PIMCO Absolute Return Strategy IV IDF LLC: Fund Rating and Research File

In brief

PIMCO Absolute Return Strategy IV IDF LLC at a glance

The fund relies on Section 3(c)(7) of the Investment Company Act and Rule 506(b), so its interests go only to qualified purchasers in a private offering. The adviser reports about 3 beneficial owners and none outside the United States. As an insurance-dedicated fund it is held through insurance company separate accounts, alongside the few other holders the Treasury rules allow, and a family reaches it through a policy whose insurer offers it.

Pacific Investment Management Company LLC reports the fund in its own Form ADV of 23 October 2026, which gives the controls and service providers below.

One point to raise with the insurer: the filing reports that the administrator is a company related to the adviser. An administrator outside the group that sends statements to every investor counts for more in the rating.

Pacific Investment Management Company LLC reports 5 regulatory actions in Item 11 of its Form ADV between 2016 and 2025, all concerning the adviser itself, with reported sanctions of about USD 27 million. The full record is set out below.

The rating

Why PIMCO Absolute Return Strategy IV IDF LLC has four stars

PIMCO runs USD 3.7 trillion of regulatory assets and has been registered with the SEC since 1994. PwC audits the fund every year and the accounts go to investors. Administration stays close to home: SEI is related to PIMCO. The record weighs on it: 5 regulatory matters concerning PIMCO itself since 2016, the latest in 2025.

The rating looks only at the areas below, which matter to a family holding the fund through a private placement policy. Past returns play no part: these funds do not report them in their SEC filings, and they say little about what a policy will earn.

Conduct and regulatory record

What regulators and courts have recorded against the manager, and for platform series against the platform, as the advisers report it to the SEC. Several proceedings on one set of facts count as one matter. Recent and serious matters count most, matters of other companies in the group count for less, matters of individuals are weighed by the person's role and their bearing on the business, and the size of the firm is taken into account.

Reported controls

What the adviser reports to the SEC for the fund: whether the accounts are audited every year by an accountant registered with the PCAOB and subject to its regular inspection, whether audited statements go to investors and what the audit opinion says, whether the administrator and custodian are outside the adviser's group, and what share of the assets was valued last year by a person not related to the adviser.

Depth and experience of the manager

The assets the manager runs, its investment staff and how long it has been registered with the SEC.

Fund scale and investor base

The fund's gross assets, the number of its owners and how long it has been offered.

Reporting and filings

Whether the fund and its adviser keep their SEC filings current and consistent with each other.

Fit for a life insurance policy

Whether the fund is insurance-dedicated, so that a policy can hold it, and the minimum it asks. Liquidity terms join this element as they are documented.

PPLI.comFund Rating

Investor experience. What policyholders, insurers and advisers tell us is shown separately and never changes the stars. A factual point they raise is checked against the filings, and if it holds, the data is corrected. We never publish names. Tell us about yours

The rating expresses the opinion of PPLI.com on the date shown. It is not a statement of fact about the fund or its manager, not a credit rating, not a forecast of returns and not investment advice. Read about the rating.

The fund at a glance

Identity, offering and service providers

Identity

Legal namePimco Absolute Return Strategy IV IDF LLC

OrganisedDelaware limited liability company

SEC CIK0001426150 EDGAR

Private fund ID805-3821462051 ADV

Investment managerPacific Investment Management Company LLC IAPD

Offering, as filed on Form D

ExemptionsRule 506(b); Investment Company Act s. 3(c)(7)

First sale30 June 2008

Minimum investmentUSD 100,000

Amount soldUSD 142.9 million to date

Investors in the offering10

Sales commissionsNone reported

Latest filingForm D/A, 29 May 2026 Source

Size and ownership, as filed on Form ADV

Gross asset valueUSD 2,865,695,109 (ADV filed 23 October 2026)

Beneficial ownersAbout 3

Owned by non-US persons0%

Service providers

AuditorPricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

CustodianState Street Kansas City

AdministratorSEI Global Services, Inc.

Prime brokerNone reported

Valued by a person not related to the adviser100% of assets, last fiscal year

Figures are shown as filed, with their dates. Form D counts investors in the offering and Form ADV counts beneficial owners, so the two numbers need not match. Gross asset value counts total assets without deducting borrowings or other liabilities, so it is not a net asset value. The minimum on Form D can be nominal; the amount a family actually needs is set by the insurer and the policy.

Inside a policy

What to check before this fund goes into a policy

Why the wrapper matters here

A diversified portfolio mixes income and gains, and a direct holder pays tax on both every year. Inside a policy that meets the tax rules neither is taxed as it arrives, and the insurer can move the account between funds on its menu without a taxable event for the policyholder.

Liquidity

The fund's redemption terms are not in its public filings. Read them in the offering documents and set them against the way the policy will need cash: loans, withdrawals and the insurer's own rules for moving between funds.

Who chooses the investments

The policyholder can choose this fund from the insurer's menu but cannot direct what the fund buys. That line comes from the investor control rules, and it is the reason the fund exists in a separate insurance-only form.

Diversification

A policy's separate account must meet the diversification test of section 817(h). Because the fund is reached only through insurance policies, the test can look through to its assets if the fund meets the conditions of the Treasury rules; whether a given account passes is a question for the insurer, not something these filings show.

Valuation

Pacific Investment Management Company LLC reports that all of the fund's assets were valued last year by a person not related to it, the strongest answer the form allows. Still ask who values the positions and how often.

Fees

Management and performance fees are set in the offering documents and are not shown in these filings. They come on top of the policy's own charges.

This is research, not an offer of the fund or advice to buy it. Interests in the fund are available only through an insurance company, and only to investors who qualify.

The adviser's record

Regulatory and legal record of Pacific Investment Management Company LLC

The full list for the firm is in the manager file.

What the adviser itself discloses in Item 11 of its Form ADV, summarised from the disclosure pages, with a link to the filing. Item 11 is filed for the adviser as a whole, so under each matter the fund it concerns is read from the disclosure itself.

20257 May 2025

Regulatory action by New York Mercantile Exchange ("NYMEX"): civil penalty

Fund concerned: none named in the filing. The matter concerns the adviser itself, not a specific fund, and none of the insurance-dedicated funds in this file is named.

The registrant was alleged to have violated NYMEX Rule 562 by exceeding position limits in the October 2024 crude oil Futures as of the close of business on September 17, 2024.

New York Mercantile Exchange ("NYMEX") · Settled 9 May 2025 · USD 26,220 · Concerns the adviser itself · Form ADV, Item 11 disclosure

202519 March 2025

Regulatory action by ICE Futures U.S. ("ICE"): civil penalty

Fund concerned: none named in the filing. The matter concerns the adviser itself, not a specific fund, and none of the insurance-dedicated funds in this file is named.

On March 19, 2025, a subcommittee of the Exchange's business Conduct committee ("BCC") determined that PIMCO May have violated Exchange Rule 4.02(c) in September 2023, when employees placed orders, including through different and independent executing Brokers, for two accounts with common beneficial ownership in the California carbon allowance vintage 2023 contract ("CB1"), a portion of which ultimately matched opposite one another. Based on information obtained, it appeared that the employees did not intend for the orders to match, however, they should have known that the orders would Trade opposite one another.

ICE Futures U.S. ("ICE") · Settled 19 March 2025 · USD 100,000 · Concerns the adviser itself · Form ADV, Item 11 disclosure

202316 June 2023

Regulatory action by US Securities and Exchange Commission: civil penalty

Fund concerned: PIMCO All Asset All Authority Fund, a public mutual fund. None of the insurance-dedicated funds in this file is named.

On June 16, 2023, PIMCO entered into a settlement agreement with the SEC relating to an error in the fee waiver calculation used by PIMCO'S third-party vendor that caused certain advisory fees to be under-waived from April 2011 to November 2017 and charged to PIMCO all Asset all Authority Fund ("A4"). Under the terms of the settlement, PIMCO agreed to pay to the SEC a civil Monetary penalty in the amount of $2.5 million. Prior to the SEC'S investigation, PIMCO had identified the error, publicly disclosed the issue and implemented a plan that reimbursed a4 and its shareholders for any losses associated with the fee waiver miscalculation. In addition, PIMCO has enhanced its policies and ...

US Securities and Exchange Commission · Settled 16 June 2023 · USD 2.5 million · Concerns the adviser itself · Form ADV, Item 11 disclosure

202316 June 2023

Regulatory action by US Securities and Exchange Commission: civil penalty

Fund concerned: none named in the filing. The matter concerns the adviser itself, not a specific fund, and none of the insurance-dedicated funds in this file is named.

On June 16, 2023, PIMCO entered into a settlement agreement with the SEC relating to certain disclosures in the 2014 and 2015 annual shareholder reports of PIMCO Global stocksplus & income Fund ("PGP") regarding pgp's use of paired interest rate swaps in its portfolio. Under the terms of the settlement, PIMCO agreed to pay to the SEC a civil Monetary penalty in the amount of $6.5 million. Prior to the SEC'S investigation, PIMCO had updated the disclosures in pgp's 2016 annual shareholder report.

US Securities and Exchange Commission · Settled 16 June 2023 · USD 6.5 million · Concerns the adviser itself · Form ADV, Item 11 disclosure

20161 December 2016

Regulatory action by US Securities and Exchange Commission: civil penalty

Fund concerned: PIMCO Total Return Active Exchange-Traded Fund (BOND), a public ETF. None of the insurance-dedicated funds in this file is named.

On December 1, 2016, PIMCO entered into an agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") to settle charges relating to the PIMCO total return active exchange-traded Fund ("bond"). The SEC alleged that from February 29, 2012 to June 30, 2012, PIMCO did not sufficiently disclose the sources of performance for bond, inaccurately valued 43 smaller-sized ("ODD lot") positions of non-agency mortgage backed Securities using third-party vendor prices, and did not adopt and implement adequate written policies and procedures related to these matters. The SEC found, and PIMCO neither admitted nor denied, that PIMCO violated Section 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ...

US Securities and Exchange Commission · Settled 1 December 2016 · USD 18.3 million · Concerns the adviser itself · Form ADV, Item 11 disclosure

These are the matters Pacific Investment Management Company LLC reports in Item 11 of its Form ADV, filed 23 October 2026. A reported matter is a fact disclosed by the adviser, not a finding by PPLI.com about this fund. None of them concerns the fund's investments.

Reader rating

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PIMCO Absolute Return Strategy IV IDF LLC

PIMCO Absolute Return Strategy IV IDF LLC at a glance

Why PIMCO Absolute Return Strategy IV IDF LLC has four stars

Conduct and regulatory record

Reported controls

Depth and experience of the manager

Fund scale and investor base

Reporting and filings

Fit for a life insurance policy

Identity, offering and service providers

Identity

Offering, as filed on Form D

Size and ownership, as filed on Form ADV

Service providers

What to check before this fund goes into a policy

Why the wrapper matters here

Liquidity

Who chooses the investments

Diversification

Valuation

Fees

Regulatory and legal record of Pacific Investment Management Company LLC

Regulatory action by New York Mercantile Exchange ("NYMEX"): civil penalty

Regulatory action by ICE Futures U.S. ("ICE"): civil penalty

Regulatory action by US Securities and Exchange Commission: civil penalty

Regulatory action by US Securities and Exchange Commission: civil penalty

Regulatory action by US Securities and Exchange Commission: civil penalty

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