Rebound Continues in Q3 for BNY Mellon Master Trust Universe

According to a BNY Mellon press release, on a year-to-date basis, the median plan is up 15.7% and one-year returns are back in the black, just above 1%.

All plans in the universe posted positive results for the three-month period ending September 30, 2009.  Corporate pensions were the top performing plan type for the third quarter with a 12.08% median return, followed by public plans (11.66%), foundations (11.04%), Taft-Hartley plans (10.38%), endowments (9.87%), and health care plans (9.1%).

Non-U.S. equities led all asset classes for the quarter with a median return of 19.47%, outperforming the MSCI All Country World ex US Index return of 14.90%, the press release said.  U.S. equities returned 16.37%, compared to the Russell 3000 Index return of 16.31%.  Non-U.S. fixed income posted a median return of 8.36%, ahead of the Citigroup Non-US Dollar World Government Bond Index return of 7.33%.  U.S. fixed income posted a result of 6.06%, versus the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index return of 3.74%.

The average asset allocation in the BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe for the third quarter was: U.S. equity 34%, U.S. fixed income 27%, non-U.S. equity 17%, non-U.S. fixed income 1%, alternative investments 8%, real estate 2%, cash 1%, and other (oil, gas, etc.) 10%.

With a market value of more than $1 trillion and an average plan size of $1.72 billion, the BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe is a fund-level tracking service that can be used to make peer comparisons of both performance and asset allocation results.  The Universe consists of 633 corporate, foundation, endowment, public, Taft-Hartley and health care plans.