Institutional investors posted negative returns for the quarter ended Dec. 31, although for the year they posted nearly double-digit positive returns, data from Wilshire Advisors showed.
Plans in the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service posted median returns of -1.2% and 9.3% for the quarter and year ended Dec. 31, respectively.
"Global economic growth moderated in 2024 with stability in U.S. growth being offset by weakness in other advanced economies, specifically in larger European economies," said Josh Emanuel, CIO at Wilshire Advisors, in a news release Feb. 6. "Also, we continue to see signs of moderation in the consumption of services as higher prices and lower excess cash savings are weighing on affordability."
Emanuel said median returns among public pension plans and foundations and endowments outperformed the 60% stocks/40% bonds portfolio loss of 1.8% for the three months ended Dec. 31, while corporate pension plans lagged. He also said “larger plans, with higher allocations to alternatives, generally outperformed smaller plans.”
Large foundations and endowments (with more than $500 million in assets) posted the highest returns for the fourth quarter across all plan types, with a median return of 0.4%, while small corporate pension funds (with assets below $1 billion) were at the bottom of the list with a median return of 4.3%.
For the year ended Dec. 31, large foundations and endowments had the highest median return at 10.6%, while large corporate pension funds had the lowest at 4.6%.
By asset class, the Wilshire 5000 Total Market index returned 2.6% and 23.8% for the quarter and year ended Dec. 31, respectively. The MSCI ACWI ex-U.S. index posted respective quarterly and one-year returns of -7.6% and 5.5%. The Wilshire Bond index, meanwhile, returned a median -3.4% and 1% for quarter and year ended Dec. 31, respectively.
All plan median returns for the fourth quarter also outperformed the loss of 7.8% for the multiasset Wilshire Risk Parity-12% Target Volatility index.
