TIPS are tops with the Maine Public Employees Retirement System.
The $11.3 billion Augusta-based fund has 31.5%, or $3.5 billion, allocated to Treasury inflation-protected securities — the system's entire fixed-income allocation, said CIO Andrew Sawyer.
“It has been our best performing asset class” in 12 months, Mr. Sawyer said, acknowledging that it's unusual to have such a large TIPS allocation and for it to be the plan's only fixed-income investment.
For the 12 months, ended Feb. 29, its TIPS returned 14.9%, Mr. Sawyer said. By contrast, he said, in the same period, the Lehman Aggregate bond index returned 7.3%; MSCI All-Country World Index, ex-US, 7.8%; Standard & Poor's 500 stock index, -3.6%; Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 stock index, -4%; and Dow Jones Wilshire Real Estate Investment Trust index, -25.8%.Maine ranks second among the 200 largest U.S. pension funds in absolute amount invested in TIPS. The leader is the $164.4 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, with $12.2 billion in TIPS, an allocation of 7.4%.
The Maine system moved all its fixed income to TIPS in 2004, Mr. Sawyer said. The portfolio is managed in a passive strategy by Barclays Global Investors, San Francisco.— Barry B. Burr
