# Nuveen Variable Rate Preferred & Income Fund Nuveen Variable Rate Preferred & Income Fund is an Asset Manager based in New York, United States. ## Overview - **Organization type:** Asset Manager - **Headquarters:** New York, United States - **Region:** North America - **Address:** New York, NY, United States - **Founded:** 2013 - **Assets under management:** Undisclosed - **Website:** nuveen.com ## Regulatory record - **Reports private funds:** No ## About Nuveen launched the Variable Rate Preferred & Income Fund (NPFD) in March 2013 as part of its sprawling municipal and taxable closed-end fund complex, which represents one of the largest such platforms in the US asset management industry. The fund sits within Nuveen's broader taxable fixed-income suite, drawing on the firm's legacy as a specialist in esoteric income-generating securities — a lineage stretching back to John Nuveen & Co.'s founding in 1898. The portfolio management is led by Brenda Langenfeld, a senior member of Nuveen's preferred securities team. The fund deploys capital almost exclusively into variable-rate preferred securities and hybrid capital instruments issued by financial institutions. This concentration distinguishes it from diversified preferred-stock funds; its holdings are overwhelmingly floating-rate, resetting off short-term benchmarks such as SOFR or LIBOR (as legacy). The portfolio spans banks, insurance companies, REITs, and broker-dealers, with top sector weightings consistently in US money-center and regional bank preferreds, insurance company surplus notes, and select European financial contingent convertible securities. The fund also holds securities issued by closed-end fund complexes, reflecting Nuveen's willingness to invest across the capital structure of peer vehicles when pricing dislocates. Geographic exposure skews heavily toward North American issuers, with additional positions in select Western European financials, particularly UK and Swiss banks. The fund operates as a publicly traded closed-end fund, which means its share price can diverge meaningfully from net asset value — a structural feature rather than a flaw, creating entry points during dislocations. As a registered investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, it provides daily liquidity to shareholders via NYSE trading, though the underlying portfolio of institutional preferreds is inherently less liquid than common equity or Treasury markets. The fund has periodically used leverage through tender option bonds or credit facilities to enhance distributable income, a tactic common across Nuveen's closed-end fund lineup. In May 2024, Nuveen announced a broad realignment of portfolio management responsibilities across several taxable closed-end funds, though Langenfeld remained the named portfolio manager on NPFD (per the firm's official communications, May 2024). NPFD's structural differentiator is its near-exclusive reliance on floating-rate coupons within a closed-end fund wrapper — a combination that is rare even among specialized income vehicles. Most preferred-stock funds hold substantial fixed-to-floating or fully fixed-rate exposure, leaving them vulnerable to the same duration-driven drawdowns that hammer conventional bond portfolios during tightening cycles. By committing the portfolio to instruments that reset quarterly or semi-annually, the fund offers a genuine hedge against rising short-term rates while harvesting the typically wider credit spreads that financial preferreds command over equivalently rated corporate debt. This architecture appeals to allocators seeking current income without taking a directional bet on the long end of the curve. ## Sectors - Financials - Private Credit - Insurance ## People - Brenda Langenfeld — Portfolio Manager ## Questions ### What distinguishes the Nuveen Variable Rate Preferred & Income Fund from other preferred-stock funds? The fund concentrates almost exclusively on variable-rate and floating-rate preferred securities, avoiding the fixed-rate preferreds that dominate most peers' portfolios. This construction minimizes duration risk — the sensitivity of bond prices to interest-rate changes — making the fund's net asset value less volatile during Federal Reserve tightening cycles. The portfolio draws primarily from bank-issued trust preferreds, insurance surplus notes, and broker-dealer hybrid capital, sectors where floating-rate structures are the norm rather than the exception. ### Who runs the portfolio, and what is their experience with preferred securities? Brenda Langenfeld is the lead portfolio manager. She is a senior member of Nuveen's preferred securities team and has managed NPFD for the bulk of its operational history. Nuveen's preferred-securities platform is among the largest in the closed-end fund industry, giving its managers access to primary-issuance allocations from bank syndicate desks and secondary-market liquidity that smaller managers cannot replicate. ### What kinds of issuers does NPFD lend to through its preferred-stock holdings? The portfolio is dominated by US money-center banks, regional banks, and insurance companies that issue preferred stock and trust-preferred securities as part of their regulatory capital stacks. Additional exposure includes REIT preferreds, broker-dealer hybrid instruments, and contingent convertible securities issued by European financial institutions. The common thread is that nearly all holdings are issued by regulated financial entities with ongoing capital requirements, which influences both the credit quality and the structural features of the instruments held. ### What regulatory framework governs NPFD? NPFD is a registered investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, subject to SEC oversight, custody rules, and leverage limitations. Its holdings are marked to market daily, and its financial statements are audited and publicly filed. The fund's leverage, when used, must comply with asset-coverage requirements under the 1940 Act, which mandate that senior securities representing indebtedness have 300% asset coverage at the time of issuance. ## Related profiles - [Freegold Ventures](https://altss.com/profile/freegold-ventures-ltd) - [MediaAlpha](https://altss.com/profile/mediaalpha-inc) --- Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/nuveen-variable-rate-preferred-and-income-fund Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology