Institutional Investors Have Mixed Q213

“The second quarter performance for median plan return types was mixed with a high return of 0.38% for Taft-Hartley defined benefit plans and a low return of -0.75% for large corporate plans,” said Robert J. Waid, managing director, Wilshire Associates. “The median quarterly return for all plans was down for the first time since the second quarter of 2012 coming in at -0.06%.”

Public funds gained 0.24% for the quarter, while endowments and foundations posted a 0.03% return. With most of the asset classes being down for the quarter, most of the performance differences primarily can be attributed to different exposures to the U.S. equity market, noted Waid.

He added, “Though the Wilshire 5000 closed the quarter with its first losing month since October 2012, it still set 13 more all-time-highs, resulting in a quarterly return of 2.77%, while the median U.S. equity plan return was 2.42%. The Barclays U.S. Aggregate followed up its first quarterly decline since 2006 with a -2.32% return. The median U.S. fixed income plan nearly mirrored that with a performance of -2.28%.”

With international equity falling, all measured plan types again underperformed the simple 60/40 (U.S. equity/U.S. bond) default asset allocation for the quarter, noted Waid.

Wilshire TUCS is a cooperative effort between Wilshire Analytics, the investment technology unit of Wilshire Associates Incorporated (Wilshire), and custodial organizations. Wilshire Associates is an independent global investment consulting and services firm.