Investing February 8, 2010

Institutional Plans See 2009 Improvement

February 8, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The median return for its universe of institutional plans was 3.1% in the fourth quarter and 19.4% for the year ended December 2009, State Street reported.

Reported by

Fred Schneyer

A State Street news release said the latest year-over-year figure represents a significant improvement from the 24.6% loss in 2008.

Plans smaller than $1 billion outperformed larger plans in 2009 (19.8% vs. 17.6%). Endowments & Foundations had the highest returns for the year (up 21.3%), while Public Funds and Taft Hartley gained only 18.5% and 18.4%, respectively.

International Emerging Market Equity funds rebounded sharply in 2009, rising 77% after decreasing 51.1% in 2008. Other types of equity funds also performed strongly: International Developed Market Equity Funds rose 33.4% and U.S. Equity Funds, 30.1%.

State Street said fixed income funds also did well in 2009: Global Fixed Income Funds were up 17.8% and U.S. Fixed Income Funds gained 11.8%. Real Estate funds lost 28.8% in 2009, but were down only 1.5% in the fourth quarter.

The State Street Universe (SSU) consists of North American funds custodied at State Street and funds provided by the Independent Consultants Cooperative.