assets, from the fund's latest SEC N-PORT filing.
| Holding | % of net assets |
|---|---|
| United States Treasury | 11.58% |
| United States Treasury | 5.95% |
| Fixed Income Clearing Corp. | 1.79% |
| Carlyle Global Market Strategies | 1.60% |
| Oak Hill Credit | 1.07% |
| United States Treasury | 0.95% |
| TCW CLO 2021-1, Ltd. | 0.88% |
| CNH Equipment Trust | 0.87% |
| Regal Rexnord Corp. | 0.83% |
| Sammons Financial Group | 0.81% |
C000200220 Portfolio Allocation
Asset-class allocation of Guardian Total Return Bond VIP Fund by percentage of net assets, from the latest SEC N-PORT filing.
| Asset class | Allocation |
|---|---|
| Fixed Income | 64.2% |
| Securitized | 33.8% |
| Cash & Equivalents | 1.8% |
C000200220 Performance
Total returns for C000200220 (as of 2026-10-01), from SEC filings.
| Period | Total return |
|---|---|
| YTD | 0.9% |
| 1 year | 4.0% |
| 3 years (annualised) | 4.3% |
| 5 years (annualised) | -0.5% |
C000200220 Risk Information
Risk metrics for C000200220, derived from monthly returns in SEC filings.
- 1-year volatility (annualised): 3.0%
C000200220 Costs and Fees
C000200220 costs about $82 per $10,000 invested per year in fund expenses.
- Net expense ratio: 0.82%
- Gross expense ratio: 0.85%
- Portfolio turnover: 107%
- Brokerage commissions: 10.18 bps of average net assets (SEC N-CEN)
C000200220 Cashflows
Over the 12 months to 2026-06, Guardian Total Return Bond VIP Fund had net outflows of $21.71M, from monthly SEC N-PORT filings.
| Month | Net flow |
|---|---|
| 2026-06 | −$3.51M |
| 2026-05 | $422.76K |
| 2026-04 | −$3.34M |
| 2026-03 | −$3.93M |
| 2026-02 | $3.64M |
| 2026-01 | −$2.93M |
C000200220 Debt Constituents
Largest debt holdings of Guardian Total Return Bond VIP Fund by percentage of net assets, from the latest SEC N-PORT filing.
| Debt holding | % of net assets |
|---|---|
| United States Treasury | 11.58% |
| United States Treasury | 5.95% |
| United States Treasury | 0.95% |
| Regal Rexnord Corp. | 0.83% |
| Sammons Financial Group | 0.81% |
| Dcp Midstream Operating | 0.80% |
| United States Treasury | 0.79% |
| Lpl Holdings, Inc. | 0.77% |
| Capital One Financial Co. | 0.76% |
| Fairfax Finl Hldgs Ltd. | 0.71% |
C000200220 Prospectus and SEC Filings
Official Guardian Total Return Bond VIP Fund filings on SEC EDGAR — prospectus, portfolio holdings and annual reports.
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2026-04-28
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2025-04-28
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2024-04-25
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-08-14
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-05-26
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-02-18
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2026-03-06
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2025-03-06
Related Funds
Other Long Total / Aggregate Bond 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.