Large Plans Bested Small Ones in Q2
This performance propelled the median return for all institutional assets tracked by the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service (Wilshire TUCS) to 3.43%.
Wilshire TUCS is a cooperative effort between Wilshire Analytics, the investment technology unit of Wilshire Associates Inc., and various custodial organizations. The groups provide a benchmark for the performance and allocation of institutional assets, covering nearly 1,700 plans and tracking about $3.5 trillion in assets.
“This is the fourth positive quarter in a row that combined to make the median one-year return 15.71%, which in turn helped move the 10-year median return to 7.01%,” says Robert J. Waid, managing director at Wilshire Associates, based in Santa Monica, California. “This is the first time the 10-year median return has been above 7% since the third quarter of 2013.
“In a quarter where the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index and Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index returns are a solid 4.86% and 2.04%, respectively, it isn’t surprising to see that overall plan returns are also strong,” adds Waid. “Taft Harley Health and Welfare Funds are the lowest performing plan type for the fourth quarter in a row with a median return of 2.23%. Foundations and endowments follow with a median return of 3.42%, while large corporate funds with assets greater than $1 billion have a median return of 4.15%.”
Wilshire TUCS also finds that the median returns for all large plan types, except foundations and endowments, outperformed the classic 60/40 portfolio. Conversely, the median return for small plan types underperformed the generic 60/40 portfolio. In addition, similar to the first quarter of 2014, corporate funds delivered the largest size spread, with the median return for small and large corporate funds 3.41% and 4.15%, respectively.
Wilshire Associates is an investment consulting and services firm, providing consulting services, analytics solutions and customized investment products to plan sponsors, investment managers and financial intermediaries.