Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service® Reports Positive First Quarter of 2025 with 0.92% Gross Return
International public equity and U.S. bonds produced strong gains
Santa Monica, Calif., May 13, 2025 – Institutional assets tracked by Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service® (Wilshire TUCS®) posted an all-plan median gross return of 0.92% for the first quarter and 5.87% for the 12 months ending March 31, 2025. Wilshire TUCS, a cooperative effort between Wilshire and custodial organizations, is widely considered the definitive benchmark for U.S. institutional plan assets performance and allocation.
“Global markets have been plagued with heightened volatility as investors process the potential implications of what continues to be a very unclear outlook on trade policy. More recently, a softening tone on tariffs followed a sharp selloff in risk assets, particularly in the United States,” said Josh Emanuel, CIO of Wilshire. “Public plans, corporate plans and foundation and endowments all outperformed a traditional 60/40 portfolio. Larger plans, with higher allocations to alternatives, generally outperformed smaller plans,” Emanuel added.
U.S. equities, represented by the FT Wilshire 5000 Index℠, fell -4.84% in the first quarter but rose 7.11% for the 12 months ending in March; meanwhile, international equities, represented by the MSCI AC World ex U.S., returned 5.24% in the first quarter and 6.09% for the past year. U.S. bonds, represented by the Wilshire Bond Index℠, returned 2.79% in the first quarter with a gain of 4.72% for the one-year.
Across all plan types, quarterly median returns ranged from 0.42% to 1.75% for small foundations and endowments (assets below $500 million) and large corporate funds (assets above $1 billion), respectively. One-year median returns ranged from 5.12% to 6.27% for small foundations and endowments and small public funds (assets below $1 billion), respectively.
For the quarter, median public plans, corporate plans and foundation and endowments outperformed the global 60/40 portfolio gain of 0.35%. All plan medians underperformed the 4.27% gain for the multi-asset Wilshire Risk Parity – 12% Target Volatility Index. Large corporate plans outperformed all other sizes and plan types in the first quarter due to relatively low allocations to U.S. equity. Allocation trends continue to show significant exposure for large foundations and endowments to alternatives, with a median first quarter allocation above 50%. Large corporate and public funds had median first quarter allocations to alternatives of 22.2% and 20.7%, respectively.
Wilshire TUCS Plan Returns versus 60/40 and WRP12 – FirstQuarter 2025
For illustrative and discussion purposes only.
For the past 12 months, all large and small plan groups underperformed the 6.31% gain for the 60/40 portfolio but outperformed the 2.75% gain for the multi-asset Wilshire Risk Parity – 12% Target Volatility Index. Large plans underperformed small for both public and corporate plans but outperformed with foundation and endowments, due mostly to larger allocations to alternatives.
Wilshire TUCS Plan Returns versus 60/40 and WRP12 – YearEnding March 2025
