Northern Trust: Institutional asset owners return -11.6% in Q1

The coronavirus pandemic's effect on financial markets led institutional asset owners in the Northern Trust universe to post a median loss of 11.6% in the first quarter after returning 4.9% in the previous quarter, said data released Monday.

Corporate defined benefit plans performed the best among plan types with reported a median return of -8.1%, followed by foundations and endowments at -11.6%, and public pension plans at -12.6%.

For the 12 months ended March 31, corporate pension plans also posted the highest median return at 2.5%, followed by foundations and endowments at -3.7%, and public pension plans, -3.9%.

"Poor first-quarter performance amid historic volatility in the U.S. and international equity markets drove institutional plan returns for the quarter," said Mark Bovier, regional head of investment risk and analytical services at Northern Trust, in a news release about the data.

U.S. equity, the largest allocation in most plans in the Northern Trust universe, had a median return of -22.1% in the quarter, the lowest since the global financial crisis. Meanwhile, the median return for international equity was -22.9%, the lowest this century.

For the three and five years ended March 31, corporate pension plans in Northern Trust's universe returned an annualized 5.6% and 4.8%, respectively; foundations and endowments, 3.4% and 3.9%; and public pension funds, 3% and 4.1%.

The Northern Trust universe consists of about 300 large U.S. institutional plans with combined assets of about $1 trillion.