Corporate funds had the top performance among all categories in the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service in the first quarter, returning a median 3.72%.
Corporate funds also led for the 12 months ended March 31, with a median return of 32.65%, according to data from Wilshire Analytics.
In comparison, for the respective periods, the medians for public funds were 3.4% and 32.23%; foundations and endowments, 3.39% and 32.23%; and Taft-Hartley funds, 3.25% and 25.01%.
The median performance for all master trusts was 3.4% and 30.39%, respectively.
Contributing to the corporate funds’ outperformance was their high weighting to U.S. equities, at 41.8%, in a period when the Wilshire 5000 index returned 52.14%.
All master trusts showed a higher median international and domestic equity allocation at 55.1% compared with 47.9% a year earlier, according to a Wilshire news release.
By category, public funds had the largest median weighting to overall equities at 59.41%, followed by corporate funds, 55.53%; endowments and foundations, 54.54%; and Taft-Hartley funds, 48.82%.
Public plans’ median allocation also showed the biggest change from the year-earlier report, with stocks going to 59.4% from 50.6% a year earlier, and fixed income dropping to 29% from 35.3%.
TUCS includes data from more than 1,000 plans representing $2.59 trillion in assets.