US pension funds see red in Q2
US - The median performance of pension funds dropped into the negative during the second quarter as public pension plans faired slightly better than their corporate counterparts, according to Wilshire's Trust Universe Comparison Service (TUCS).
While the median performance of all master trusts during the quarter was a poor -0.92%, things looked better over the longer period with one-year performance at a healthy 9.28%.
But the most interesting development was the reversal of fortunes between the corporate and public pension plans. According to TUCS, the median performance of corporate pension plans was 7.63% in 2005, compared to 7.55% for public pension funds.But six months later, it was the public plans with -0.90% for the quarter and 9.44% for the year ending June 30 that came out on top of corporate pension plans, with -0.94% for Q2 and 9.14% for the year.
Hilarie Green, CFA, managing director of Wilshire Analytics’ Performance Reporting division said of the results: “With the large range in returns between asset classes for the one-year period, even slight asset allocation differences made a large contribution to the total return differences between sponsor types.
TUCS is a co-operative effort between Wilshire Analytics, and custodial organisations, and includes plans representing approximately US$2.7trn in assets.By Damian Clarkson
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