Janus Henderson and Guardian Life Announce Strategic Partnership

Janus Henderson and the Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America announced Tuesday a strategic partnership in which Janus will become the fixed-income manager for the insurer.

Guardian Life’s internal fixed-income investment staff will join Janus Henderson, which will now manage the insurer’s $45 billion investment-grade fixed-income portfolio.

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In addition, Guardian Life will seed $400 million in capital to support Janus Henderson’s fixed-income product development, including securitized credit and high-quality, active fixed-income products.

The two firms will also co-develop multi-asset solution model portfolios for Park Avenue Securities LLC, Guardian Life’s dually registered broker/dealer and registered investment adviser, which has more than 2,400 advisers covering approximately $58.5 billion of client assets under management.

Janus Henderson will develop investment solutions for Park Avenue Securities clients, bringing together Janus Henderson’s suite of global investment allocation and solutions capabilities, including Janus Henderson Edge, the firm’s award-winning proprietary analytics platform.

“By combining Guardian’s exceptional experience with Janus Henderson’s market-leading investment strategies, resources, and capabilities, we will be able to offer innovative investment and wealth management strategies that will benefit customers and policyholders for years to come,” said Andrew McMahon, chairman and CEO of Guardian Life, in a statement.

The agreement is expected to close at the end of the second quarter. The partnership would see Janus Henderson’s global fixed-income assets under management grow to more than $147 billion.

An investor presentation on the partnership transaction is available on Janus Henderson’s Investor Relations website.

A range of banks and broker/dealers have raised the specter of a U.S. recession as the April 9 deadline approaches for a wide range of tariffs on foreign trade to take effect. Bank analysts and market strategists are increasing their assessment of the likelihood of increasing inflation and slower GDP growth.

Goldman Sachs, in a note sent to clients on Monday, increased the probability of a U.S. recession to 45%, up from 35% last week, which was, in turn, up from 20% before the latest round of tariff announcements. The previous Friday, JPMorganChase raised the probability of a recession to 60%, up from a previous estimate of 40%.

Nuveen Investment Management CIO Saira Malik wrote in a Monday report that the tariffs could add 2% to core personal consumption expenditures this year, as well as slashing economic growth by 1.7%.

“Unemployment, meanwhile, will likely rise 0.6% more than it would have without the tariffs,” Malik wrote.

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The S&P 500 whipsawed on Monday, falling more than 4% before regaining 6.45% from session lows and then falling another 2%, all within the first hour of trading, in part in reaction to a false headline that the White House was considering a 90-day deferral on tariffs on all countries except China.

President Donald Trump said on Monday morning that he would apply an additional 50% tariff on Chinese imports if that country did not remove its own 34% reciprocal tariffs on U.S. imports by tomorrow. Such a levy would bring the total tariff rate on China to 104%.

The KBW Nasdaq Bank Index, which tracks the performance of U.S. listed bank stocks, fell nearly 16% since the announcement of reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trading partners.

Analysts continue to anticipate further negative consequences.

“Should these measures remain in place for a significant period of time, they could potentially shave 1 – 1.5 percentage points from growth this year—meaningfully raising recession risks—while adding a broadly similar amount to core PCE inflation,” wrote Brett Ryan, a senior U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank, in a note to clients.

Real U.S. gross domestic product grew 2.8% in 2024, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The increase in real GDP in 2024 reflected increases in consumer spending, investment, government spending, exports and imports.