Morneau Shepell (MSI.TO) has released the results of its Performance Universe of Pension Managers’ Pooled Funds for the fourth quarter and for year 2019. According to the report, in the fourth quarter of 2019, diversified pooled fund managers posted a median return of 2.6 per cent before management fees. Since the beginning of the year, the return has been 15.8 per cent. “Both stock and bond markets posted very positive returns in 2019. The bond market posted a return of 6.9 per cent for the year.

The Canadian Equity S&P/TSX Composite Index posted a return of 22.9 per cent and the U.S. Equity S&P 500 index a return of 31.5 per cent (in U.S. dollars). This excellent performance was offset by the stronger Canadian dollar, which scaled down the return in Canadian dollars to 25.2 per cent. The MSCI World (Developed Markets) Index obtained a return of 21.2 per cent (in Canadian dollars) and the MSCI Emerging Markets index posted a return of 12.9 per cent (in Canadian dollars),” said Jean Bergeron, Vice President for the Morneau Shepell Asset & Risk Management consulting team.

“With respect to pension fund actuarial liability, the decrease in interest rates meant that solvency liability also rose significantly during the year. Thus, although pension fund returns were very positive for 2019, on a solvency basis pension fund financial positions improved by an average of only about 1.0 per cent from the beginning of the year,” added Bergeron.

During the fourth quarter of 2019, diversified pooled fund managers obtained a median return of 2.6 per cent, which was 0.5 per cent higher than the benchmark portfolio (with an allocation of 55 per cent in equity and 45 per cent in fixed income) used by many pension funds. Since the beginning of the year, the median pension fund return was 15.8 per cent, which is 0.2 per cent lower than the benchmark portfolio.

Read more @Finance Yahoo