The median multiemployer pension plan lost 11.3% on equity investments and gained 8.5% on fixed-income investments in 2001, according to a Segal Advisors survey of such plans with a combined $20.1 billion in assets. The median overall performance in Segal’s multiemployer pension fund universe was -2.4% for the year.
Some 56% of the multiemployer equity portfolios performed better than the S&P 500, which was down 11.9% in 2001, the survey showed. Some 55% of the bond portfolios exceeded the Lehman Aggregate bond index return of 8.5% for the same period.
Equity performance for the funds ranged from -18.2% for the 95th percentile to -5% for the fifth percentile. The funds’ fixed-income performance ranged from 7.4% to 9.3% over the same percentiles. Total performance for the funds ranged from -6.4% to 2.1%, also over the same percentiles.
