SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Institutional assets tracked by the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service® (Wilshire TUCS®), saw a median return of -0.04 percent in the second quarter, beating the classic 60/40 portfolio for the second quarter in a row.
Wilshire TUCS, a cooperative effort between Wilshire Analytics, the investment technology unit of Wilshire Associates Incorporated (Wilshire®), and custodial organizations, is considered the most widely accepted benchmark for the performance and allocation of institutional assets in North America.
“During the quarter, all plan type median returns were again higher than the -0.64 percent return for the classic 60/40 portfolio, which continues to demonstrate that diversification into other asset classes like international equity served as a nice counterweight for the quarter,” said Robert J. Waid, managing director at Wilshire Associates. “While exposure beyond passive U.S. equities and U.S. fixed income was rewarded, there is still plenty of catching-up to do for the trailing 12-months. The Wilshire 5000 Total Market IndexSM was up only 0.06 percent and 7.09 percent during the second quarter and in the trailing 12-month period, respectively, versus international equity’s gain of 0.53 percent for the quarter, while the MSCI AC World ex U.S. fell -5.26 percent during the last 12 months..
“Bond returns were poor as the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index fell -1.68 percent for the second quarter and rose only 1.86 percent in the trailing 12-month period,” Waid said. “This translates to quarterly outperformance for all plan median returns with a low of -0.56 percent for Large Corporate Funds and a high of 0.84 percent for Large Foundations and Endowments for the quarter. Trailing 12-month returns fell from last quarter with a low of 2.22 percent for Taft Hartley Health and Welfare Funds and a high of only 3.58 percent for Large Foundations and Endowments.”
“As expected, large plans in general outperformed smaller plans again in the quarter due to less exposure to U.S. equities and more to international equities,” Waid said. “All plan types with assets greater than $1 billion had median returns of 0.08 percent and 3.24 percent for the quarter and year, respectively versus all plan types with assets less than $1 billion had median returns of -0.07 percent and 2.66 percent for the quarter and year, respectively.”
The data and charts in this article are copyrighted and owned by Wilshire Associates Incorporated.
About Wilshire Associates
Wilshire Associates, a leading global, independent investment consulting and services firm, provides consulting services, analytics solutions and customized investment products to plan sponsors, investment managers and financial intermediaries. Its business units include, Wilshire Analytics, Wilshire Consulting, Wilshire Funds Management and Wilshire Private Markets.
The firm was founded in 1972, providing revolutionary technology and acting as an early innovator in the application of investment analytics and research to investment managers in the institutional marketplace. Wilshire also is credited with helping to develop the field of quantitative investment analysis that uses mathematical tools to analyze market risks. All other business units evolved from Wilshire’s strong analytics foundation. Wilshire developed the Wilshire 5000 Total Market IndexSM and became an early innovator in creating the industry’s integrated asset/liability analysis/simulation models as well as the industry’s practical models in risk budgeting through beta and active risk analysis. Wilshire has grown to a firm of more than 300 employees serving the investment needs of institutional clients around the world.
Based in Santa Monica, California, Wilshire serves in excess of 500 clients across 20 countries with combined assets exceeding $8 trillion**. With eleven offices on four continents, Wilshire Associates and its affiliates are dedicated to providing clients with the highest quality counsel, products and services. Wilshire® and Trust Universe Comparison Service®, TUCS® are registered service marks of Wilshire Associates Incorporated. Wilshire 5000 Total Market IndexSM and Wilshire 4500 Completion IndexSM are service marks of Wilshire Associates Incorporated.
Website: www.wilshire.com
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**Client assets are as represented by Pensions and Investments, detailed in P&I’s “Largest Retirement Funds” and P&I’s “Largest Money Managers (U.S. institutional tax-exempt assets)” as of 9/30/14 and 12/31/14, and published 2/9/15 and 5/18/15, respectively.
The data and charts in this article are copyrighted and owned by Wilshire Associates Incorporated.
