Larger Plans Favor Alternatives
According to Wilshire’s TUCS Spotlight—which focuses on some of the differences between large and small corporate plans’ investments—large plans saw a median return of 12.96% and small plans took in a median 12.49%. Their attitudes toward alternative investments, however, vary significantly.
The spotlight showed that large corporate plans are nearly three times as likely as small plans to invest in alternatives—61% of large corporate plans are invested in private equity with a median allocation of 6.6%, compared with 22% of small corporate plans invested in private equity with a median allocation of 5.2%.
With regard to real estate, large corporate plans were more than twice as likely to invest—43% of large plans and 20% of small plans allocated to real estate in 2012—though their allocations were similar at 4.6% and 5.0%, respectively.
The majority (95%) of large plans with real estate also had exposure to private equity, while only 31% of small plans with real estate also had exposure to private equity.