Institutional investors with larger allocations to U.S. equities benefited from the asset class's rebound in the fourth quarter, data from Wilshire Advisors show.
Plans in the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service posted median returns of 4% and 13.3% for the fourth quarter and year ended Dec. 31, respectively. Wilshire previously reported median returns of -0.1% and 19% for the third quarter and year ended Sept. 30, respectively.
"All plans benefited from the strong rally in asset prices across most segments of the global securities market in 2021," said Jason Schwarz, president and chief operating officer of Wilshire Associates, in a news release. "U.S. equity exposure was a dominate driver of performance in 2021, as plans with the largest allocations to U.S. equities outperformed."
Across all plan types, public pension plans posted the highest median return for the quarter ended Dec. 31 in Wilshire's universe, at 4.6%, and large corporate defined benefit plans (with more than $1 billion in assets) posted the lowest median return for the quarter at 2.8%.
For the year ended Dec. 31, very large public pension plans (with more than $5 billion in assets) had the highest median return at 16.8%, while large corporate DB plans had the lowest at 6.3%.
By asset class, the Wilshire 5000 Total Market index returned 9.6% and 26.7% for the quarter and year ended Dec. 31, respectively, and the MSCI ACWI ex-U.S. index posted respective quarterly and one-year returns of 1.8% and 7.8%. The Wilshire Bond index, meanwhile, returned a median 0.6% and 0.1% for quarter and year ended Dec. 31, respectively.
