BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe plans returned a median 9.4% for the three months and 13.2% for the year ended Dec. 31, respectively.
Endowments in the universe performed the best during the fourth quarter, returning a median 10.4%, followed by public defined benefit plans at 10%; foundations, 9.7%; Taft-Hartley plans, 9.2%; corporate DB plans, 8%; and health-care plans, 7.5%.
For the year ended Dec. 31, corporate pension plans posted the highest median return at 14%. Following that were endowments at 12.5%; public pension plans, 12%; Taft-Hartley plans, 11.5%; foundations, 11.1%; and health-care plans, 9.9%
For asset classes, non-U.S. equities saw a median return of 17%; U.S. equities, 15.1%; non-U.S. fixed income, 8.3%; real estate, 1.9%; and U.S. fixed income, 1.6%.
Frances Barney, head of global risk solutions at BNY Mellon, said in a news release announcing the results that "non-U.S. equity was the highest performing asset class in the fourth quarter of 2020 while fixed-income performance continued to lag. Endowment performance was again supported by high allocations to alternative investments and underweighting of fixed-income investments."
The average asset allocation in the universe for the fourth quarter was 21.7% U.S. fixed income, 21.2% U.S. equities, 11.9% hedge funds, 11.8% non-U.S. equities, 10.4% private equity, 5.9% global equities, 4.9% real estate, 3.6% TIPS/inflation-linked bonds, 1.9% each in other real assets and non-U.S. fixed income, 1.5% global fixed income, and the rest in cash.
For the three, five and 10 years ended Dec. 31, BNY Mellon's universe reported a median annualized return of 8.7%, 9.7% and 8.2%, respectively.
The BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe consists of 483 corporate, foundation, endowment, public, Taft-Hartley and health-care plans with $2.4 trillion in combined assets.
