At a prior company he had worked for, the company had terminated the defined benefit pension plan, and went to a low -
credit quality insurer to purchase annuities to match the terminated benefits.
Therefore, Cerulli says, within the context of high -
quality fixed - income portfolios,
insurers will «generally try to add
credit risk on the margin, taking advantage of an individual
credit falling a notch or two either within the investment - grade universe, or into the upper reaches of high - yield / non-investment-grade spectrum.»