Weak Q4 Dampened Master Trust Returns in 2014

The 2014 fourth quarter results for the BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe portray weak results for returns, with the median quarterly return at 1.62%. 

This factor resulted in yearly performance for the typical fund of +6.6%, below the +14.3% returned in 2013. More favorable statistics from the quarter were evident in the 93% of plans that returned positive results, while 43% of plans matched or outperformed the custom policy return for Q4.

The BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe, a fund-level tracking service, notes corporate plans recorded the highest median return (+2.36%), followed by Taft-Hartley plans (+1.56%). Senior Consultant for BNY Mellon’s global risk solutions group John Houser adds, “Corporate funds outpaced other plan types with a return of +8.56%, getting a boost from their relative over-weighting of U.S. equity holdings.” He continues, “Following behind corporates, endowment funds returned +6.51% on average, while Taft Hartley plans lagged all plan type at +5.62%.”

Additional results from Q4 include:

• U.S. equities posted a quarterly median return of +5.13%, and non-U.S. equities displayed a median return of -2.82%.
• U.S. fixed income had a median return of +1.35%, while non-U.S. fixed income had a median return of -1.79%.
• Real estate had a median return of +3.25%

BNY Mellon is a global investments company and its U.S. Master Trust Universe service consists of 644 corporate, foundation, endowment, public, Taft-Hartley, and health care plans with a market value of more than $2.7 trillion and an average plan size of $3.7 billion.